Transcript:

[0:02]

[Music] I ended the last podcast about heart — how horses have to have it. Well, this particular rider that I’m going to talk about had it and more. And as I reminisced about all the stories I’ve been telling the last few weeks, my friend and colleague Dr. Emily Gilbert messaged me and said about one of the recent podcasts she was so intrigued about — the story of Pat Smith, how she broke barriers — and she wanted to learn more about her. And I told her, well, there’s another incredible story.

[0:47]

This particular rider was in the same era, born on the 14th of March in 1921 in Denmark. She lived a life like many young children of the day, but she had this deep passion and love for horses. She loved show jumping as many young children do, but the one discipline that just grabbed her was dressage. By the age of 13, she was already competing and was already recognized as an accomplished rider. She was married in 1941 and living in Europe during World War II. Fortunately, she was not as impacted as many other European countries were, and she was able to survive through it.

[1:33]

In 1944, she found herself pregnant with her second child, yet sadly, while pregnant, she contracted polio — a terrible disease. Thankfully, she did go on to give birth to a healthy daughter, but she was paralyzed. And you would think her career as a dressage rider was over, wouldn’t you? But it wasn’t. With the help of her mother and husband, she started to rehabilitate herself and started to ride again. She learned to lift her arms again. She learned to crawl and finally walk with crutches, and the doctors told her, “Don’t ride. Do not ever get on the back of a horse again.” But she said, “No, I’m going to get on.” And she did.

[2:32]

During her rehabilitation she did have some horrible falls off her horse, but she got back on. The amazing thing was that she started to train with her horse Jubilee while she was paralyzed from the knee down. She had to learn not only how to balance herself without the use of her feet, but also how to cue the horse in dressage. And after only three years — only three years after her initial illness — this rider went on and finished second in the Scandinavian Riding Championship in 1947. While her scores should have qualified her for the Olympic Games, despite her disability, women were still not allowed to compete in 1948.

[3:19]

It wasn’t until the 1952 Helsinki Olympics that this rider was able to mount and ride Jubilee in the Olympic Games. And you want to know what she won? The first Olympic medal for any woman rider in an equestrian sport. She got a silver in dressage. She went on to win another silver medal in the 1956 Olympics. Despite not having the use of her feet and lower legs, she was a seven-time Danish national champion. She has gone on to be a national hero in Denmark. But despite all this, Lis Hartel said her greatest accomplishment in her life was opening the first therapeutic riding center in Europe.

[4:08]

She went on to advocate for equestrian sport for those with disabilities, and she was one of the major forces that has made therapeutic riding an accepted form of rehabilitation. On February 12th in 2009, Lis Hartel, at the age of 87, rested her eyes for the last time. Like Pat Smith, she too broke barriers — but not only for women, but also for any rider with a disability. Lis Hartel is a true treasure to humanity and to our greatest companions — the horses that helped carry her and us along the way.

[4:56]

Secretariat being led… he is number one. The horse — and the horse is the best thing in the world, isn’t it? Best companions, always. I’ve always loved them, really, ever since I was a little girl. Everybody’s in line… and they’re off. Secretariat away very well, has good position. The love — I never thought owning a horse could mean so much to me. Now Secretariat taking the lead — the madness. “What kind of a horse is that? I’ve never seen a horse like that before.” Tightening now… he is moving like a tremendous machine.

[5:33]

Their story — Mustangs were more involved in the early development of this breed than I thought they were. But they were. Secretariat has opened the 22-length lead. He is going to be the Triple Crown winner. Welcome to Mattox Horses.

[5:48]

[Music] I’m Dr. Chris Mortenson. I’ve been an avid equine enthusiast, educator, and scientist for over 20 years. In this episode of Mattox Horses, we’re going to go more into the breeds — performance breeds, characteristics of horses in the English discipline — and then we’ll talk a little bit about racing, more focused on endurance racing and a little bit on driving. Now, this was such a large topic that we’ve broken it into two podcasts. The first podcast was more focused on the western disciplines, and then polo horses — what makes them so athletic, what breeds compete in those events, and what makes them special.

[6:33]

There is crossover, obviously, with certain breeds — they do both western and English disciplines — but also in what you’re looking for in horses as far as conformation and performance traits. There obviously are comparisons, but then there are these big differences, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today and focus on the English disciplines.

