Non-arab endurance
| November 7, 2014 | Posted by Melinda under Equine Endurance |
I’ve wanted to write this post for a very very long time. How long? Years.
It finally took a friend privately asking me about the subject to finally put my thoughts on paper.
Why the hesitation?
- Because my experience is the experience of n=1 and I don’t want to discourage anyone.
- Because even though I know what I experienced and have watched others go through similar, I still believe in the power of determination and hope and a little luck.
- Because I still believe myself when I tell greenbeans that YES, you can do this sport on a non-arab.
- Because I’m afraid of offending you, My Dear Reader, because if I don’t explain myself well enough than you might think I don’t support or believe in you as you go through your own endurance journey on a non-arab.
Here’s what I learned doing endurance on a non-arab, keeping in mind that this is a one rat study and my opinions and experiences may not be true for *your* specific circumstance.
This remainder of this post is now available in “Go Ride Far.”
“Go Ride Far” is a collection of revised and updated posts, as well as new content that focuses on what I wish I had known prior to my first endurance ride. (original release details here)
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Thanks!
My own personal two rat study (my pony and my dad’s foxtrotter) of non-Arabs in endurance/distance is that it can be done…but at least for me and my particular horse…it made something that is already meant to be challenging that much harder and I can say that I honestly won’t seek out another non-Arab distance horse for the next go-round.
I worked with what I had — but as much as Mimi mentally loves distance riding, her muscle-based metabolics were a major liability for us, and she doesn’t have the physicality to match up to her mental stamina, which meant I had to manage her every step of the way and keep her enthusiasm from getting the better of her.
I’m not saying everyone who is interested in distance/endurance needs to go out and get an Arab — I certainly support starting with what you’ve got and going from ther. There are enough successful non-Arabs in distance to justify it being worth trying, and coming from the perspective of having done just that, my hat is off to anyone who tries and does distance with a non-Arab.
I love this. It pretty well sums up why my next horse is likely to be an Arab, and why I’m setting reasonable and attainable goals for my Haflinger in endurance. We can do slow 25s. I think she can do (easy, slow) 50s. I am about 99% positive she is never going to do anything longer than that. Can we do 50s.. probably yes. Is it going to be as easy as it would be for a horse built/bred for the sport? Definitely not.
(Despite the “any horse can do a 25”, I personally know another Haflinger who quit at a slower NATRC ride of a similar distance a bunch of years back.. he’s not one that would be suitable for a LD. It was a metabolic and cooling issue, not so much a conditioning issue. )
GREAT post.
I would add that I started the sport on a few LDs on an Appendix mare who was very high strung and had metabolic’ed out of rides before I got, we did finish a ride but she tied up on a long slow ride the next weekend. I had to sell her (to a non endurance home) to go to college but I suspect if I had truly pursued endurance with her it would been serious management to get anywhere with her in the sport, if we ever did.
the other mare I did a few early LDs on was a welsh pony/QH, and she was much more suited to it, if she and I hadn’t been hit by a truck causing her early retirement I do think she would have had a good go at mid pace LDs and 50s, but who knows!
I think that’s part of why I’m not posting as much, honestly. As the weeks and months stretch out from me having done a hundred, or a fifty, or even ridden at all, it seems less and less plausible that we really did what we’ve done. It’s almost unfair that this particular horse has done so well, despite my newbie mistakes and her inauspicious first career.
I still think you ought to start with the horse you’ve got and honestly see how far she’ll carry you. You’re going to learn so much more – you’re going to have to do everything right to get your completions, and I think it forces you to build a good foundation. I mean, how many people have we (anecdotally) seen start out with a good Arab, skip all the basics, have great success at first, and then have it all fall apart on them?
I think my main source of angst is that I just don’t *want* an Arab; I want another gaited horse because I like their personalities and I really like their gaits, but I’m starting to realize just how bad the odds are.
I agree! Every time someone asks me about Minx, the first thing that comes out of my mouth is that she taught me the best lessons in endurance. And much of what I know and how successful I was with Farley I can chalk up to Minx. And yeah, if you don’t like arabs, why would you spend 100 miles on the back of one? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with choosing to do this on a non-arab – if my goals were different and I didn’t take it so personally when I didn’t complete, I might be doing it on a non-arab too.
