Very good question, Melissa. I think under those circumstances, training can only go so far. After all, horses still have brains, emotions and minds of their own. How can you "train" emotional reactions and adrenaline out of ANY animal or human, for that matter? They would have to have lobotomies prior to this in order to behave like "Stepford" horses. Look at how many seasoned racehorses have still attempted to climb right out of the box. I saw a mare that broke her own neck on a barn wall, just because something spooked her. They aren't the most rational of beings.
~Carrie <\_~ // \\
"The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears."
~ Old Arabian Proverb
--- On Sun, 11/9/08, Melissa Margetts Ms. Kitty <margetts@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Melissa Margetts Ms. Kitty <margetts@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [RC] jvm are you serious? To: "ridecamp" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Sunday, November 9, 2008, 10:49 AM
In response to a very legitimate question about the seemingly "out of
control" start that was described by Kathy Brunjes, (said description
copied below) who was a rider for the US team in the actual ride,
normandjudyv@xxxxxxx wrote:
*/
"All the USA horses are perfectly trained in every way. You will probably
never be in that situation, so you will never understand. Do yourself a favor
and don,t make comments on something you nothing about. jvm"/*
Kathy Brunjes post and description:
"I had John and Cheryl beside me and watched Sonny bucking and running and
twisting down the field - with John riding him like he was water skiing - Cheryl
right behind him looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there! Reason was
being as bad a Sonny - I thankfully had a very strong horse, but he wasn't
bucking and twisting or lunging! So there I was at the end of the field, with
riderless horses running everywhere, people limping along the trail trying to
catch running horses and Jim Bryant Sr. standing there looking at everything
-"
"While Flame was standing on two legs again, Theatric said, "oh my
god - something must be terrible here" and he was running circles around
Tom - dragging him through the lanes and crashing over buckets of water and
people...it took us 29 minutes to get his pulse down to 64 - it was horrible - I
simply walked away and told everyone I couldn't watch it -"
Dang REALLY! I too was wondering why such top notch horses with training up the
wazoo sounded so uncontrollable and downright dangerous to their riders,
themselves and those helping out at the vet checks. Yes there was rain. Yes
there was lightening. But Kathy's description was not only at the start
before all of that hit. It is a valid question for those of us who also do 100
mile rides and are very excited riders feeding off of their horses energy and
vice versa, but I also am wondering if it is the incredible "race
brain" of these elite horses and the riders expect that. Do they tend to
forget and all their ground manners just thrown out the window on some of these
horses when they get to the starting gate.? I certainly wouldn't want to
climb atop a rocket or fire breathing dragon at an International competition if
my horse might go bucking and spinning down the field. Kathy was describing
riderless horses running everywhere. That certainly doesn't sound like
"perfectly trained in every way" like jvm describes. So I am asking
jvm to please explain in more detail to those of us who really "don't
understand and shouldn't make comments on something we know nothing
about". Just how EXACTLY is a horse that bucks you off and drags their
handler through the lanes and crashing over buckets of water and people,
PERFECTLY TRAINED???
Melissa Margetts
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