I do condition her a little differently than I will Dan, my Arabian. Since
Misty's biggest asset is here long stride and flat out speed I trian her to
use it. We do a lot of long uphill galloping to train the system to run at
high RPM and recover quickly from it. This type of training (which I
started after about two years) seems to be the key factor in her improving
recoveries and faster times. On a ride we tend to lay back the first loop
until she is fully warmed up (that is a real argument since she thinks she
is warmed up from the start) and then really book to make time where the
going is good and back off where the going is not so good.
With her 5 to 6 mph walk (most Arabs have to jog to keep up with her walk)
she can still make decent time at a walk. This is the way we trian so this
is the way we ride and she does much better this way than at a consistent
even pace.
So I think the right built quarter horse will do fine, depending on what
you want to do with him. But I do think it will take longer to get him
ready and I think you may have to ride them somewhat differently depending
on the horse's strengths.
>His first & only "hot weather" ride was the Old Dominion in 1995 - he pulled
>at the 1/2 way stop - over heated w/ marginal recoveries. He may have been
>allowed to continue, but it wasn't fair to the horse (& it wasn't going to
>get ANY cooler or less humid). In cool weather rides, he is a BLAST to ride.
>
I sure would feel bad about pulling in the 95 OD. About 3/4 of the horses
also couldn't handle that heat and humidity.
Turmna
______________________________________________________________________________
The race is not always to the swift, but to those that keep running.
Truman and Mystic "The Horse from HELL" Storm
and Danson "The Demon in Training" Flame
prevatt@lds.loral.com - Sarasota, Florida
____________________________________________________________________________
__