I guess my main point is that what I see happening really often is that people seem to have only heard – or were only told – the first part of the concept – start with what you have because any horse has the potential to do this sport. Then they feel like failures, or that they are missing something, or something is wrong with them because they can’t get their non-arab through a ride. All the advice given to them (possibly by people who have only competed with arabs) doesn’t work and actually makes things worse. And when they finally ARE told – get a different horse – they take that to mean “you f*cked up this one because ANY horse can do this sport, so better luck next time”, which is just solidified in the poor persons head because they are being bombarded with success stories (because that’s what people brag about on the internet, not necessarily what didn’t work) about how they had a non-arab with *exactly* the same issue and they did x, y, and z and it worked PERFECTLY. And the person, not realizing that perhaps for every anecedotal success, there are 5 more “failures” that couldn’t be fixed that aren’t being shared, feels like even more of a jack ass for failing the horse and themselves.
My perception/opinion of course. There are too few of us that write honestly and openly about our journey through this sport – unsuitable horses, to inject joints or to not inject joints – that I think often newbies feel like those of us who have enjoyed some success never had to go through what they are going through – which often includes starting this sport on a non arab.
(BTW – you beat the odds once, and my money is on you beating the odds again).
I agree, my money is on Team Fixie for more 100s!
And really, I think people should START with a horse they enjoy riding. Maybe it will work out, maybe not. But at least that way, when you start, you’ve got one foot on the “fun” side. And maybe a big learning curve. Maybe you learn that you don’t want to have to strategize that hard…or maybe that becomes part of the game.
Years later, try something else, sure.
Or…not.
Thank you for your honesty! Really interesting perspective. I think it must be a little bit like horse racing: yeah, some horses out there are faster than some Thoroughbreds. But if you’re going to a stakes race, it’s not fair to say “your Shetland could totally pull that off!”
I consider Tristan to be sort of semi-retired right now, but when I would crew for Hannah people would say “you should do this too!” and doubly so when I told them I have a mustang. Yeah, on paper he has a lot of the attributes that would make him a good distance horse. But would he get further than an LD or two? I don’t know. At this point, I’ll never know.
Interestingly, I was at an event last weekend at which a very well known horseman stated that a fit Morgan can beat any other horse in a 100 mile race. He was specifically talking about the Vermont 100, which was regularly won by Morgans in the earlier part of the century. He’s currently doing LDs and CTRs with Morgans, but he’s also done 100s (including Tevis a few time) with Arabs. (So you can probably figure out who it was now, not sure why I’m being circumspect…) I LOVE LOVE LOVE Morgans but I’m not sure they are 100% suited to endurance in the way he thinks they are.
The horse who’s finished Tevis the most time (13) is a Quarter Horse. Everybody goes “wow, hell of a horse,” but nobody’s rushing out to get QHs for Tevis.
(And oddly, it wasn’t in the early years – it was Pat Chappell, finishing in 1998. The rules are tighter now than in ’98, but not nearly as lax as they were in the 50s.)
Did you happen to read the post at this link that I put up a couple days ago? Here it is
One thing she said really resonated with me. In part:
“I don’t decide to stay home from races forever and just tool around on the local nature trails, being my own special star in the backstreets of Brampton, claiming to run faster and better than any of those assholes trying to qualify for the Olympics…”
It was a minor point in the entire article but I thought it appropriate to endurance- that you don’t get to sit on the sidelines, making statements like how great Morgans are at winning 100’s when not only do you not have statistics on your side, but you aren’t actually doing it either.
One thing I keep in mind when I think back to the historical wins in big/old races like Tevis and Vermont is that they took place under older guidelines and rules that were not as strict as our current AERC fit to continue criteria. Did you know that early on, horses weren’t even required to trot out? The “trot out” was a walk? Pulse criteria varied widely. The parameters that were looked at varied widely.
