"How would you handle a young
horse that loves to go,but not legged up?"
Answer: Very carefully.
But, in moderation and with judicial leg
monitoring and plenty of recovery time, I would not preclude any speed
work just because a horse has not yet had "years" of legging up.
Generally the horses I've known that weren't
legged up also didn't have the fitness to go very far at speed, and so
were able to learn that's speeds not a big deal before they got tired
enough to put their legs in jeopardy--especially considering they can learn
this in only one outing.
Of course it's important to be able to
read your horse and have sufficient experience to know just how much is
enough without being too much, so the usual caveats certainly apply.
That's why I put that phrase about "soundness and safety issues" in bold print
even though I had to deliberately disobey John's recent instructions not to use
rich text format....(sorry John!)
As long as there are no soundness or safety
issues, I'd say let him go as fast as he wants--but keep him out
there until he asks to slow down on his own, however long that takes.
*Hi Dabney; I too have done my share of "boogeying" down the
trail....and have seen a lot of problems and damage done by just letting
them go, if that is what they want to do.
I
doubt Alan's horse is really legged up to be allowed to go as fast as it
wants, but could be wrong.
How would you handle a young horse that loves to go,but not
legged up?
I
have "done the work" to get to the point where the horse IS legged up for
faster work; but it can take miles and miles and several years of ponying, so that you CAN
control the speed .