[6:58]

Now, I talk about Lis Hartel, and Dr. Gilbert did message me about Pat Smith and said, “Oh, I wanted to learn so much more about her.” And that podcast last week — it was already going so long, I couldn’t talk more about her. But Lis Hartel — that’s a movie I want to see. Hollywood, are you listening? I want to see her story on the big screen. To survive in Europe during World War II, the stress and anxiety… and for her to survive through it, but then at the tail end of it contract polio, become almost completely paralyzed, but fight through it again. The war is still going on in 1944–45, still learn how to ride again, and then after the war be able to compete at the top level, to be able to score enough in a competition to qualify for the Olympics — but the Olympic Committee saying, “Nope, sorry, women aren’t allowed yet.” Wow. And then to go four years later and win a silver medal — the first woman ever to win a medal in equestrian sport in the Olympics — I mean, that is a story that needs to be told. More people need to be aware of what these women did in equestrian sport, and Lis Hartel is the epitome of it.

[8:23]

Yes, Pat Smith — incredible show jumper. She too, oh my goodness, had overcome so much in her life. And then you have Lis Hartel — I mean, two just iconic women in the sport of horses in the 20th century, and it’s carried on into the 21st century. Lis’s sport was also dressage. If you’ve obviously been listening to this podcast, I can’t talk well enough about the sport of dressage. The FEI calls it the highest expression of horse training. It dates back thousands of years with the ancient Greeks and Xenophon writing his manual in equitation. Dressage is, again, the epitome of horse riding. It shows that intimate relationship we have with horses.

[9:19]

Before I recorded this podcast, I watched the last Olympics in Japan and I watched their dressage freestyle again just to kind of get fired up. Still, when I watch those riders, I try to watch those cues, and I watch their feet particularly, and see the subtle cues, and I just… how did Lis do it? How did Lis Hartel do it without the use of her feet? I mean, wow. So dressage is, again, Dancing with the Stars in the horse arena. They’re doing all sorts of movements and different figures — circles, turns — they change their gaits, all in this arena being scored by judges that are looking at the rhythm, the suppleness, the beauty — aesthetic beauty — the straightness, all of these things with the horses and, again, the riders.

[10:18]

When you compare it to, say, a barrel race — which I talked about in the last podcast — you can see the rider’s cues are very exaggerated. In dressage, you can barely tell they’re communicating with the horse. That is what makes it so incredible — just the harmony between them. There are different levels of difficulty, so when you go to the Olympic Games and you watch it, watch those riders and see how they work with those horses. Now, generally, competitions are in a 40-meter by 20-meter arena or 60-meter by 20-meter arena, so there are different size arenas that they do and then do these different movements — the walk, the trot, the canter, their transitions, lateral movements. Like I said: circles, serpentines, they change directions, and half turns.

[11:11]

One of the things I really enjoy is during the freestyle round — and have you ever seen a horse skipping? Because I remember the first time I watched dressage and I saw a horse skipping, and I was just amazed at the lead changes. So, the flying lead changes that they do to look like they’re skipping — I mean, these are some special horses. Incredible sport. It’s an incredible sport. If you’re looking at specific breeds, there are ones that compete at the highest level, but any horse can do dressage. I have seen a camel — yes, a camel, not a horse — a camel doing dressage at a horse show just to show… you know, it was actually pretty great. It’s online, you can look for that.

[11:59]

At the top level, there are just breeds that stand out, and those are our warmbloods. Again, just a quick reminder: horses are classified hot-blooded, warm-blooded, cold-blooded. Hot-blooded horses — Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Barb horses — that’s the origination of that. And it is not indicative of their body temperature; it’s indicative of their temperament. So, hot-headed — hot-blooded, right? Cold-blooded — draft horses, our gentle giants: our Shire horses, Belgian horses, Percheron horses. They are considered cold-bloods. And then the warmbloods were a cross between the hot and the cold bloods. So in between — that is kind of the origination of the breeds when they started creating these breeds hundreds of years ago or in the last hundred years.

[12:51]

At the top level of dressage, you’re going to see the majority are warmbloods. They too, like the Quarter Horses and other horses we talked about in the western discipline, are athletic in different ways. And when you say the big class of warmbloods, that can include a lot of different specific breeds. A lot of today, what you hear is their country of origin. So, for example, German warmbloods — you can say, “Oh, he’s a German warmblood,” well, it could be an Oldenburg, a Hanoverian, a Trakehner, other breeds that originated from Germany. Probably the most popular, and the ones that are winning quite a lot, are the Dutch Warmbloods. And you see them with the KWPN studbook next to their names, so they’re referred to as KWPN horses. These are some of the top athletes, and you’re going to see them in dressage, you’re going to see them in show jumping, you’re going to see them in eventing — very incredible, beautiful, expensive horses. They are amazing and awesome.

