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Re: [RC] big horses in endurance - rides2far@xxxxxxxxI have a coming seven year old grade quarter horse that I have been toying with the idea of doing endurance with. My concern is that he is a tank at 16 ?>>>hands and 1200 lbs. I'd be doubly careful on all the rules for avoiding tying up. This may have been a fluke, but when I started out I rode a 16 hand Appaloosa that weighed 1080 in fit to do 50 condition. My friend was riding a QH around the same size but with more muscle definition. Once we really had them in shape (and this was back when we over trained) they had very little body fat, just muscle. One day she didn't warm her QH up and it tied up like a rock. She probably could have gotten away with that before the horse was in such good shape, but if I recall correctly from what we read the more fit the horse is and the less body fat it has the morel likely they are to tie up. I took her lesson to heart and was always *religious* about a thorough warm up, no leaving them up over night before riding or if I did warming them up even longer, cutting grain when not ridden, etc. I had no problems in the area but hers had to be retired from endurance. My App had always been a major handful on all day trail rides and I thought he'd love endurance, but once I rode him in training and kept his edge off he decided anything over 25 miles just wasn't all that fun. While he was off for a lameness I got an Arab on a trade that I planned to re-sell and I've been riding them ever since. If my App had liked it more I'd have kept riding him. Angie McGhee ____________________________________________________________ Get the shot you need with a discreet new spy camera. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2NoNue7IbtxrHqvwHiPrtnK2oUoj2NjRQi5XuRui9qtyeYo/ --- Begin Message ---
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