Ah, Ed and Truman...isn't it wonderful when we worthless old timers agree on something :)
BTW, my best newbie advice, which I realize most people cannot do, is to start a horse on XP style "Duck" rides. They are laid back. The starts are incredibly sane. The horses that are there are mostly very experienced and will "teach" your horse that it's no big deal, just keep moving steadily down the trail. They learn that you may get back on them the next day, so they'd better drink, eat and sleep when possible, etc.
Of course, my REAL downfall as an endurance rider is that I never start my horses on anything but 50 milers...:) And, I started one horse on a 100 (OMG)! Although I no longer own her, she, btw, has over 1900 miles, competed for about 8 years and is a healthy, loved horse. Cindy
On May 29, 2008, at 9:14 AM, Truman Prevatt wrote:
Absolutely ruined - no doubt about it. She came down with a little respiratory thing last year. The vet was out for Coggines so I had him look at it. He put a exam glove over her nose and then listened to her lungs. He comes back and ask, "you say this mare is 27, she's got the lungs of a 10 year old." She had a little upper respiratory infection so we put her on antibiotics for a week - good as new.
Damn if I hadn't been so callous and ran the carp out of her in CTR's and LD's without two years of proper conditioning - her lungs might have been like a 5 year old! I beat myself up over how poorly I treated her every day - especially as she is bossing the other horses around and being somewhat of a PITA ;-) .
Truman
Sisu West Ranch wrote:
".....is down in the pasture right now at 28..."
Another example of a horse callously ruined by being asked to do an LD without proper conditioning.*
*"It's a JOKE, son. A JOKE" Foghorn Leghorn ca. 1952
Ed & Wendy Hauser
2994 Mittower Road
Victor, MT 59875
(406) 642-9640
ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us
--
"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true." Bertrand Russell