[14:08]

Then if you go to the United States, you have the Tennessee Walking Horse. That’s a warmblood. One that is a very rare breed out of the UK, and you still see them competing, is the Cleveland Bay. That is a British warmblood horse, and there’s only a few thousand of them — not many left — so they’re one of those endangered breeds. Other types of horses you see competing in Europe: you have your Andalusians — these are your Iberian horses from Spain. You have your Irish Sport Horse, American Saddlebred — again, another warmblood. The American Saddlebred is one of those gaited horses. They can compete in dressage. But then you’ve got the Belgian Warmblood, Swiss Warmblood, Swedish Warmblood. And then you go to our Thoroughbreds — they show up everywhere. Thoroughbreds — that versatile breed that’s not just flat racing. You see them competing in show jumping, you see them competing in dressage, you see them competing in western events — just one of our original breeds that can do most anything, and you’ve got to love them.

[15:19]

Now, if we go to top breeds — and I’m going to break this down a little bit more — but let’s just go to the Olympic Games because that’s recognized every four years. I mean, every year FEI and there’s competitions all around the world — we talked about that in the history of sport — but if we go to the Olympics and say, okay, that’s probably a good snapshot of where we are in the world, some of the top riders in the world go to the Olympics with their top horses. If we look at the breeds — so, if we look at the 18 horses that reached the finals in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, nine of them were the Dutch Warmbloods — the KWPN horses. So, half. That’s what I said — that’s the one you’re going to see over and over again. Then the other three were Hanoverian, two were the Westphalians, and then one a Trakehner, the Danish Warmbloods, and the Oldenburg breed. So you see a lot of German warmbloods in there — so really, the Dutch and German warmbloods were the top competitors.

[16:27]

Then you had a Lusitano stallion from Portugal. And then, when you look at who medaled: Dalera — I watched the video, beautiful horse — she’s a Trakehner mare from Germany, ridden by Jessica von Bredow-Werndl. Then you had Bella Rose, who was a German warmblood — so she’s the Westphalian mare ridden by Isabell Werth out of Germany. And then bronze medal went to Gio, who is a Dutch Warmblood gelding — so KWPN gelding — ridden by Charlotte Dujardin out of Great Britain. Now, what’s interesting about Charlotte is she actually rode one of the top dressage horses of all time — Valegro — and he was a Dutch Warmblood gelding too, so a KWPN horse. Those are your champions — recent champions — so you can see how the warmbloods are dominating today in the top levels of dressage.

[17:32]

But again, along all the different levels, you’ll see all different types of breeds of horses — different types of ponies, children learning on different types of horses as they go up the ranks — and then competing at the top levels are some of the best-bred warmbloods we have today. In the last podcast, I talked about pre-purchase exams, and that’s important for any horse for any competition. When you look at the recommendations when purchasing a dressage horse, there’s a book — it’s Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery, published in 2014, written by Dr. Brian Anderson and others — and in there it talks about the examination of dressage horses, and even show jumpers, prior to purchase. And just to quote them, it says: “A good dressage horse must possess natural balance, elegance, and athleticism, as well as power and a trainable mind.” And then it goes on to say, “The majority of dressage horses are warmbloods” — and again, they all go back to our Thoroughbred blood — “but they are the warmbloods of today.”

[18:43]

They also go on to talk about the makeup of the horse — how the horse has to be athletic throughout their body, the horse has to be supple, meaning it’s flexible, able to increase the load on their hind limbs to propel themselves forward. And there are different stresses on the joints as they do these lateral movements. Even the flying lead changes all put different types of stress on the horse, whereas, say, a barrel racer — which is explosive speed, halting stops — dressage is dancing, you know, think about it in the joints, up and down. So, different things to look at. One in particular — I talked about shoulders quite a bit in the last podcast — if we take it to the hind end of the horse, one of the things in dressage they talk about is the hocks — so the back leg of the horse. And when looking for the ideal conformation…

[19:46]

One of the things they talk about is if you go to the point of the buttock — which is really the very hind end of their rear end where it sticks out the farthest — if you hung a plumb line straight down to the ground and then looked at the hocks, the ideal position is those hocks, the back line of the hocks along the cannon bone down to the fetlock, should be straight. And then you should have like a nice 45- to 50-degree angle with the pastern — that’s kind of ideal conformation for most horses regardless of discipline. If, on that line, the hoof is forward, and that angle of the cannon bone from the hock down to the hoof is forward, they call that “standing under.” If it’s pushed back behind the line or out, it’s called “camped out.” So ideal is that line runs along it.

