TBs in Endurance

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net


I am currently riding a Thoroughbred in endurance.  

a) I have no trouble with her recoveries (as some people have asked)

b) I have no trouble with keeping weight on her (in fact one of
   the reasons I am getting her ready for 2001 is that she is
   such and easy keeper).

c) I have no trouble with her feet.  She is barefoot right now
   running around on ~ 100 acres of California mountainside.  I
   only shoe her for competitions, the shoer is coming out next
   weekend. (And I have another barefoot TB running around out
   there.)

For those of you who would like to look up her record on the 
AERC website, her name is Lady Marla.

The difference is, she was born on the side of that California
mountain, was flung out on the 100 acres when she was 3 days
old to grow up and forage for herself (for half the year on "that
brown crap" that passes for vegetation in southern California in 
the dry season).  She lived on what is, in essence, DG for four
years before she ever saw a shoer, and she never saw the race 
track, or any race training.

So while TB's may have a genetic tendency to poor hooves, I suspect
it has just as much (if not more) to do with their early environment as anything
else.  The TB mare that I got as a 5 year old and lived in a
stall until then can't go barefoot for even a couple of days
out there before her feet start to fall apart.  I suspect that if
I left her barefoot for 6 months or so, she would develop the 
foot to handle it, but she would have 6 months of agony before
that happened, so I am not going to do that to her.

Very few Thoroughbreds are raised right to make them suitable
endurance horses, not the least of reasons being that to get
them ready for the track many are broken out and galloped as 
yearlings to see if they show any promise, and then taken to
the track as two year olds if they do.  I, personally, think
that it is unlikely that they do not ALL suffer what are, in 
essence, career ending injuries during this time.  Though they
may never show lame at that time, that early work will haunt 
them for the rest of their lives if they are asked to athletically 
perform beyond the age of 4.

There are TBs out there that have not had this early work done
with them (mostly because their owners were too broke to put
them in training) and such horses can be purchased for a song 
(mostly because their owners are too broke to continue feeding
them :)).

And I, personally, am of the opinion that the TB is THE MOST 
athletic breed of horse on the face of the planet (no bullshit 
breeding for stylish good looks in this breed--although the current
trend in breeding for precociousness and speed is "unsettling").

However, if you think Ayyyyrabs are "flighty".... :)

Well....TBs have never much been bred for ease of handling either.
As long as professional horsemen could get a saddle on them and
sit on their backs while the galloped off in a completely 
controlled environment, that was "good enough."

So far, Marla has done quite well. She only has 555 miles of
competition so far, so it is yet to be seen if she will truely
succeed at endurance.  But if she doesn't, it won't be because
she is a Thoroughbred, it will be because her owner/rider does
something stupid.  Which is what ends many good endurance
horse's (even arabs) careers.

kat
Orange County, Calif.