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RE: [RC] was rearing - now sluggish - Mike SherrellVaries. Usually we go on big loops, like 5 miles across, so I'm not sure
if he knows when we start to arc back. Also, it's been real hot lately, and I
try to set it up so that there's breeze in our faces on the return, which is the
hotter time of the day, so he's going to feel better on the way back. Further
complicating, anything that gives him a spurt of adrenaline, including some
kinds of stumbles, will crank him up. Actually he's usually but not always at
his goingest for the first mile. But hard or gravelly footing will slow him down
too.
I
think he's conditioned well enough to go at a good gait for 25-30 miles in 7
hours (i.e., about 4 hours of gaiting, the rest walking or being led or just
stopped). What I'm worried about is forcing him to go like that in the heat. My
plan is to wait for the cool of fall and see how he goes; if he drags then I'll
tentatively conclude it's not the heat and I can just force him on. The mares I
had previously, about once every couple of years I had to really smack them on
the butt with something like a crop when they started to drag; they were just
checking that I might have gotten soft in my old age, and then they'd trundle
along at a steady clip all day long, as long as it was level good footing, for
another year or two. This gelding, though, I haven't done that to, as I'm still
trying to sort out his psychology and physiology. It's different. I've only been
doing these long, flat loops since this spring. Before that it was somewhat
shorter out-and-backs, mainly.
Regards,
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