Omni- The making of an Endurance Horse

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Roger Rittenhouse roger@vmaxept.com
As many of you know I am NOT an active member of rc anymore..lets say I took Bob Morris advice and stopped talking and took care of business and riding more. and doing other neat stuff --like gold crewing- as in EAST GOLD...
However- I have posted about a Shagya-Arab called Omni a few times.. even had him up for sale and was looking for a new horse.

His work before this ride- 2- 35 mile one day ctr and one 25ld- the Summer Breeze LAST year-- took 5:45

Since I did not sell him and since horses at my farm have to work for their keep, I put him to work - real work.
Now what did I do-- first tell him he is for sale, going down the road,
2- take a crummy video to use to sell him.
3. take the video to cal Expo, show the tape to Janet and Ray of the Australian Connection,
4. Show the video to a John Lyons cert trainer.
5 Let the flames fly- Janet and Ray- A GREAT 100 mile horse- can do-- a real Tevis horse- lots of size great confirmation a willing attitude..easy working strong-- whats the problem-- THE RIDER..
in his mouth - fussing with legs etc etc.. he did not under stand what I wanted..
Their solution get a Endurance Motivational Performance Enhancing Device.. (a crop)
THEN when I ask for GO FOWARD 3 times with legs then WACK.. and let him GO.
Repeat until done..

JL Trainer.. so sorry I cannot find her name-- she was great - to the point and in your-face..
NICE horse.. will make a GREAT endurance horse.. crummy sales tape.- BAD RIDER.
The rider (me) was the problem.. Her solution get the same device.. I think they worked togeher on this.
ALOT of advice on HOW to let him KNOW what I wanted --to GO FOWARD with desire.
6. Came home - took the bit out - use a rope side pull.. in the field asked for fwd motion with my legs 3 times then WACK-- he went foward alright  quite fast.. but based on the advice I hung on and told him good boy-- at a run away..
Then asked for a stop .. and did it over and over until I had his attention with my leg cue- one time
It took about 2 hrs to get him working strong to the trot cue- reins fwd on the neck along with the leg pressure.

7. Out on the Trail. Rode with the crop everytime we went out--if he failed to move fwd with vigor, and did not respond to my leg I tapped him with the crop, SLOWLY the wacks-- and I mean a good one, evolved over days to a light tap, then a hard leg pressure to just a light tap with the legs to get his speed up and get him working. I had to find the level of motivation needed to obtain the desired response.. I DID NOT keep wacking.. once I he went fwd as I wanted.-i stopped. Pressure on until the desired action then release and praise..It worked with him.
He figured out what we are doing out there.. the dressage days are over big boy.
8. How to GETEM. Carol riding her very scrappy horse would ride up on his qtr. I would ask for more fwd action and speed and tell him to get -going-- to not let the other horse pass.
Then I would check him back and let him be passed -- then when ready I asked him to GETEM.. pick up the pace trot canter run.. what ever it took to catch the front horse.. Carol would hold her horse at speed so Omni would learn what I wanted - when we passed.. the press released and lots of good boy patting
I had to teach him to be agressive-- type C to B+
We did this sparing everytime we went out. I worked him on HOT days and hard up the hills.. big trots and canters.. HR much higher them he was use to, this was in JULY temps on the east were 95 to 100 and very humid..
Our target Summer Breeze 50 end of July.

The plan was to make him or break him..as plain as it gets-- to see what the past 2 years of easy work base had done for him. Had to find out what he could really do.. there were days when I really did not care to work him.. but a eye on the HR and working temp..he seemed to do ok. Actually seemd to like it after awhile.
The conditioning program varied, but was always faster then he had done before, and I did not let him back down or wimp out..He learned to drink from a water bottle, trot along side, trot down hill behind me and NOT run me over..all the stuff a good endurance horse should do.
PLUS I got in great shape too.. we went out 5 to 6 days a week from 1 hr to 4 hr.. miles ??who cares...just work it..
What really surprised me was he was staying sound and getting fit. We fixed his feet problems with full pads - cutting out the frog center, used Kertex and iodine, and veince terpintine on the soles. I feed him 2 to 6 oz of ABC HOOF per day. He has flat soles but they became very thick.. SO we did the opposite of what we do with the other horses and cut out sole to create a cup.. reduced sole pressure.

The ride
I did not really expect to finish.. sort of cold feet- was I asking too much --did I do my homework right  etc.. silly first timers
Fri - 100 deg - the trailer ride up we stopped once to water them. they both pee in the trailer when we stop..
took about 6 hrs..
loaded up with electolytes and pro-bi when we got there. They were a little low on water.. so we waited a few hours to vet in, they tanked up and veted in with A - BUT they called him short RH..confirmed with a second opinion from another vet.not a problem was the call..may be his way of going..
oh well we will see.. one loop at a time
 Summer Breeze it is NOT. Has 3 loops  24 15 10
L1 very nice rolling few rocks- fast- I just let him do his thing- what we trained for. I DID NOT take the crop.. wnated to see IF he knew what to do.. He did. I was NOT going to ask him for a slow walk about pace.. cant train one way -fast - GO fwd then come to the ride and ask for a slow down layed back ride.. nope if his was going to make it as an enduance horse we go at the speed he was conditioned to go..
Recovered in 10 minutes cri 52/52 sound.. oh maybe a funny LH --not RH this time same vet..??
L2-- ROUGH rocks mud slow hot slower hotter.. he tried to slow down when we were alone.. but did respond and get moving. On the ground leading he did fade some about 10 miles out.. but picked up when other horses came up..then the rain came - sure was nice.. but NOT the lighting and thunder.. he sure spooked out then.. The JL work REALLY paid off then..someone said we won the million dollars that day.. it was really bad..he did learn to trot though the downpour and run thought mud etc..we kept the pace up with a small group.
recovery was fast but he called for his buddy - on the 25.. and that caused a problem..took about 15 minutes to settle down.
cri 52/48 this loop was about the same time as L1  about 6.5 hrs- had long hold he ate well and was willing to go out. we took an extra 5 here.. the sun came out and it got hot and humid again..
L3 Well these 10 miles will tell. Now there was NO water on this loop for the front runners.. BUT since the rain we had water...and did he drink.. and kept going strong.. We were with 2 other riders who were concerned about us on their tail--that is within stiking distance..I ALMOST got cought up in a race..but got off and told them to go on..not a smart move to race on the first one. we walked about 1/2 mile gave some electrolytes and went on.. he was going after the horses at a clip I thought was not good.. but he was doing fine..so why not.. he heard them and really picked it up -we came down the road to the finish under a full trot and then a canter..
they were just getting  in --he caught them. Had alot of horse left.
recovered and veted out in 10 minutes.. sound a/b metabolics.
looked great..20th out of 26 finish 49 start, 8:50.
and the 1st middleweight.  very tough great vetting NO major problems with sick horses..
not too shabby for a new endurance horse. He did great.
not for sale

He is back to work.. with less effort on my part he picks up the pace and does the works. Appears the light came on - he now knows what he is..

next ride hopefully Aug 28

Sorry for the long post.. though maybe some would like to hear about how he is doing and that you can make a type A endurance horse from a type C dressage horse.

Roger/ OMNI

ps can someone please post this to Carolyn Tucker- OMAN
she will be very pleased


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