Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I think you are thinking of the FEI
rules which I think have something about waiting a certain amount of time
 after a metabolic pull .

Thankfully your guy is o.k.,I have competed
on a Morgan for 7 yrs and understand the heat problems, I have been known
to  call Arabs "mutants' as they happily fly through p/r with
a SADDLE on and my little Morgan is being doused with ice.:-) :-) :-) ;-)
I always do a happy dance when it rains or snows at a ride and call it
Morgan weather.:-) :-)
Things I have found competing on a non
Arab:

People are always looking at you strangely
wondering WHY you are pouring ice water on  your horse in October
when every other horse ( ARABS) are shivering in their blankets!!! :-)
( I try hard not to roll my eyes when an Arab owner commiserates and tells
me that their horse is hard to "cool" down as well!!!! :-) :-)
:-) LOL   )

Seriously I have found that I need to
condition more with a non Arab, and have realized over the years that a
lot of the info out there and studies done in this sport have been done
on Arabs  so keep that in mind, conditioning schedules/electrolyte
protocols, supplements may need to be tweaked for your horse.

The good news is that my horse is  getting
better and better  each year, this year she is close to pulsing in
with many of our top Arabs, she was actually 5th in the summer at a very
tough /hot ride, I never thought she would break into the top five , however
she ( luckily) didn't get that memo!!!:-) ;-) I think tougher/slower rides
( so 51/2 or 6 hour 50's) instead flat fast ones are easier on her  (though
she loves both) , I like doing 100's on her as we go slower. O.k. I like
doing everything on her,but 100's are my favourite .:-)
Take home message? Non Arabs can do
this sport............to do it well they need  LOTS of conditioning
( and I try to do it when it is hot outside not cool) after doing 2 yrs
of LSD and the horse is being worked regularly I found speed work beneficial,
shorter but faster work-outs ,  and yep...............sometimes it
is not your day and better to stop than hurt your horse.:-( 

Chrystal :-)
P.S I was at a CTR  in the summer
and ended up volunteering myself at the water trough where people came
in, it was wicked hot and humid  and I figured  the Non arabs
need as much help as I could give them to cool them down before pulsing
in, I kept a look out for a couple of ladies I had met the night before
who were doing their very first ride in long distance and  on Icelandics,
I thought for sure those little horses would come in needing a lot of water,
they came in looking amazing!!!!!!! I did not have to help them all day,
I asked the  lady at the end of the day how they did so well and she
told me that they ride 10-15 miles a day 5 day a week so the 25 mile ride
was nothing for them.:-) ;-) :-)