Horses that are willing to exert that kind of try and heart love doing it. Horses that don’t love it, no way they make it to that level. Horses that have a lot of self-preservation usually don’t make outstanding athletes. Very much like human athletes, some have the drive and want to and others do not. Horses that are true athletes push themselves to go faster, harder. That extra from the horse is what makes a winner, that cannot be forced. A race at this level- they are all outstanding athletes, all winners.
My daughters barrel raced and my oldest daughter’s horse had more heart and try than anything I have ever seen. He often outran horses that he should not have been able to. I told my husband one day that he loved running barrels. My husband said no way did horses love that stuff, they did it because they had no choice. I told him if they were forced to do it they would never be that good. This conversation was repeated several times over the 15 years my daughter competed on that horse. We decided to retire him, just due to age he had no injuries. He would run down the road nickering behind the trailer when we left to go to rodeos. He would act so broken hearted we got him fit again and let my youngest daughter run him at barrel races close by so he wouldn’t have the big hauls. She let him run whatever speed he wanted, not even asking him to run but he ran his heart out and was so happy he could go again.
Horses are amazing creatures, some people do exploit them and it is so sad.
Wow...... The Desormeaux brothers did it again!
That is the way it should be. The horse should be in charge, and drug free. I do wonder about their knees, what they look like after a few years on the road doing barrels.
As for these million dollar road hauls, one could hope the legs would be xrayed for hairline fractures with some of the overhead money.