Horse Comparison story (Part 2)

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Judy Long for Nick Warhol julong@cisco.com

continuing from Part 1...

Who's more comfortable to ride?  Depends on who you ask and what you are
used to.   Shatta has a tremendous amount of suspension and float in his
trot.  I don't really notice it, since it's what I'm used to, but when I
trot on Warpaint I wonder if he's not really a Peruvian Paso.  There is very
little, or almost no up and down- he just shuffles his legs faster and
faster.  It's really weird how they can feel so different, yet both still be
trotting.    Yes, I have to agree with Judy on this one.  The Appy is
smoother and takes way less posting or two point riding effort.  The fact
that Warpaint takes two steps for every one of Shatta's  partially explains
why the Appy has to work so hard.   Shatta takes the cantering award.  His
canter is nice and smooth,  easy to ride, relaxed, he changes leads by
himself, you just sit up there and enjoy.  Warpaint's canter is a run. Need
I say more?   Walking is even more of a Shatta victory since I never did get
Warpaint to walk in the entire ride.  He just trots or canters, even at 3
mph.  It gets old jigging along next to two other horses that are walking
nicely.   That's not quite true- he did do some walking, towards the end of
the ride, but only when he's alone.   Shatta will walk when you want him to,
unless he's caught up in a mad frenzy of horses.

Rider input and horse sensitivity?  When riding Warpaint at the start  I
felt I might need a two by four to get him to acknowledge me, but I was
totally wrong on that one.  On Shatta I use my legs to move him over and to
steer him down the trails, especially on dirt roads.   I push him with my
legs, and sometimes have to really push him to get a response.  He moves
nicely, but it takes quite a firm push.  What I found on Warpaint blew my
mind.   The first time I wanted to move him over I pressed him with my leg
and he about moved off the road.  OOPS!  Too much leg.  After I figured it
out, I was absolutely floored.  You just think the horse back and forth.
Really!  It takes a slight little wiggle of your butt to get him to move.
It was incredible fun to steer him.  Who needs reigns to steer?  Not on this
horse.  I found myself weaving back and forth across the road just because
it was so neat.

Technical trails?  Shatta wins this category.  When I get to a nasty section
of trail on Shatta I'll slow him down and have him walk through it.  He does
so, paying attention to what he's going over.  Over big rocks, through mud,
across washed out gullies, across rivers, up the granite slabs of Yosemite
park Shatta takes it easy and carefully.  Warpaint is more like a bulldozer
or an army tank.  He just plows through stuff.   At Castle Rock I sometimes
forgot who I was riding (?) and would slow down for a nasty section like I
would on Shatta.  Warpaint would just take off again, going over, through,
or on top of whatever is in his path.  I wondered what it would be like to
go through a really nasty section of rocky trail, like the Granite Chief
Wilderness section on Tevis.  Shatta went through there so nicely:
controllable, walking when I wanted, sure footed.  Judy says it's
"interesting" on Warpaint.   Hmmmm.   Shatta points.

Doing gates.  I mention this one because it's so one sided.  Sure, I know it
a training issue, but Warpaint opens and closes gates while mounted so well
you'd think he's a police horse or something.  It's uncanny!  He can be in
the midst of a fast, exciting ride and come flying up to a closed gate.  On
Shatta I get off, open it and lead him through.  Warpaint stops, stands
there, moves over with the touch of a leg, lets you open the gate (either
pull or push), goes through slowly, pivots, and moves over to let you close
it.  He does it better than some of those horses in the trail competition
classes.   Shatta will do gates, but I'm guilty of not spending enough time
with him.

Vet Check recoveries?  Shatta, all the way.  He recovers very well, even
compared to Arab standards.   His working heart rate is about 1/3 lower than
Warpaint's across the board.   I've never had to wait for Shatta to recover
at a vet check.  My first real test of his recoveries at speed was an
accident.  Thanks to my buddy Gary Fend not saving me, I went off trail at a
50 in the mountains last year about a mile and a half before the last check
that was at mile 48.  Gary rode on to the check (leaving me in the
wilderness) while I found my way back to the trail.  When Shatta figured out
what happened he decided we better catch back up to Gary.  It was a thrill
to bomb along at a canter that mile and a half through the forest.  Except I
rounded a corner and entered the check, in the top ten, at a run!  There was
Gary, getting his P&R.   I hopped off Shatta and took him to the water,
where he began drinking.  The P&R guy stuck the scope on Shatta and counted
down the beats- "30, 26, 24, 20"  (in one minute), "20, 18, 18, 16- bingo!"
He had hit 64 just as he lifted his head out of the trough, in less than 2
minutes!   Warpaint, on the other hand, always takes longer to recover.
It's not that he's out of shape- in fact he's one of the fittest horses I've
ever seen.  It just takes his heart rate longer to get down than an Arab.
If you walk (or jig) the quarter mile into a check he will usually take
about 3-5 minutes to get down, perhaps 10 if the weather's hot or he's
jamming.  He always comes down, every time- it just takes a little longer.
Resting pulse? I've heard Shatta at 28-32, Warpaint is around 40 when
asleep.

The vet check? Shatta, again hands down winner.  Warpaint does not stand
still real well, kind of pushes you around, and in general is sort of a pain
in the checks.  He used to be terrible- I remember once long ago when Steve
Gardner could not even take his pulse due to the horse just jumping around.
Picture this- Judy would be standing over in the corner of a vet check,
lunging her horse to get him to calm down.   Shatta is absolutely relaxed.
He just does what is needed, and trots out very nicely.

Who's more powerful?  As much as I hate to admit it, it's Warpaint.  No
contest.  I've never ridden a stronger Arab than Shatta, but the Appy is
stronger.  He feels more like a motorcycle than a horse sometimes.  I don't
know where that power comes from, but it's an awesome thing to experience.
There must be some draft horse in his blood somewhere.  It seems like the
harder he works, the stronger he gets.  He feels like he could pull a car.
He jumped a Honda Civic one time, but that's another story.

Spooking?  Yuck.  Warpaint wins this one, but Shatta really looses it.  The
Ap is solid- he looks at stuff on the trail but keep on trucking.  Very
nice.  Never a bobble or wince.  It's going to be hard to get back on Shatta
after getting used to this.   Shatta is way better than he used to be, but
he still is a very jumpy Arab.  You have to be on your toes when you ride
him.  The good thing is that he rarely ever spooks on endurance rides.  In
Tevis he spooked twice in the first 300 feet, but never again in the entire
100 miles, even though he was the lead horse in whatever group I was in all
day and night.  Maybe he knows his job, or he's confident around others, but
when we are alone on a training ride he can be a nervous Nellie.  He gets
better each season, but Warpaint is spoiling me.

To be continued...



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