> I'll have one, just in case, but I also think it's never good to crowd.
>
It has been my experience at endurance rides (can't speak for CTR) that
crowding is part of the event. "Controlled start" is something of a
misnomer. This being the case, endurance horses need to learn to be
"crowded" and just take it, without kicking. (It is possible to teach a
horse this, just pony another horse--preferable a young uncoordinated
one--behind when you go out on the trail. This has the added avantage of
conditioning two horses at once.)
People who ride horses that kick need to ride in the back. I can remember
being at a ride once where there was considerable jockeying for position,
with the trail alternately widening and narrowing (a recipe for horses
getting crowded), and having one woman tell me "you need to stay back,
because my horse kicks." My response to that is "No. YOU need to say
back, because your horse kicks." A horse that kicks is a menace, and
people who ride them (admittedly some horses are more prone to it than
others--especially, in my experience, mares) need to be aware that they
are riding a menace, and act accordingly.
Any endurance horse that kicks at horses coming up from behind is only
half trained (i.e. a greenie) no matter how many miles of competition he
may have on him. There is no reason that I should have to accommodate a
half trained horse when I am participating in what, by all definitions,
is a horse race.
You don't see thoroughbreds in the Kentucky Derby kicking out at the
horses coming up behind--and if you did, that horse would be promptly
disqualified.
When I bring a green horse to an endurance ride (recognizing that it is a
new experience for him and that he may behave unpredictably) I make a
point of starting after everybody else so I don't have to participate in
the madness at the start. And if anybody does come up behind me I will
ask them to wait while I get out of the way.
If your horse, no matter how good a trot he has, and how good his
recoveries are, cannot participate in the crowding that occurs at all
endurance rides without causing an "incident" then he isn't really a very
good endurance prospect (unless you can train it out of him). Man o'
War's grandfather was, by all reports, an extremely fast horse who
probably could have cleaned up on the track, except he had an unfortunate
habbit of attacking the other horses. Needless to say, he didn't do a
lot of competing and though he was a very succesful stallion, he was a
shitty race horse.
I am not saying don't bring green horses to endurance rides (how else
will they learn). But green horses belong in the back where they are
less likely to cause harm, if they don't yet know how to behave
themselves in a crowd.
kat
p.s. I try to be more understanding of people who have difficulty
handling their mares when my stallion is around, but at the same time and
ill mannered mare is as much of a menace as an ill mannered stallion.
And it isn't my fault that they haven't trained their mare.