[20:46]

Now, there is something called “post-leggedness,” and it’s something you want to avoid with dressage horses, jumping horses, eventing horses. That is when the leg’s too straight, so it just stands just forward of that line — the line wouldn’t touch it — and that post leg just puts a lot of stress on the hock joint and all of the ligaments. One is the suspensory ligament, and that can be problematic for jumping horses and dressage horses. So the hock conformation is really important when you look at a horse for purchase.

[21:18]

When I talk about conformation — and I should have mentioned this in the first podcast the other day — there are horses that have terrible conformation and they are champions. And then there are horses like Secretariat that have perfect conformation and they’re champions. Just because a horse’s conformation isn’t perfect doesn’t mean they’re not going to be a great horse. Really, where conformation is important is in trying to lessen the incidence of injury. If there are some large conformational flaws and we push the horse too much, that could lead to an injury that could end their careers. So we want to be very careful of that, but still, it’s good to know conformation because when you are evaluating a horse with your veterinarian, you can make an educated decision on that horse.

[22:12]

Another big characteristic of dressage is you do want definable withers. And then, we said in our western horses, we wanted a short back — especially in our barrel racing horses — that helps them with quick, agile movement. Dressage horses, you want more of a medium-sized back — obviously strong back because of the rider and doing these movements — but if it’s too short of a back, they have trouble with their extensions. The withers — we want them really defined, and then we want them to be “uphill.”

[22:52]

Now, what do we mean when we say we want the back to be “uphill”? Well, if you look at the hind end of the horse — or the croup, okay, so the hips, the top of the hips going to the tail — that’s called the croup. In western horses, you generally see “downhill,” so the croup is higher than the withers. Quarter Horses usually don’t have really defined withers, unlike, say, a Thoroughbred, but that back — that croup — is higher than the withers, so their back kind of goes downhill. In a dressage horse, you want the croup to be even but maybe just a little bit lower than the withers, so then it’s uphill along the back. So when you go from the croup to the withers, it’s uphill. Western horses — croup to the withers — you want downhill. And then the other thing is, with dressage horses, a supple back — flexion so they can bend and do these lateral movements — lateral flexibility, and then again that strong back to support the rider.

[23:55]

You see all sorts of opinions on what a proper dressage horse should look like. That’s just taking kind of a snapshot. With all that being said, I’m going to end with eventing. Eventing is the triathlon for horses where we have dressage, show jumping, and a cross-country course all rolled into one. So you have to have a horse that can do all three and do them well. But let’s take the second leg of that eventing and just talk about show jumping, because there are shows that are just focused on that — incredible sport, incredibly popular with young children and adults of all ages and genders.

[24:42]

Your typical show jumping course is going to change depending on where you are in the event, but there are different types of obstacles. So it includes single fences, double and triple combinations, spread or wide fences, varying distances and heights. So it depends on the class or level that you’re competing at. And the whole objective is to go through the course without knocking down any of the fences or incurring any time penalties.

[25:11]

If you can imagine what we’re asking horses to do in show jumping — this is an incredible athlete. Precision — that is a good descriptor of a horse jumping a fence. They have to be precise, they have to tuck their legs up so they don’t knock over a fence, and they have to be able to not only leap over the fence — so that takes incredible power — with the rider on your back, mind you, and cushion that fall. So physically, we are asking a lot from this horse. It takes a lot for them. They have to have really enough explosive power and scope to jump and get over these fences. And then they have to be agile, because when you’re looking at combination fences and quick turns and tight turns — when we talked about barrel racing, that was like full-bore, flat-out speed — you kind of see that in show jumping a little bit, but it’s more of precision and agility. They’re adjusting their strides, their speeds, their balance depending on the type of fences. They’ve got to have endurance to be able to run these courses and explode over the fences.