This makes me suspect that as we tighten the criteria of fit to continue in the name of horse welfare, what we are also doing is magnifying the competitive advantage of arabs. Since I strongly believe you *should* be able to do endurance on *whatever* breed of horse proves suitable, rule changes that I feel unduly exclude non-arabs actually really bother me. But back to the main point – I haven’t run the statistics on the aerc database, but I *think* that if you look at historical big 100’s, non arabs are not winning as much as they used to (when was the last time a nonarab won vermont?). Why is that? With the tightened guidelines over the last couple decades can they not meet the new criteria and maintain that speed?
The paragraph above is all conjuncture and opinion, but that’s what I think about when someone talks about how a different breed used to do well several decades in the past at these big rides.
Besides the point above, there’s other thing I hear commonly when someone tries to tell me how they have an awesome non-arab that would kick the ass of all those arabs at some particular ride. You don’t have a horse that “could have won if he just hadn’t been off slightly the week before” so you didn’t bring him to the ride. The game of endurance is not only winning at the ride….it’s keeping them sound enough to GET to the ride. You don’t have a horse that could have won, you have a horse that couldn’t stay sound under that training load (which is another personal observation I’ve had on the non-arabs and conditioning for endurance. Which I’ve written about before so I won’t belabor the point).
Love this post. I also love all of the conversation happening in the comments.
Thanks for putting such a great thing together here. I’m marking it for later to look back at as conversation builds.
So I had written this great, really articulate comment and my phone ate it somehow…and I can’t remember all the fabulousness that I wrote…sigh. Anyway, thanks for posting this. I definitely bought into the whole, “Any horse can do endurance” idea. I also thought when people said they just went slow, that meant their horses walked a lot, when it apparently really means they mostly trot instead of canter and gallop. Oh, and apparently “It’s easy” means you’ll want to give up and die, but somehow you manage to finish and then you can’t remember why you were so miserable. I think it’s good to inject a dose of reality and point out that non-Arabs typically require more intense preparation and management. I actually like that challenge (when I’m not whining about it!), but I can see that it wouldn’t be for everybody. I’m kind of wondering if the sport will eventually evolve to the point where only Arabians from certain bloodlines can even compete, but until then, I’m going to keep trying until my horse tells me he’s ready to quit:)
I, too, love this post…but for reasons different from many readers. I started the sport with my little Standardbred mare…and, considering what she and I didn’t know, we did pretty well together.
Then, I drank a glass of the wrong Kool-aid, and I started riding an Arab. A CMK Arab, bred for the sport, with many full sibs doing well, good feet, etc etc etc. We did more than 2,000 miles together, most of which were really easy for him. Metabolically, and mechanically, he was a rock star. But I didn’t love riding him. I never felt safe, my riding skills weren’t a good match for his spooking skills…and the ground just doesn’t get softer after that 40th birthday.
When my little Standie mare died, I didn’t even consider getting an Arab. My young Standie came with a boatload of issues…but she was fun to ride. After my first ride on her, green and bad-tempered as she was, I gave the Arab back. And yes, I’ve had to strategize about which rides and how fast…but I never once wondered if THIS was the day I’d get tossed off a mountain and left for dead by my horse. Fee and I have taken a long road, but overall it’s been a good road. When it’s time to retire her, I already know that I’ll go right back to the pacing track to find myself another Standie. They aren’t ideal for everyone.. but they suit me best, and I enjoy the challenge of finishing a ride with my atypical beastie!
And some day, who knows? Maybe Tevis.
I think my endurance life would look a LOT different if I had gotten a “typical” arab. Because wondering whether or not this is the day Farley tossed me off would make it NOT FUN. I’ve ridden horses like that, thank you very much, and it wasn’t enjoyable.
Thank you thank you thank you! I want to write a long thoughtful comment but I am away from the computer for the weekend, so I will sit down and write something better when I’m back home. Because phone comments and I don’t go well together! But I wanted to thank you for sharing this, and for the wonderful discussion it has started, and I also want to ask before I forget later: what rules changed more recently at the vet checks? It is mind boggling to think that at one point there were no trot-outs! Have the heart rate requirements gone down? What has changed to make the sport more suitable for Arabs now?
