Re: RC: Arab or TWH

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

Jerald - as I said in my last post, I have owned a TWH.  She was a
pleasure to ride.  I have ridden Saddlebred/Arab crosses, some long
distance (not racing).  I am not judging all gaited horses by just one
or two, nor do I base my "prejudice" towards using Arabians for
endurance on the performance of one or two gaited horses.  I base it on
statistics.  Lots of people have used other breeds for endurance -
Arabians weren't the breed used at the start of the sport.  Over the
years, the other breeds have regularly not done as well as Arabians and
it seems kind of unrealistic to imagine that some sort of "breed
prejudice" is why this is.  Either other breeds have better vet check
indicators and can do the miles or not.  Remember, an endurance RACE is
not the same as going a long distance on a horse.  I find it very hard
to believe that endurance riders are choosing to ride Arabians instead
of gaited horses if they could be doing better on gaited horses more
regularly than on Arabians!  As I said above, I don't judge a breed of
horse by what an individual can accomplish.  I judge the BREED by what
many individuals do.

You wrote:  "They [Arabians] need a lot more slow conditioning to build
up their legs to do a 50 mile ride than a gaited breed. "  I would be
grateful if you could let me know what your source for that information
is.

Paul reminds me that Robert E Lee rode an Arabian.


--
                                    ____________
Lif & Paul Strand   STRAND ENTERPRISES   http://www.fasterhorses.com
          Arabian Horses (looking for new homes!)
         Nutrition for People & Critters * WebArt
                     Quemado, NM  USA



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