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Re: [RC] Fast rides~Decade Plus Horses~ - rides2farAll this chatting about fast times had me wondering, do the horses that are being raced last a long time in their career. How fast do you mean? I found there was a line I had to cross to be in the top 5 that scared me a little, but my horse could go fast and be top 10 without worrying me *as* much. My horse competed for 12 years and 3050 miles. As near as we can tell it wasn't the speed that ended up getting him it was the years of trotting with his toes longer than was right for *him*. That said, I know lots of people, probably including myself, who after they've run fairly fast with one horse and then he's retired, start wondering if he'd have lasted even longer if we'd gone slower. My reaction to wanting to still go hard, but take fewer risks is to want to focus on 100's where I would be able to do something just as impressive (finish) but take more time where I want to than I could to top 10 a 50. (Not that I'm to the point of doing either with this horse...big talk right now). I don't feel guilty about running Kaboot as fast as I did since that was usually as slow as I could *get* him to go. He fought me a lot. You can tell when your horse is "in his range". If he's fit, and athletic, and sailing down the trail at a speed he can handle well and it happens to be really fast, enjoy! Where you have to make a decision about risk is when you hit the long trail with the loose trippy rocks and the other horse keeps going fast down it and you either say, "if her horse can do it mine can too" or "This isn't worth the risk". Angie =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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