Here’s an article that touches on it: http://xprides.com/new-newsletter/
Also, a couple of the new “welfare reform” rules are … pushing toward Arabs. Check your current EN.
30 minutes to meet recovery pulse at the finish line, down from 60 minutes. Sure, you shouldn’t *need* that long, but Arabs pulse down faster.
Recovery HR lowered from 68 to 64. Same thing.
Arguably, any horse can hit these criteria if they’re not being overriden (and I’ve asked every control vet about these rules at every ride I’ve volunteered since they were on the table – it’s a great topic of conversation!) But my worry is that you have a much bigger margin of error with getting an over-tired Arab to 64 in 30 minutes than getting an over-tired non-Arab down. It’s just easier, yet again, to do it on an Arab.
And in the same sense, it’s easier to overdo it. 🙁
Hmm..
Kinda two rat study here and I have to add the rider that the MAJORITY of our rides are relatively easy (as in not the hills and heat that you mad USA riders deal with) but: the one and only Standardbred I rode in endurance made it easy for me, and there are a number of them competing successfully in the sport in Australia. Looking through the stats, I don’t see many that do one ride and then not do any more, either. Prycie was a machine and could have gone much further than he did except that before I got him I already had an Arab X in the paddock and it was time for him to go to work. Looking at Prycie versus Joe, there was more untapped potential in Prycie than there is in Joe: I reckon Prycie could have gone further, faster, and he was also my “learner” horse who soaked up all my mistakes (overtraining, not strapping well, not really knowing about electrolytes) and STILL finished every 50 he ever started.
I now have another high % Arab baby in my paddock, scheduled to be my next endurance horse in a few years, as Joe enters his teens and takes my daughter on to teach her the ropes. But I look at her charging around the paddock, then I look at Mac (BIG, a seriously nice mover, Standardbred, and possibly the quietest horse on the planet) and I dunno… Maybe I’ll steal him from my hubby and one of the kids can ride the baby Arab!
Another thing to consider when starting in endurance is that an Off the Track Standardbred, in most cases, is already SOO legged up that they have a head start on a baby Arab, and you don’t have to pay extra for that legging up. That was a whole nother learning curve when I started Joe, as a just started under saddle horse, compared to Prycie. SO much more work to do.
I concur that if you want to WIN 50s, an Arab is the go. If you want to complete 50s, and be smiling at the end, don’t write the Standies off.
Well really really meant to respond to this post because all I have ever ridden in distance riding is NON ARABS but then got side tracked with all the work we needed to do around the place in preparation for this nasty storm we got.
I still like the Morgans..and I still think they are perfectly capable of doing distance. After all , there were several Morgans doing the long distance riding in the 1900’s (and since).That said, they are not designed like an arab and you can’t train them like an arab.
I have a hard time with the notion that gets put out there that you can’t do endurance and be successful unless you ride an arab, or you can’t work cattle unless you ride a Quarter horse ( there registry didn’t start until the 50’s and cowboys were working cattle long before that, with mixed breeds of horses). Sweeping generalizations kind of make me crazy.
I believe it’s possible that there are many breeds of horses , trained and cared for properly, that can do 50 or 100 miles. I think the line in the sand comes in where the pressure of doing it at speed and holding up metabolically and soundness. There are also so many variations from horse to horse, even if they are the same breed. There are heavier built arabs and lighter built arabs, same with Morgans, Qtr horses.. etc.. People were always surprised at my Lippitt Morgan metabolics. Her body build would lead someone to believe she would have issues metabolically. She never had any issues at the LD distance. I never competed at a fifty but I rode plenty of hard mountain training rides with her that were just as treasonous. I don’t suspect she would have had any metabolic issues with the 50’s either. But my management of her through a ride was probably alot different than someone riding an arab. That I would defintely say is a distinction between the arab and non arab for the sport of endurance.
So for what its worth, that is my two cents!
“I believe it’s possible that there are many breeds of horses , trained and cared for properly, that can do 50 or 100 miles. I think the line in the sand comes in where the pressure of doing it at speed and holding up metabolically and soundness. ”
– I think that’s the rub. There are PLENTY of horses from lots of breeds capable of doing 50 or a 100 miles. But doing that within the SPORT OF ENDURANCE (as opposed to doing the miles strictly as a no-pressure trail ride sort of thing) doing 50 or 100 miles seems to be a different beast, especially as the organization continues to make the criteria tighter.
