A Tribute to Gameness. A Tribute to "EIGHT BELLES" - Page 5

I rode and competed in jumping with a TB/Quarter Horse mare. She, too, had the desire to be in front, though she had never seen a racetrack. If another horse tried to pass her, she'd kick it in the ribs! Made for a really fun ride...

She was an awesome little jumper. One day, I turned too wide bringing her into a combination of 3 fences. Now, if you hit the first fence wrong, you are in big trouble, because the hores's stride is going to be off for all three of them. I was sure we were going to have a rail down on the 'bounce' (two fences set so close together that the horse has to land and take of on the same stride.) She jumped her heart out, and cleared all 3 without touching a rail. But, aftewards, I noticed she was trembling a bit. My instructor was well aware of what had happened, and he told me to get off and cool her out. The next day, she was a little bit lame.

Now, that's gameness. Most good jumpers have the desire to jump, and will jump fences 'at liberty' in the arena, or even out in the pasture. This particular horse once cleared a 4-foot rail that had been set up to block off the gate to the pasture, because she wanted to be out there running with the other horses!

Anybody who knows horses knows they fight to be in the lead, racehorse or not! In animals it's fight or flight. Horses are prey animals and obviously are flight animals. Being fast in horses has as much advantage as a dog with allot of fight. Like dogs that are always testing the pecking order, so are horses.

Molly your grey looks to have short upright pasturns. The bay would be the much smoother ride. 

I dunno about wild horses but dometic horses in a pasture run and play daily. It seems they do race eachother and egg eachother on. Even my dogs race eachother for the win, horses and dogs will even race a car. No the prize isn't a trophy for the animals but they obvioulsy get something out of a win and they surely know when they lose, they pout too.

Depends on the breed of horse - my Quarter Horse and Warmblood are perfectly content NOT being in the lead.  They are fine following - makes them much nicer to ride than the competitive "must be first" racehorse LOL.  Foxhunters are often "heavy hunters" - draft horse X TB crosses - they are also less than interested in being "first".  They will follow and keep up, have plenty of long-running stamina, they can jump great - but their favorite gait is "stop and take a break".

molly

I watched four hours of coverage for the Derby.  AT home I always "place my bets" so to speak. I had Big Brown to win and EIght Belles to place.  I was however secretly rooting that she would come in front of those big boys.  I was crushed over this.  I was so upset over Barbaro and now this. There was also George Washington at the Breeder's Cup lat year as well.  So many factors go into these injuries.  There is something so noble and majestic in a horse and I do love them.    From what I hear there three horses that died at the Rolex yesterday so horse sports did not have a good weekend. 

Molly you must be blessed with laid back horses. I have pullers no matter the breed or mix, QH, Appaloosa, Paint, Arab/Appy, it didn't matter. My paint Jake was short and he invented the shorty shuffle as I called it or trot/walk to keep ahead of the longer legged horses. He had pink lips and a real soft mouth but that all went out the window in the face of competition. I ended up moving him out of a snaffle real quick, except for areana work. He was kinda high strung though, one of those horses that didn't sit still and fidgetted until he was dead tired and that could take hours. Ah young horses, makes me miss the old nags I have had in the past. Even my nags wanted out front though,  but at least they would stand still for the mount. 

Horses....not sure if I miss em or not! With the price of feed right now, I know I don't miss that part.

Eight Belles was truly an amazing filly and I for one will sorely miss her. She was one young horse I was looking forward to watching her grow up and then seeing her colts and fillies in the future. Sadly, it just wasnt to be for her. She ran the race of her life and in the end, the race took it. In my mind she will always be one of the greats though. My standardbred mare was also 17 hands at 2 years of age. Thats alot of height, alot of weigh and alot of speed on those small bones.

That was such a waste of such a game filly why oh why do they break them in so early and race them so early they are only babies ,and not mature till 4or 5yrs.RIP eight belles

Deffinately a sad, sad, moment in history.....  I seen a news story reporting that this filly was bred out of a father AND grandfather with joint problems.  Makes you wonder about these breeders too....  Why breed if you know there is a history of problems?????