Dear Ed & Martha Wright,
I have great respect for your family, I’ve watched you through out the years, and truly make it a point to be at the arena watching when you are up. I was just curious as to how you keep your horses in shape. I read the post on the website about how you like for them to go 4-6 miles at a long trot and lope and then do some additional walking, but do you work on the pattern much? Do you do any circles? I’ve always been told you shouldn’t work them to much because they’d get to “muscle bound” and wouldn’t be able to run as fast, unless you gallop them every now and then. Just curious as to your opinons on this.
When starting colts, do you work them in martingales or draw reins much? When preparing them for futurities, when do you like to start them on the pattern? How often do you like to work them on it? Hope to hear back from you soon.
Thanks for your time.
Suzanne
Actually, my horses may go 4-6 miles but not all of it at a trot and a lope. I like for them to trot or lope a couple of miles but you can get a little carried away with the long distance exercise and take some of the speed off of a horse that is competing in the barrel race. I do feel that if you are not making several runs a week, it’s a good idea to breeze a horse to keep his quick speed on him. I don’t lope a lot of circles unless I have a young horse that just isn’t “getting it”, and I don’t work the pattern alot even on my colts. I like to keep training sessions short and fun. On my older horses, I only work them when they need some tuning up, especially if they are running on a regular basis. I like to keep their minds as fresh as possible.
I never use draw reins and very rarely use a martingale. If a horse is correctly educated to the bit and you are using your hands correctly, you shouldn’t need to use any “cheaters” to get the proper response. We usually start our colts as three yr olds on the barrel pattern – we work them for a month or two and then turn them back out several times during the year.
Martha Wright
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