Re: What the Mileage has Done

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

guest@endurance.net wrote:
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> From: Bev Ryan
> Email: rikan@e-z.net
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Hi Bev,

I just wanted to congratulate you on sticking to it and doing so well
with your new guy.  I hope you have lots of happy miles with him in the
future.

Just a word of caution---while muscle and wind can be developed in a
year, the denser tissues such as bone and tendons take up to three years
to fully develop.  Although it may appear that your guy is going great
guns, you might consider slowing down just a wee bit and not going for
Top Tens right off the bat.  Give him a year or two of slow,
conservative finishes to build up the dense tissue before you ask him
for faster finishes.  It sounds like you want to do this right and have
many, many miles on the trail, and there is overwhelming evidence that
the really high mileage horses are the ones that got in several years of
long, slow developmental work before they were asked to hurry up.  Even
though your guy may be finishing sound right now, his bone and tendon
just hasn't had a chance to fully respond to the new demands of
endurance and so you might be at higher risk of leg problems within the
first few years.  It's very common to want to top ten as soon as the
muscle and heart says you can---think how much more fun it'll be if you
can give him a chance for everything to catch up and still be doing it
ten or fifteen years down the road. :-)

Best of luck to you, and again, congratulations on having survived the
first year of Riding with Hurrican Handles.

Susan Garlinghouse