Sport Today

Hello! As the title suggests, I have been reading rec.equestrian for 6 years
now, ever since my then boyfriend (now husband) brought me home a huge stack
of printouts from this group to convince me that I wanted on the 'net.  For
4 of those years, you fine folks kept this horse poor woman happy and sane.
I really enjoyed all of the posts, but was especially moved by stories of
horse rescues, funny horse tales  and birth announcements.  This newsgroup
made not having a horse bearable.  Thanks everyone!

For some strange reason, people like me who can't stop talking in "Real"
suddenly turn shy on the 'net :-)  Maybe someone should do a study? <grin>

By the way of introductions, my name is Heidi Bohaker and I am a 26 year old
history teacher in Mississauga, Ontario (Canada).  I have been horse crazy
my entire life.  No one else in my family suffers from this disorder :-)
My parents finally gave in and supported me when I turned twelve.  They
bought me a horse (Arthur) whne I was 14,  Arthur and I had great times
together, but we lived in the city, he ate his way through my parents budget
and I wanted to go to university.  So I sold him to a really super woman in
Cobourg and I still think about him.  I didn't really ride after that
(except for one summer at university) but now that I have a job I can afford
my "habit"!  Last fall I started riding again.  I now part board a
palamino saddlebred/thoroughbred "Northern Lights" (aka Trigger) and sneak
out to the barn three times a week.  I am working up the courage to jump
again.  

I am particularly interested in discussions of bringing older horses
back into condition (Trigger is 14 and was laid off for 2 years).

So here I am...

Heidi

PS:  I ride English (hunt-seat).  Almost forgot to mention that.  But around
here, I've noticed a distinct lack of "cliqueness".  It's the love of horses
that binds us all together.

--

voice(night) - 905-276-2938 (day)905-625-3371
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"No, really, I'm fine..."

snip..

Hello Heidi and welcome,

You hit one of my "soap box issues" as anyone on the net will tell you.  I
don't know why people think that a horse in its prime is over the hill.
Endurance is one of the most demanding of all equesterian sports and a good
endurance horse doesn't come into his prime until at least 12.  Becky Hart
and Rio won the world championship when Rio was 12 and agian 14.  They were
doing very well this year (Rio at age 16) when Rio slipped and fell on the
cobblestone and cut his knee.  

Valarie Kanave's horse Cash won the 94 world championship.  Cash did the
Carloina 100 in 7 hours 38 minutes, that's right he galloped for 100 miles.
 Cash is 12.  So 14 is not old.  My advice is to determine Trigger's shape
by some sort of standard exercise test, using heart rate recover. Determine
the condition of his legs, i.e. previous injuries and design your program
from there.  Any conditioning program should be based on Long Slow Distance
(LSD) at the beginning.  After the foundation has been laid, then strength
training through intervals can be used.  This type of training will help in
jumping.  
Two execelent  sorces for general conditioning are Tom Ivers, "The Fit
Racehorse" and Karen Paulo, "Amercia's Long  Distance Challange".

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     Understand the prinicples so you can devise your own methods.

       Truman and Mystic "The Horse from HELL" Storm

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A friend of mine rescued an aged Arab from a killer pen.  He was about 19
or 20 when she got him.  She fed him good quality oats and hay, sometimes
sweet feed.  He did pretty well on that, but she swears what REALLY helped
him was having his teeth floated and regular addition of the SOURCE
miconutrient product to his feed.  (I do not work for Source by the way!
grin)  She finally stopped running barrels on this critter when he turned
24, but that was due to an injury, not age.  This horse just loved to run
those barrels!  I think the only other thing she noticed, in keeping the
old guy in good shape was regular exercise, even if it was only turnout,
or "ponying" him when she exercised their other horse.