On the management thing that you allude too….You say it’s different. Would you mind explaining? In my experience “different” is an euphanism for “it will be more work” and “don’t expect to do the same sort of mileage or speed”. Both concepts are fine, except I don’t think that new people to the sport quite what we mean by “different”. Different how? And is there enough flexibility within the sport of endurance to accommodate that difference?
And yes, there are problems with sweeping generalizations – but I’m driven just as crazy when a discussion is driven entirely by anecdotal stories that highlight exceptional individuals. A healthy dose of each is required and when discussing sweeping generalizations, it’s always with the caveat that stastics apply to populations – NOT individuals. Just like any examples we use of exceptional (or non-exceptional) individuals do not tell the story of an entire breed. Those 2 concepts is why I probably put this post off for so long, because any way I chose to discuss this subject falls into one (or both) of those traps.
(and thank you for your thoughtful comment – I’m blown away by all the thoughtful comments here on this post and really do enjoy the different perspectives. )
The two big “pro” differences I always, always, always see with Dixie vs. Arabs In General:
* why are you people so paranoid about rubs? I have gotten pastern rubs like twice from oddly-fitted boots, and once on her butt from the ring of a crupper. Never girth galls. Never wear leg boots. Never breastcollar rubs, or “oh the reins rubbed the hair off her neck.” 😉
* why does your horse have more clothes than you do? I rode in a rump rug once. It halfway fell off and spooked her, I discarded it at the first check and never even tried again. She fears no snow or rain or cold wind.
The easier bits don’t really make up for the generally-harder bits, but some things really are easier 🙂
Lol. So true. Have to say that riding an Arab now I look at non Arab people and I’m like “what’s your obsession with sponging?” And then I remember minx and how much we sponged!
Oh, and I bet you’ve never given Dixie a case of rain rot by brushing too vigorously at the sweat caked hair post ride?
Lol, totally not kidding about this!
Girth galls, NOT A THING even for a thin-skinned Standie b/c her most sensitive skin is like TOUGH compared to her Arab buddies.
Also, that “I’m not a horse, I’m a Macy’s balloon!” thing for the first five (ten…twenty…forty) miles. NOT A THING.
And yes, we could compare sports bras if you like. When I rode Arabs, I needed a super duper heavy duty army-strength tie-down. With the Standie, the nice comfy bra I wear to work on the library reference desk is fine for anything shorter than fifty miles–and for endurance, any decent sport bra will do. Don’t need to support Title Nine for THAT anymore!
Those are some of the easy parts. Plenty of parts are different/harder, but those parts are much easier.
I’m not too worried about the rule changes, either. I’d rather drop the margin of error for everyone equally, but at least we’re dropping it somewhat for most folks. The pulsedown criteria in the NW region is universally 60 BPM, and has been that for decades. If I can do it, it can be done!
Aarene – it’s been 60 pulse at the finish here, for 50s at least, since I’ve been riding, too. 64 or 68 at the finish of 100s, IIRC. So it’s not a change that personally affected me, but it’s a change that I think hits off-breeds harder than Arabs.
Same with the time to pulse down. I’ll give D 15 or 20 minutes to pulse without thinking twice – literally, I’ll spend 15 minutes dinking around on my own stuff before I think about checking her pulse – but if she took longer than 30 minutes to pulse, I’d know I over-did it. But Arabs just pulse down faster, so you can ride ’em harder and still hit the new criteria, and it’s kinda :-/, you know?
Yeah, I totally get that (some) non-Arabs are gonna be impacted by the new rules more than (most) Arabs.
My old Standie always pulsed down much faster than my then-riding partner’s half-Arab…but part of that was due to Story being a Zen horse and the rider of the other horse being a competitive stress-monkey. That’s a strategy I don’t see discussed enough: get the rider to calm the hell down, and the horse’s pulse will drop faster!
