track racing

Gwen Dluehosh (dluehosh@vt.edu)
Sun, 17 Nov 1996 21:58:38 +0500

Hi all! I have seen this happen with my own horse. I worked with two
trainers and my stallion. I noticed when my stallion frist went inot race
training, they fed him and kept him stalled all the time. SInce I was
learning and he was too, I just kind of sat back and watched. I rod ehim in
his workouts and remember distinctly riding him in a training workout early
in his training where he felt like a freight train to ride- powerful. About
4 weeks later, we couldn't get him to run- he just acted like he didn't want
to. Well, then the trainer said, oh, he can't breathe, oh he has stifle
problems and a whole gamut of other things. Then I was told I ought to geld
him... Well, that wasn't acceptable. I took him to the next trainer. She got
him fit and acting like a million dollars again, but we still couldn't get
the right jockey for him... Anyway, what i noticed was that the first
trainer wasn't giving him enough good feed and he was rather thin when we
left. The second trainer had him just just shy of true fat- you could see
every muscle on him but there was not "extra" rolls of fat or anything- he
looked trim but great.

I believe that if the horse is getting the right amount of feed and is being
trained the right way then that's good, even if the normal track set wants
the horse thinner. Forget it. Aly was more spunky with the extra weight and
probably went faster too. I ended up pulling him from training for other
reasons... I hope I can find a better trainer for his son. This horse will
have all the power his dad did, but will hoepfully benefit by the mistakes I
made with him. Aly is great on trail, but didn't want to run with an overly
aggressive jockey. Cztormy doesn't know any better yet, so hopefully we'll
do better. Aly had decent times and this youngster seems to be able to run
pretty well in the field (he;s only 2.1/2)....
WEll, I have probably bored you all enough, but I wanted to say I agreed
with Tom Ivers on this particular subject...Esp. since I have seen it
happen. Hey if the "fat" ones are winning, there must be a reason! :)
Gwen
>I've also noticed that the competitors in the great classics are, for the
>most part, "plump"--loaded with fuel, in my mind. I've heard from competitors
>in all equine sports that other folks are calling their horses "fat", even
>after they've won the competition.
>
>When I send a reasonably fit horse to the racetrack, I often hear from the
>owner that the new trainer has said that the horse is "too fat" and needs to
>lose 150 lbs before attempting speeds the animal has already performed--in
>multiple heats--at our training venue. Some years back I read an Irish paper
>that said that the most unfit of equines carried, at most, about 25 lbs of
Gwen Dluehosh
Desert Storm Arabians
1156 Hightop Rd, #89
Blacksburg, VA 24060
540/953-1792