P&R, recoveries

[MargePiwowarski <MPiwowarski@compuserve.com>]

Lynge asked if AERC has created a single breed sport due to the PR criteria
in use, she suggested it might favor the Arab.

I don't think so.  We ride off-the-track Standardbreds and they could set
criteria the Arabs could have trouble passing.  Horses that started jogging
hundreds of miles, at a very early age (often as yearlings) pulling a light
cart, build conditioning that lasts a lifetime.  They can be pasture
ornaments for years but maintain a very low resting heart rate and come
into condition very easily.  They have very dense bone and remain
remarkably sound, mile after mile.  

Marley is 36 this year.  He raced until mandatory retirement at 14, was an
Amish wagon horse and was eventually sold into a situation that ended in
months of starvation that killed hundreds of less-tough animals.  When I
bought him, I wasn't sure he could stand in the trailer to make it home!  
We taught him at 19 years to carry a saddle and rider, and to gallop and
jump. He field hunted twice a week, was the fittest horse in the field.  At
16.1, 1350 lbs, and 36 years, he is beginning to look "old" but he is
sound, with a resting heart rate of *16*.  We can pull him out of the
pasture and do an LD ride tomorrow and he will vet all A's.  While he could
probably do the same in a 50, I would wanna give him a few weeks of regular
work before asking.  

My little SB has a resting rate of 20, following strenuous exertion, both
of these guys recover to less than any ride criteria at a few minutes of 15
mph "jogging".

This is a long way to say that P&R criteria are probably accurate
reflections of condition, but it takes more miles to get there than some
people think.  There are horses top-tenning, with thousands of competition
miles that probably don't equal the over all mileage a racing Standardbred
has at 8 years, they certainly didn't have the benefit of the
heart-lung-bone-tendon building exercise beginning as babies.  Some of our
SBs are quite muscular, most of my fellow Texans assume they are Quarter
Horses (until they see one pace <G>).  

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if most any horse could do competitive
endurance *if* the rider was willing to put in the time and effort to build
an adequate LSD base???  Riders of heavier-muscled horses would need to do
lots of conditioning in the heat and get as good as Angie at sponging,
those horses will have a harder time dissipating heat.  I have field hunted
alongside  Belgians, that were conditioned to handle Gulf Coast heat and
humidity and a day of cross country galloping and jumping; they did just
fine on days that less well prepared TBs required vet treatment.  

Anything is possible, if the rider is willing to accumulate enough wet
saddle blankets.  I suspect the horses with higher resting rates, who have
trouble meeting criteria, need more LSD miles.

Marge


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