A question for the handicappers

[paisjpq]

Originally Posted by ShadowRoll

First, horses listen only because they want to listen. They can be as obstreperous and resentful or as obliging and content as any person. They won't do, and you can't make them do, anything they don't want to do.

this is a point that I think MANY "handicappers" and certainly casual fans overlook.....they forget that that horse is not a machine, when jockeys are getting hammered for bad rides sometimes I think it is just that they might be on a difficult horse to ride (not always--I'm not forgiving some of the stupidity that goes on out there)....anyone who hasn't sat on a horse just can't grasp what it is like to finesse (because you can't out muscle) an 1100 pound animal.

as far as the quarter crack...they can be minor and they can be debilitating, from the reports out of BB's camp it would seem that his is minor.

Originally Posted by paisjpq

this is a point that I think MANY "handicappers" and certainly casual fans overlook.....they forget that that horse is not a machine, when jockeys are getting hammered for bad rides sometimes I think it is just that they might be on a difficult horse to ride (not always--I'm not forgiving some of the stupidity that goes on out there)....anyone who hasn't sat on a horse just can't grasp what it is like to finesse (because you can't out muscle) an 1100 pound animal.

as far as the quarter crack...they can be minor and they can be debilitating, from the reports out of BB's camp it would seem that his is minor.

Well said...

From a person who watches his wife
ride and handle the animals. And who has been
scraped off and wont get back up ever again...
witnessed so many personality traits in
so many different animals.
And the jocks just get up on them and sometimes
just figure have to figure them out on the fly.

[Pedigree Ann]

I started riding behind our neighbor girl on a working Quarter Horse when I was 3. A few years later we moved off the farm and I had to be content with trail rides at riding stables, on grade horses. Then when I started grad school at the University of Kentucky I took hunt seat lessons for my "PhysEd" type exercise, something new for this Minnesota girl. Started doing some dressage, cavaletti work, that sort of thing; a couple of the horses were TBs and former racehorses - one of my favorites was Papa, aka Swing Papa (ch 1960 by Papa Redbird-Swing Again, by Sun Again, one time placed in 19 starts).

After a few years, the dissertation took over my life, I got married, got my PhD, had kids..., When my boy was 8 or so, he started taking riding lessons and was doing well, but then riding lessons began to conflict with soccer games, so I took over his spot for a year or so. Got to jumping obstacles a couple of feet high around the hunter course. That stopped when we went on sabbatical the last time and I never picked it up again. Always had a touch of exercise-induced asthma, so could never get really serious about it, but greatly enjoyed riding whenever I could.

[blackthroatedwind]

Who knew you could get a doctorate in BS.

God, you learn something every day on the internet.

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

drugs mom is hot

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by hoovesupsideyourhead

drugs mom is hot

No doubt.....I've met her. She's everything DrugS is not.

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Who knew you could get a doctorate in BS.

.

Actually, it is in a mathematical discipline. Nonparametric statistical models. And I got the BS (Bachelor of Science) BEFORE I went to grad school, in mathematics, at Caltech.