> it would be like... us in florida having a show and having our twhbea > horses competing in areas set up to mimic Tennessee hills? > > Janice-- > > > No Janice that would be a trail trial in an arena with fake bridges and rives > to duplicate the outdoors. > >
I understand your point and your analogy Skye, but really, its not the same. Because a trail trial is set up to duplicate the obstacles a person might run into on any trail ride anywhere, bridges, water courses, hills etc. A person in england or minnesota or florida would run into these things on the trail. But for instance, if you set up a trail obstacle course with an ice patch the southern horses would be at a disadvantage and if you set one up with deep sucky mud two feet deep the arizona horses would be at a disadvantage. My thought on setting up a competition to be like that in Tennessee for walking horses... my horses could not handle that. They would be ill equipped. and I say that not just as an opinion, but from experience, as a person who took my horse to the mountains and in only two days he was lame with a stone bruise because where we went was an area where horses HAVE to wear shoes... and there was loose shale, going down steep hills over loose razor sharp rock, crossing waterways with big round rocks covered in slimy algae. That was like being on another planet to my horses. Our waterways are either sandy or muddy. our trails are leafy and sandy with tree roots. Ialways look out for my horses in unusual conditions and try to prepare them with shoes etc. but honestly I was a nervous wreck in tennessee with those big flat shelf rocks that had edges like a razor blade... and when the horse went over them they would all shift and move and the horse would have to struggle for footing. Thats what I meant by tennessee conditions. Janice -- even good horses have bad days sometimes.
