One thing I noticed is that all the horses on the US team were fairly young. I think the average age was 8 or 9. I heard once that the optimum age for world level 100 milers was 13. Arabs don't really settle down until they're 12 or so. There's nothing like seasoning, exposure, and just plain old maturity for making sure a horse does what he's supposed to IMO. Until they've had a lot of experience being exposed to a myriad of different situations, there's only so much that "training" will do. I'm for using older, more seasoned horses in world level competition, becasue they know how to handle themselves better in situations like a crazy start.
