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Re: [RC] QUESTION RE LONG DISTANCE SPEED OF HORSES - heidi

What about the ultra-marathons held at Tevis and Vermont? Are the horses
& runners anywhere near each other at the end of *really* long distance?
I've seen video of a few of those races and lots of the runners would
never get out of a vet check as "fit to continue".  Also, to *really*
make if an equal comparison you'd also have to make the runner carry an
equal percentage of his body weight that the horse is carrying.

I've already e-mailed Jim privately, but the thing that comes to mind to
me in most of these comparisons is that one is comparing a human at the
absolute pinnacle of capability to a horse that may be "pretty good" but
is not of comparative caliber in the equine world.

The horse population at large could out-do the human population at large
any day of the week, and I'd wager on the horse if one pitted the handful
of really top-notch horses against the handful of really top-notch humans.

This is already an apples-to-oranges comparison, but at least let's
compare apples and oranges that are both ripe enough to be worthwhile.

Heidi


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Of course things aren't perfect,  perfect doesn't exist on this earth.
Doesn't mean we won't go on trying to get better at what we do. Besides, if
everything was perfect today, what would you do tomorrow? Slamming each
other doesn't get anything done.
~  Dot Wiggins

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Replies
[RC] QUESTION RE LONG DISTANCE SPEED OF HORSES, rides2far