Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

When back in 96 my wife did a few rides on her new horse, the Jbird, 
things were fine. She started out slow and while he was sometimes 
excitable - he was fine. Then one ride in Nov the front runners made a 
bad turn less than a half mile out of camp. She was going out at the end 
but all of a sudden the were up front. The front runners come storming 
by after then figured it out and the Jbird's brain fried. That was it. 
He only settled after he got tired. They did finish but it wasn't the 
most pleasant ride in her life.

I had just retired my mare to breed and the horse I had at the time was 
just not going to make an endurance horse. She offered for me to ride 
the Jbird since even on a training ride - his brain had turned to mush. 
My first ride on him was Jan 97. It was a ride in S Florida when it was 
brutally hot. We were sponsoring a friends junior since he could not be 
there. He was a basket case at the start - but the heat calmed him down.

Up until last summer - he would be a pill at the start. I learned to 
deal with it by choosing when I left camp and it was not always last. 
Sometimes tucked away nicely in the middle is better than the end. 
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes letting them stretch 
out a little in the beginning (assuming they are well warmed up) makes 
it easier to back off. At the Shore to Shore last summer he was pretty 
good. He wanted to go but he wasn't snorting fire. I think that had to 
do with we went out the first day with my wife (my wife normally WILL 
NOT ride with me) and the two pasture mates were content to be together 
not concerned with the other horses. Then when the Jbird figured out he 
wouldn't see his trailer till he was finished it seemed to have an 
impact on his brain. Or it could also have been he was 18 years old.

He still wants to go but the rage to catch the next horse is not as 
intense. Yes he wants to but no within a nanosecond. Maybe I cater to 
him a little more - letting him go some and backing off a little, 
letting him go some and backing off, etc. But as of last year he had 
become a pleasure to ride. Not that he wasn't a pleasure prior, 
sometimes he was but not all the time.

Is it completely gone? Well there is one ride in South GA where he has a 
spot in a hay field about a mile and 1/2 out of camp where I suspect 
when we go this year he will be so frustrated with me holding him back 
he will throw in a buck - the only time he has ever bucked is at this 
spot has done it every time I have ridden there. I expect he will do it 
again.

I think how long it takes to deal with the "race brain" is a function of 
a lot of things - the personality of the horse playing a big role.

GP at the Fish Creek House wrote:
> Dawn, your story sounds alot like mine with my thorughbred mare. She 
> has been earning lots of circles and halts too :) How long did/does 
> the process take for you guys?


--

“It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how 
smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong” Richard 
Feynman, Nobel Laureate in Physics


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