Horse At The 5f Pole

The discussion was left with the Q: do the rider's "hands" make any difference in their ability to ride, change leads, and the other mechanical aspects of getting the horse around the track. Having myself ridden horses almost daily since the year 1999 I wish that this were true and that I'd be able to improve my riding merely through improved hand manipulation. My personal opinion is that the "hands on reins" soft feel--insensitive feel vis a vis the race horse is primarily myth although the situation may be imagined that the hand of the black smith may be clumsier than the seamstress.

The relevance to this discussion of getting the horse around the track as our horse goes past the 6f pole heading to the 5f to begin the 2m gallop at the 5f involves the Q of the correct manner to speed the horse into the :15s, but with many horses also the ability to restrain the horse to the :15s. The eager ones will certainly try to go faster. What is the role of rein work and bit work in this process, and is there anything the trainer can do from the ground?

First I'd like to give a e.g. with my horse Groovin' Wind as a late two year old-early three year old. I'd employed with lots of extra cash the best rider at the KY Horse Center in Lexington to ride Wind, a fellow named Kevin. $15/day at that stage. But Wind ran away with Kevin almost every single day. Kevin either could not or would not restrain the horse. This was before my riding days and at the time which it was--could not/would not--I didn't know. Kevin would come off the horse saying that he was unable to hold him.

The question was answered for me in 1999 when I started riding the horse at the Woodlands. Let's just say at that point I was 6 ft. 1.5 inches tall at 160 lbs with plenty of weight lifting strength in my arms and I too was unable to restrain the horse. Groovin' Wind ran away with me almost every single day, he'd frequently go at least an extra mile around the race track before I could stop him, and the memorable day was at the start of the 3rd go around the outrider galloping after me trying to help. They recognized Wind at this point. At the stopping point on the backstretch it generally took every bit of my strength to get the horse stopped and I then fully understood Kevin's problem with the horse at the KY horse center.

Thus the Q of rider control, the role of the reins, bit and body in this sense.

Let me first observe that you rarely see jocks unable to control horses or bring them to a stop, although it does happen. In this regard, my guess is that I'd be much more successful now in slowing Wind down then I was in my learning to ride days of 1999.

The point here is we want the correct speed for work mainly that the work fit into our training schematic and we can go on as planned. A too fast work might result, due to injury considerations, in scaling back the next work or two and hurting our horse's performance. A too slow work, and we may have wasted a whole day. There's also the work were part of it is too slow and then the jock makes up for it in the final furlongs which is another version of the imperfect work.

Thus it's important to be able to instruct the exercise rider or the less experienced (in this) or oblivious jock as to what we need to have done. Continue next post.
Training:
Interruption due to rain.