Re: mileage/conditioning

[CMKSAGEHIL <CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-03-15 00:51:04 EST, Sully@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU writes:

<< The part that has perplexed me a bit is seeing statements to the effect
that
 "any horse could be taken out of the pasture and ridden twenty-five miles."
 I have heard such statements for years, and although I did not quite take
 them literally, I assumed they were not too far off from the truth.
  >>

Well, Suzanne asked me to dive into this one, so I guess I will.  First of
all, let me state that I do NOT recommend doing the above.  That out of the
way, I have to say that there are a lot of horses that are perfectly capable
of doing 25 miles practically out of the pasture, and suffering no ill effects
whatsoever.  Certainly there are differences in horses, and a soggy fat QH
might not make it.  I have no qualms, though, that just about anything out in
my pasture could "get through" a 25-miler tomorrow, ridden judiciously.  What
happens, though, when people do this, is that they get through fine, and they
think gee, this is nothing, so they go back and do another one in two weeks on
the same horse without sufficient rest time.  And then another one.  I have
gotten to the point that I actually LOOK for what I call "The 4th-Ride Crash"
with novice horses.  Each ride takes out a little more and a little more, and
by the 4th ride, there are no reserves.  We pull and treat the horse, and the
rider wonders where she went wrong, because the horse had been doing SO WELL!!
The key here is rest--any amount of riding that is unusual to the horse takes
a LONG recovery to get the horse back to normal.  In decades past, I HAVE
taken older broodmares on either 50-milers or 40-mile CTR's only 3-4 weeks
after they have been started under saddle.  We have played our way through and
they have enjoyed themselves immensely.  Then I would come home and TURN THEM
OUT!  Later we would go back and ride some more.  One of the mares that
started this way (at age 13) was Sansih, who some of you may remember in 1985
when she was 19, when I rode her to an AERC Top 25 (back when we still had
such a thing)--that year she did something like 1100 miles, started and
completed 18 rides, and Top Tenned 17 of those 18 rides.  So I guess her
"start" didn't hurt her any.  The point, though, is that she was not expected
to CONTINUE at that level of performance as a green horse, just because she
did it once--she did 5 50's at age 14, spent some more time as a broodmare,
and didn't seriously start to compete until she was 17.

As a breeder, I would be leery of any horse in my program who in my opinion
did not have enough natural talent to do 25 with no training, but I don't go
to LD's to "road test" them--one can get the idea just seeing how easily they
settle into a training program at home.  Any horse that "required" the
conservative approach mentioned would be out of my breeding program in a
heartbeat.  I'm not saying that a person may not want to develop a horse that
does NOT have that much innate ability--there are lots of reasons to do so.
He may be your pet or your best buddy, and you will learn a lot more about
building a horse if you start with a "project" than if you start with one with
all the genetic material to be a success.

Anyway--I hope this clarifies the statements that have been made about doing
LD's "right out of the pasture"--certainly doable, but not a smart practice.

Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)