lol well me and my friend have pretty much the fastest horses at the barn and we decided we wanted to make a race on the last day of school to see whose horse is faster. At the moment she can outrun me but i tend to hold Junior back because i don't run him the way she runs her horse since he has knee problems. I tend to let Junior go at his own pace.
Well lately i have let him go out alot more and he seems to be getting faster at the moment he still stays behind her horse but only a little ways. Although one time Junior ran and she couldn't catch up with him. So yea anybody have any racing ideas to get his legs in top shape for this? Since he has knee problems i want to take an approach to this where i don't stress him out or anything but running how he wants too. I just want some preparing ideas. I have about two to three months left until the big race and i really need to start getting him in shape for it.
I understand your concern and all and i am worried about him some cases but his knees actually are way way better than they ever were right now. He seems to get better the more i let him do stuff. His knees don't wobble anymore and his run doesn't have as many issues and every time the other horses run you can tell deep in his heart he has the strength to do it and he wants to.
I know he can do it because he has done alot of things and been fine as long as he has the proper stretching and warm up he's usually fine.
no its ok because your just preaching your opinion which yes i understand what your talking about but from my experiences with him every day he seems fine thats why i think it will be ok.
I even talked to my trainer about it and she even said it would be fine. His knees are alot stronger right now and he runs pretty much every ride anyway. It would be like any other day when he runs.
Even though he has had his issues at time i tend to know what his limits are and if i feel he reaches his limit i will quit or stop because he wont be able to do it. Thats basically how i approach it right now. Since me and my friends tend to run together alot i usually slow or stop Junior if i feel he has reached his limit thats mainly because he wont stop until he runs funny which i found out the hard way.
no offense, but if he can full out gallop and race... what ARE his so-called limits? Galloping is kind of the hardest thing a horse can really do, especially on his knees (hence why so many OTTB have bad knees).
A lot of people think their horses can do much more then they really can, simply because they don't look at the situation in a realistic manner. A weak-kneed horse is simply NOT a candidate for racing, or even a little one with a rider on his back. I'm sure he could get away with it, but that doesn't mean he's comfortable (just because he loves running doesn't mean it doesn't hurt). Also, it's how horse's break legs on the track--they have a little 'wobble' because of their knee, take a bad step, and BAM! Broken leg. And guess what happens to you when your horse slams into the dirt at 35 miles and hour? Trust me, it isn't pretty.
Just saying.
I barrel race. I know where your coming from. Start out with small work. Warm up, like start out with a crap load of trotting. Then canter. Then trot and canter equal amounts, obviously long periods of time, like a half an hour for each gait, but both directions. I always work my horse to a sweat, and then sprint him once before cooling down. Breeze him out, find a stretch of land to totally sprint. Don't do it frequently. Mostly do the warming up of trotting and cantering and eventually galloping. Then do all of that consistently and then breeze him a week or two later. Getting my point? I would also put him on joint support, I do that for my horse and his knees are healing tremendously.
yea thanks harlee rides horses i will try that and he has some stuff for his knees to help him so don't worry i got that covered..
I still think he is fine and when i say by his limits i know how long and how fast he can run. Look i know the dangers of running but honestly just because he had an injury with his knees years ago you expect me to baby him the rest of his life. I want him to enjoy being a horse and running and basically having fun. I know he isn't having any pain because if he was he would have his knees wobbling alot and would favor his leg i know his "i'm in pain" looks. I think i know my horse pretty well.
I just wanted to see some better techniques to get him running good and safely but all you guys seem to want to do is complain to me about it except for a few people. Its not like i'm racing him for a living its a friendly simple race between me and my friend.
You could also get a book and its called barrel racing 101. I understand that your not going to do barrel racing or anything but it has those exercises in them. Like the lady warms her horses up by making them do the trotting, loping on one lead, trotting, loping on the other lead. For a total of 7 miles if I'm correct.
yea thats probably good or i can just borrow some books from my friend that does barrel racing. I really should look into that though because Junior has an issue with changing his leads while running...i don't know if that means he slowed down or what but yea it gets bumpy when he does it.
Well, if your running, to the top of his ability, in a straight away, he shouldn't change leads, especially for a race because it slows them down, and there is no need to change leads when running straight. Although I may be misconceiving what you are saying.
Surprisingly, collecting and asking your horse to use his body will build muscle and improve his ability to carry himself more effectively. Try to get in some extended jogging and loping.
ok thanks i will be sure to remember all of these things in my training lol.
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