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Well Angie,  I think a lot of it depends on the horse, the speed and the rider.  Cash Pony went from nothing, to doing a 100.  True, it wasn't a tough ride, but it was 100 miles.  The rider, Joni, rides very well balanced, and weighs 70 lbs. The speed was nothing off the wall, about a 15 hour ride, and the horse, was over 7 years old, had a good solid build and bone, plus we conditioned the pee out of him for about 6 months.  Not to say that he won't crash and burn in the next 100, but I feel pretty good about him or I wouldn't put him Biltmore and the OD this year.

 

About the science fair...Joni had her's this past week, she placed 2nd in Animal behavior and is going to the regionals.  Her's was interesting....do horses recongnize colors and associate them to certain actions?  Such as , will Rose know that she is fed from the green bucket.  We tested three of them, had 5 different colored buckets and turned them upside down with no feed.  Turned the horse loose, (at 15 ft. from the buckets) and watched to see which bucket they went to first.  Turns out according to research, that horses see limited color vision, and that blues are one that they see well, and NOT greens.  Each horse is fed from their "own" colored bucket, and have been for a long time.  The two horses went to the blues, but Rose went directly to that Rosey green bucket, and stood there...wouldn't leave it.  She was the only horse that selected the green one, and she picked it twice out of the three releases.  So, see, they do shy at colors !!!!!

 

Jody

"rides2far@xxxxxxxx" <rides2far@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

>>>Most of you would be right, I AM nuts! And yes, I'm thinking of Tevis & questioning my own sanity. I'm not getting any younger & >>my biological Tevis clock is ticking.

This seems to happen pretty often...somebody plans *one* ride and it's Tevis. Why? I'm just baffled by it but it seems to be a local thing out there maybe? Something like that wouldn't even cross my mind for me to ponder on it. I looked on the Tevis site, since I was thinking they'd added a minimum mileage requirement but I see that's just for the rider. Are there many people in that neighborhood who just train for that ride, and don't do any others? How does that work out for them?

I think it makes a lot more sense for me to ask you the question than for you to ask us. As an experienced 100 mile rider...can you really take a horse from being a lawn ornament to completing what is supposed to be one of the toughest 100 mile events in a year...and them be properly prepared? To those who do Tevis often...is this common? I guess it's just that out here, we think of Tevis as something you train for forever, and when your horse has proven he can do everything else you've thrown at him, you go try Tevis. Can't imagine it being the *first* thing you threw at him.

I really am curious and not just trying to put you on the spot. Sometimes things simply *are* that seem as if they shouldn't be. The kids in our school had a science fair this week and some of the experiements didn't turn out like it seemed they should. For instance, a girl had two plants in 2 2-liter bottles. She filled one bottle daily with exhaust from a car and the other was regular air. The exhaust filled bottle's plant looked best. Everybody wanted to deny it, but there it was. Maybe a horse can go from untrained to ready in a year. Examples anybody?

Angie



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