Re: Longer Tevis Winning Time

["Joe Long" <jlong@mti.net>]

On Thu, 13 Aug 1998 20:51:48 -0700 (PDT), K S Swigart
<katswig@deltanet.com> wrote:

>I find this question slightly alarming, as it appears to suggest that ride
>management and not the rider is who decides where/when and for how long to
>rest the horse.

>Was there some proscription against keeping your horse at Michigan Bluff
>for longer than the required time?!

>It seems to me a precursor the the idea that the only place that riders
>need to rest their horses is at the vet checks and for the required time.
...

Riders going at a completion pace may rest or graze outside the vet
checks, but a rider going for 1st Place or Top Ten cannot generally do
that and be competitive.  Throughout most of Kahlil's career if he was
not drinking he was moving forward, even if only at a walk.  All he
got to eat between checks was what he could snatch at the speed we
were travelling.

We would, of course, wait for the other horses to finish drinking
before moving off if we were in a group.  And in very hot weather, we
would take an extra minute or so to sponge in a cool creek.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
Business Page  http://www.mti.net
Personal Page  http://www.rnbw.com