[26:38]

And then the final thing is courage. Those horses need courage because, again, remember how horses see the world — their binocular vision isn’t that acute compared to ours. They can’t focus in a couple feet in front of their face — up to three feet or four feet in front of their face — so they lose sight of that jump. So they’ve got to prepare themselves with the rider on their back and leap at the right moment. They don’t see the fence as they’re right in front of their face, and then, landing on the ground, they can’t see where they’re placing their hooves. So it takes… if you put yourself in their hooves and then you see how they see the world, and then you attack those fences or obstacles… it’s incredible. It’s incredible what they do.

[27:38]

Now, looking at specific breeds — a lot of crossover again with dressage — your warmbloods: German, French, Belgian, Dutch — all some of your top show jumping horses. Your Irish Sport Horses, your Thoroughbreds. And this is one that we haven’t talked about — the Selle Français, which means “French Saddle.” This is a breed of sport horse from France, very popular in show jumping because it’s been very successful. You do see them in dressage and obviously eventing, but this is a very athletic horse that was created in 1958 and is now one of the top breeds in the world for show jumping.

[28:21]

So if we go back to the Olympics and look at our champion show jumping riders — Ben Mayer from Great Britain won the gold medal with his Dutch Warmblood. And today, if you look at what he’s competing on a few years later, he’s riding a Selle Français as he competes. He obviously has a stable of horses, but that’s one of the top horses that he’s riding. The silver medalist was Peder Fredricson from Sweden — he rode a Belgian Warmblood, and he’s currently competing with a Selle Français. Bronze winner is Maikel van der Vleuten from the Netherlands — another Belgian Warmblood. So, two Belgian Warmbloods and a Dutch Warmblood won the medals in the Tokyo Olympics. He’s currently riding a Holsteiner — so, he’s riding a German Warmblood — but again, different stable of horses. Those are some of the last competitions they’ve been in, and they’ve been winning. So, a mix of breeds. And again, you’re going to see your Thoroughbreds in there, and you’re going to see different types of ponies — especially with young children learning, you know, jumping cross fences and then the shorter jumps. You’re going to see Quarter Horses jumping — all sorts of breeds can do this. But again, at the top, top levels, you’re looking at the similar horses.

[29:50]

When you come to conformation — again, a lot of this: you want a little bit steeper shoulder, that’s something we’ve talked a lot about. Obviously, you want the hocks to be correct in their conformation just because that suspensory apparatus during takeoffs and landings needs to be able to withstand those stresses. On the front feet, the pasterns, the knees, and then the hind legs — the hocks, and again those fetlocks — all of these joints and leg movements are important. So that pre-purchase exam when you go to get a horse is very important to make sure they don’t have any hints of unsoundness.

[30:35]

But when I say that, it’s so funny because doing the research and listening to some of the top experts, they said, yeah, you could talk conformation all day, but one of the horses that took show jumping by storm — and some of you may know this horse — For Pleasure — he had terrible conformation. He had an awful conformation score, and his offspring have the same undesirable conformation traits, but they’re incredible jumpers. They’re super jumpers. And the Hanoverian breeding authorities have even said that they discovered the better the jumper, the worse the conformation score. So what does that tell you? Well, Marianne Drevvadal — she’s a leading Swedish Warmblood judge and breeder — she said when she looks at a horse, that’s 30% of her evaluation. Once the horse starts moving, that changes a little bit. But she said there are horses out there with poor conformation that have way more heart than body. The only thing I say in talking about this in the podcast is we just know with really poor conformation it could lead to injury, so that is something to always be aware of. And horses with better conformation tend to live longer — they have longer careers — but that doesn’t mean they’re going to go out and win the gold medal if they have perfect conformation in their show jumping horse.

[32:20]

Okay, now we take all of that and throw in a cross-country course for eventing. So not only do you have a horse that needs to be a good dressage horse, the horse has to be a good show jumping horse, now they’ve got to run a course that, at the advanced levels, goes up to 4,000 meters — which is 2½ miles — going over natural obstacles, water, logs, ditches, drops. So the terrain’s different, it’s not a flat track, there’s all sorts of things in the horse’s way, and they’ve got to do this in a certain amount of time. So you’re talking about a horse that has to be incredibly athletic. They have to have good endurance, be very intelligent, very courageous — just probably some of your best athletic horses in the world. We look at our triathletes — we’re like, wow, you are some of the top athletes in the world that can swim, bike, and run. Well, these are horses that can do dressage, show jumping, and then a cross-country course.