Fee is slower to pulse down–bigger body, and much bigger engine. But longer than 10 minutes to pulse-down means I pushed too hard, unless it is VERY humid.
She’s faster than Story was, but (unlike the Lippitt Morgans mentioned elsewhere) Fiddle eats MUCH more than any of the Arabs I travel with except Flower. When packing for a week in camp with Fee, I take THREE 2-string bales of hay and don’t come home with much extra. Plus, she will flatten a 50-pound bag of beet pulp in that time. At home, she has pasture so I don’t have to feed as much.
Except for some 100s, it’s been 60 pulse at the finish of all the rides I’ve done too. I’ve never had an issue, and I easily met that criteria by walking the last 1/2 mile or so with Minx. In reality, if the time window gets smaller (because I like to play it safe and if I have only 30 min I don’t want to take 20 min, makes me too stressed), if Minx was still doing this sport, I would be walking the last MILE in. So I’m not sure what this gains – except if the vet check came up faster than I expected on my non-arab I might be screwed. (On Farley a 60 versus 30 means I might walk/trot in the last couple miles instead of letting her do some cantering as she sees the vet check coming up).
Additionally I think we are going to start seeing unintended side effects if we continue to make the pulse in window tighter/more stringent. For example, in the above scenario if the vet check came up faster than expected, I might just plop down on the trail for 15 or 20 min in sight of the vet check waiting for my horse’s pulse to come down and then walk in. There’s currently no rules against this. Will we then see a NATRC-like rule that within a certain distance of a vet check you must keep moving forward?
I’d rather make a mis-judgement of where that vet check is (or if it’s on top of a bastard hill) and know I have a comfortable window to pulse down and dink around IN the vet check with my horse eating and drinking, then to spend the time on the side of the trail dragging my feet staring at the vet check in the distance with a hungry thirsty horse beside me (very little to no grazing or water on the trail here in the part of CA I mostly ride in).
I am short on time but I will try to explain “Different Management”. Most of the differences meant that there was less I had to worry about with her. I will start with the things that I had to watch more closely which were the important physiological things:
The Challenges:
Heart Rate_ she was a hot mare and tended to get pretty excited ,especally in a pack. Obviously this is not unique to Morgans but this was something I had to watch because her heart rate would spike when she got excited and it would tap into her energy reserves. At the same time, regardless of how tired she was, she would not stop. This can be good and also bad if the owner is not paying attention.
Given her personality, learning when to hold her back and when not to. Sometimes, holding her back, spiked her heart rate more. If I let her pick the pace, usually faster than I thought we should be going, she would spike , and then level out once she settled into her morgan road trot (clocked at 16 mph at one point) If I remember right, she would stay steady at 112 bpm here at her fittest. If I fought her to slow down.. she would spike to 125.
Respiration- This was a problem for her. She was a huffer and puffer with any hill work, even at her fittest . Most of our conditioning is done in mountains It always took her a while to recover her Respiration rate with any hill work. We purposely took hills in competition alot slower than some of the people riding Arabs. Coming in for a vet check, I could never trot in. I always got off about a 1/2 mile before the check , loosened her girth and walked her in. We always made criteria within time but we mostly used ALL of the time we had. It just took her longer.
Body cooling- She was not as efficient at cooling because of her body build. She needed alot more spongeing. We don’t have any humidity here , or if we do , its minimal. I would imagine she would not have done well in those conditions.
The Good:
Less Feed- I didn’t need much feed to keep my Morgan mare in top condition , even when we were conditioning many miles. Alot of the people I rode with who ride Arabs were always in shock at how little I fed that mare , yet she always had plenty of energy and good body composition.
No issues with skin irritation, no girth galls, no issues with wearing boots and getting rubs. Tough skinned!!
No issues with lameness or hoof issues. Foundation Morgans are known for heavy bone and feet hard as rocks. I never had to worry about lameness with her. The heavier bone however was a big part of what contributed to her ability to recover to criteria as quickly as the arabs.
Those are the big ones. Hope that helps clarify the differences. I agree with the anecdotal stories comment you make. As in training horses, there is no recipe book for managing a horse in this sport, regardless of breed. I think one of the things I love about this sport is that it made me pay attention to the whole horse. It can be a constant “tweaking” process depending on the horse and the day sometimes. I kinda like that..the ongoing process to get it right!
