Re: [RC] Made for endurance or no? - Mary Ann Spencer
"There have been lots of discussions
on various forums about what makes an endurance horse and my take on the general
consensus was that it?s the heart/desire of the horse that?s the most
critical."
Most will agree with that. I
rode an APHA mare for a while and would still be riding except she had an
unfortunate adverse reaction to medication and died. HOWEVER, we did do
one 25 miler and she did fine.
HOWEVER, a very
important thing you MUST be mindful of is how bulky are the
muscles. Luckily the paints are not the bull dog conformation of so many
qtr horses. The bulky muscles make it harder for the horse to cool
down. You may be limited to the cooler cliimate rides but that is also
individual for each horse.
Another consideration is
temperament and easy of handling...
many Arabs get so excited they are hard to handle and that makes for a more
dangerous ride for all concerned.
You just can't beat a surefooted,
easy to handle horse for endurance as long as the conditioning is
there. But you may never do 100 milers. If that is not your goal,
you will probably be able to elevate to 50s with no problems.
Remember 25 milers are NOT true endurance but a place to start.