[33:21]

And then you ask yourself: is there any difference in breed? No, not really. You’re going to see your same Warmbloods — Selle Français, Hanoverian, Irish Sport Horses, Holsteiners — all your usual suspects that you see in dressage and show jumping trained as an eventer. But you do see your Thoroughbreds, even some Arabians. At entry level, you’ll see some Quarter Horses doing this, other breeds, your ponies — you’re going to see all sorts of different types of horses do eventing. But again, at the top levels, we’re looking at those specific breeds.

[34:10]

Now, if we go back to the Olympics — because this is a sport at the Olympics — who won, what breeds? Well, Julia Krajewski out of Germany rode Amande de B’Neville — Selle Français mare — she won gold. Tom McEwen rode Toledo de Kerser — Great Britain — Selle Français gelding. And then Andrew Hoy on Vassily de Lassos from Australia — guess what breed? Out of Australia, now — we do, down in this part of the world — I had a Hanoverian the other day, leading him around, he was a great show jumping horse — this was a gelding out of Australia who won bronze medal in eventing — Anglo-Arabian. How about that? That is one of our crossbreeds of Thoroughbreds and Arabians. So, like I said, even though these Warmbloods and some of these other specialty breeds are at the top of their game, you do see other breeds get in there and be part of the action.

[35:18]

If we look at the top competitors today in 2023 — one of the top riders, Oliver Townend out of Great Britain, is riding an Irish Sport Horse, that’s one of his top horses he’s riding right now. Rosalind Canter out of Great Britain — she’s riding a British Sport Horse. And then Boyd Martin from the United States is riding an American Trakehner. So those are your top eventers right now. You can see in eventing, you do see more breeds coming in, being able to compete at these top levels because it’s intense. That is an intense sport.

[35:54]

Those are your big three — those are your big three English disciplines. Today, I talked about it in the history of sport — how so many people around the world are competing in those events every weekend. You’re seeing horse trailers up and down the highways wherever you live — those are people going to all of these different sports. Switching gears a little bit — going to racing. Don’t need to spend much time here as far as Thoroughbred racing, Quarter Horse racing, Standardbreds that are trotters and pacers pulling that cart or sulky. You have Arabians racing, mule racing, Appaloosa racing all throughout the world and other breeds. So usually around a track or a certain distance — pretty much any horse in the world can race. Ponies can race, right?

[36:42]

Endurance racing is a whole different ball game. Now again, any horse should be able to go distance with rest and water and food, but your endurance horses are some of the most incredible, heartiest horses on the planet. Before I get going on that, there is always a concern with welfare. It’s in the news — any equine news websites you see always talk about concerns with welfare at official competitions. Especially FEI — veterinarians have to be registered, and they are specialized in endurance horses that check on these animals to make sure they are sound and they don’t have any injuries, or they’re there in case a horse does get injured. That has been a big concern with endurance, but welfare has been addressed quite a bit, especially at these top levels of competition.

[37:48]

Race distances go anywhere from 25 to 100 miles, or 40 to 160 kilometers, so it depends on the type of race. I’ve mentioned this one before — the most extreme is the Mongolian Derby, and that’s 1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles. It is the toughest horse race in the world — it’s the longest. Again, it dates back to the messenger system from the Mongol Empire 800 years ago. Horses are changed every 40 kilometers, or 25 miles. I listened to my friend talk about that race and how incredibly hard it was — you just imagine the endurance it took of her to ride and do that race, but then the horses. But again, those horses are changed every 25 miles. These are your Mongolian horses — your tough, hardy ones — and they just have to have the conformation to withstand those long distances.

[38:49]

So stamina is the big one. Then, they’ve got to have a strong back, well-muscled and well-sloped shoulders, strong hindquarters, and just an overall well-balance of the horse so that going over these distances, those faults don’t become injuries. They’ve got to be resilient, have a good temperament, efficient gaits — because if you’re trotting or walking or even maybe cantering or galloping certain stages, you’ve got to be efficient in how they use their energy to be able to go these distances. Adaptable — like I said, in the rain and in the sunshine. Hydration — these are horses that need to drink well, maintain their hydration. Not too big, not too small, and be a healthy body condition score — an overall hardy, hardy horse.

