Re: Carolina 30/50/100 results-Longevity

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Mon, 30 Nov 1998 21:34:50 -0500, Mike & Karen
<mgehringer@marketshare52.com> wrote:

>No doubt this has been discussed before, so forgive the repeat.  But
>what goes into keeping a horse happy and sound for so many miles (7000,
>3000 etc.)?  I'd like to be able to do this for my horse.  Do these
>horses tend to finish in the middle of the pack, for instance, rather
>than top ten?

Some high-mileage horses were mostly "back of the pack" finishers,
some were middle-pack, and some were raced aggressively.

Susan's Amir ran many of his miles fast and hard, and was First to
Finish and BC at many a race.  I ate her dust at the finish line more
than once.

R.O. Grand Sultan, with over 10,000 miles, has a fantastic win record
including three World Championships.

Kahlil Khai, with 11,525 miles, has over 50 FtF and 49 BC's, 10,000+
miles of Top Ten, and 9500+ miles of Top Five.

In Kahlil's case, I can cite three important factors in his longevity
(he completed a 50 mile ride last summer, at age 24, in seven hours
riding time):

1.  His own innate toughness.

2.  He was started slowly, he did not run Top Ten until he had several
hundred miles completed, and did not finish in first place until he
had 500 miles completed and almost two years of competition (three
years of conditioning).

3.  Although we raced hard, he knew how to take care of himself -- and
I was willing to "get beat" rather than risk injuring him.  More than
once I pulled him up in the last mile and let a rival pass rather than
run through rocks or down a steep hill.  Those riders who passed were
often on a different horse in a year or two.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
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