ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: Fwd: Re: Endurance Riding

Re: Fwd: Re: Endurance Riding

Lynn Kinsky (lkinsky@silcom.com)
Thu, 2 Oct 1997 05:33:42 -0800

>An interesting article - especially for Icelandic horse-owned folk.
>
>Cheryl
>

>> From: Landy, Peter <landyp@eu.saic.com>
>> To: 'icelandics-list@icelandics.com'
>> Subject: Endurance Riding
>> Date: 30. september 1997 15:59
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Still looking for any inf. or papers to show vets in Scotland that
>> Icelandic's naturally breathe faster and have higher heartbeats than
>> other breeds. Still have big problems with our horses being penalised
>> against, "unusually high" heart rates when in reality there is nothing
>> high about them, just higher than others, namely Arabs. Any inf. would
>> be greatly received.
>>
>> Thanks

We had several of our local Icelandic breeders voice concern about meeting
the respiration criteria in particular if they were to compete in our local
NATRC competitive trail ride -- they said their horses always panted. I
pointed out that even in late summer their horses had longer hair coats
than any other horse around here gets in mid-winter: this is southern
California, not Iceland. I'd be panting too, if I had all that hair on!

So four horses came to the competition: two were already body-clipped.
After the first day's competition the folks fired up the portable generator
they brought, plugged in their clippers and clipped the other two. The two
horses that had been clipped from the beginning not only did not lose any
P&R points for the whole ride, but won their divisions, and the other two
horses turned in dramatically better P&Rs the next day.

That was about five years ago, and body-clipping has become the norm for
Icelandics in competitions around here. Without the extra hair the horses
have no problem at all meeting the vet criteria.

-- Lynn K. (Santa Ynez, CA)
http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky

Home Events Groups Rider Directory Market RideCamp Stuff