I also wanted to comment on your question about there being enough flexibility in the sport to accommodate that difference. This is a topic I have often given alot of thought to. I don’t believe there is enough flexibility to accommodate the differences. My Morgan mare would probably have never been a front runner in the sport because of her body type. However, that doesn’t mean she can’t be successful, if the time parameters and criteria were a little more forgiving.
I think the criteria is tight for many horses out there, even some of the arabians. I realize endurance is a race, but I do wonder if the criteria is pushing the envelope and putting the horses at more risk. I think that the sport should be encouraging riders to ride smarter and more cautious. The last time I read some stats, the ride results across the US were seeing an increased amount of metabolic issues for the 50’s and 100’s. It seems the organization should be looking more closely at that.
OMG I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THE FEED.
OK, leaving aside the last 6 months of Minx’s life where there was *something* going on, whether a low grade colic or whatever that was causing her to be ribby, even though she was bigger than Farley and they were in about the same work I didn’t have to feed Minx NEARLY as much as Farley to keep the same or better condition on her. Every place I’ve boarded Farley (the decent ones that actually feed enough hay….) has come up to me to say “do you have ANY idea how much hay I’m feeding that mare! It’s as much as that thoroughbred over there and he’s twice her size!”. Yeah. I know. It’s ridiculous.
[…] happening over on the non-arabs for endurance post so if you want something less light hearted, check it out. […]
Ok that was a long post.. but I remembered one thing I wanted to touch on that was REALLY important to me.. The spookiness factor.
While I think alot of the issues with Arabs being spooky could be helped with the right ground work from the start. At the same time I also recognize, sometimes it is just part of what the breed can lend itself to… with certain bloodlines. That isn’t unique to Arabs either.. However.. Morgans are known for their level headedness.. I LIKE THAT IN A HORSE.. to me that make a huge difference. My morgan mare was hot..as I mentioned.. but she wasn’t what I call Stupid hot. There is a difference.. I have ridden both..One is Hot as in alot of life and wanting to just go. This is a common breed characteristic of the Lippitt Morgans, especially the mares.. for whatever reason.. The other hot that call Stupid hot, is unpredictable and dangerous. I don’t care what breed it is, I won’t own a horse with this tendency.
100% agree with you. I have zero tolerance for stupid hot. Wanting to go forward hot is way different from “stupid hot” (which is also different from a horse that seems to actively enjoy giving the rider a hard time in a mean way. I also have zero tolerance for that kind of horse).
Like you, I also think that “spooky” as applied to arabs has a lot to do with the PERSON handling them (training etc) and the bloodlines. Just like there are some thoroughbred lines that are known to be not-very-nice-to-handle that stick around because they deliver great athletic performance, there are some arab blood lines that I have absolutely no interest in owning (Bask comes to mind). Having such a level headed arab in my possession right now is one reason I went out of my way to try and get those same blood lines for my next endurance horse – I like riding *that* kind of arab in endurance and if I can’t find that kind of level headness in my next endurance arab, then I’ll start looking at crosses or non-arabs again.
Stupid hot does not go hand in hand with performance, a concept I think elludes too many people. Or that arabs “are just that way”. Ummm…no. Just like just because your male dog has testicles doesn’t mean he gets to bite and growl at people.
exactly..! I like the comparison of the dog with testicles. well said!
My Arab/QH cross mare is 15 now and I often think about what I will get next when she gets retired. I really like the Arab crosses particularly Mustang and Saddlebred crosses as long as it was bred thoughtfully.
I’m a firm believer of stacking the deck in your favor though when you have particular goals in a specific sport. It would be like buying a road bike to participate in mountain bike races. Sure it probably could be done, but why?
That being said, I doubt I’d buy a full Arab. I’m just not that keen on being on the back of one for 50-100 miles and that is a big part of this sport. I see another well bred cross in my future.
[…] at least 3 myths about endurance that completely contradict the foundation most of us hold dear. I wrote about one here, and I bet there’s […]