[39:50]

Any horse can be an endurance riding horse, but if you look at specific breeds — one that we’ve gone back to from the very beginning when we started talking about breeds — your Arabian horses. One of the hardiest horses on the planet, growing up in that harsh desert environment where there wasn’t a lot of grassland. One of the most popular breeds in the world, like we’ve talked about — incredible endurance racers. Anglo-Arabians — so that’s introducing the Thoroughbreds, but again Thoroughbreds’ origin — Oriental-type horses — so they can go long distances. Right next to Anglo-Arabian — Akhal-Teke — that beautiful, metallic-coated horse that’s just jaw-dropping gorgeous. Those ones — great for endurance racing. Your Barbs from North Africa — again, a hardy horse used to the harsh environments of hot weather desert. Then we go to our Mustangs from the Wild West of the United States — originated from domestic horses brought over during Spanish colonization of the Americas. They got loose, able to survive in the harsh arid regions of the United States, so they’re very hardy.

[41:06]

Your Morgans, your Appaloosas, Paint Horses, Quarter Horses — maybe, yeah sure, you can see that. Tennessee Walking Horses — sure, those types of horses could do it too. I mean, you can see any type of breed, but your most successful are going to be those ancient Arabian-type, Oriental-type horses — those are the ones that tend to do well. To kind of finish out this podcast, the one I just kept thinking — okay, what about, what’s another sport we haven’t talked about? — and that’s driving. So these are horses that pull carriages, right? And there are events throughout the world with driving. And I wanted to bring it up because also in Paralympics, driving is a big one, and it allows children and adults with disabilities to compete at the top, top levels. It’s incredible. The horses are incredible. It looks fun — really a very popular sport around the world. Takes a special kind of horse or team of horses to do this.

[42:15]

So here’s some new breeds that we haven’t really talked about, and one of the top ones is the Hackney Horse or Hackney Pony. I have had the pleasure of working with a Hackney mare — talk about hot-blood, flighty — wow, gorgeous. We had a Hackney stallion — this was back during my graduate school days in California. Dr. Ann Rodiek — she loved the Hackney Horse. She liked to drive quite a bit, and we had a couple, and just very flighty but wow — intelligent, incredibly intelligent horse. Beautiful, and so they’re ones that you see for their high-stepping animated trot as they pull these carriages.

[42:58]

Friesian horses — one of our coldblooded. The feathering on the legs, gorgeous dark coats, black coats, beautiful manes and tails. They are also seen quite a bit in driving. Shetland Ponies — I think we talked about them a little bit — you can see them pulling some carriages. The Welsh Ponies, Morgan Horses we’ve talked about. American Saddlebreds — one of those ambling, gaited horses. The Dutch Harness Horse. Your draft horses. Miniature horses pull little carts and carriages. And then one that’s really fun is the Gypsy Vanner — I’ve seen a few of those. Talk about one of the most unique-looking breeds on the planet — luxurious manes and tails. They are just, wow, some of the most incredible-looking horses you will see. So do yourself a favor and Google a Gypsy Vanner Horse if you’ve not seen one — really pretty.

[44:03]

Now, if we look at the top levels of competition — this is just one of my favorite names for a horse — Mad Max 81, one of the horses driven by Boyd Exell out of Australia. It’s an Oldenburg horse. He’s also using some Dutch Warmbloods, so there you see them pop up. Bram Chardon’s another top one from the Netherlands, both using Dutch Warmbloods — some of the top riders according to the FEI website. That brings me to the final one — I had to bring this up because we started with the story of Lis Hartel — and this is the therapeutic riding breeds. Not talking about specifically competing, but these are breeds that, or horses, that are used for equine-assisted therapy. This is becoming a recognized way of therapeutic intervention that helps with the physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral challenges that many of us face.

[45:06]

And one of the things that you want to look for in a therapeutic riding horse is their calm demeanor. Now, there are physical therapists, riding instructors, and trained professionals that do therapeutic riding, so if you’re interested in that, you can always look in your local area for a trained specialist. But the horses they use just need to be calm — bombproof is what I always say — patient, kind. When you ride them, it’s comfortable. And so, one of the top horses is the American Quarter Horse. They’re just bred for that gentle nature. Even though they’re still kind of considered a hot-blooded horse, in any breed you’re going to find horses with flighty behaviors and whatnot, but overall your American Quarter Horse is one of those. And that goes with the Paint Horses as well — similar backgrounds. Morgan Horses — similar backgrounds. Haflingers — another one we haven’t really talked about — known for their kind temperament. Gypsy Vanner — you see that here. Your Welsh Ponies again, your Tennessee Walking Horses. You know, even Arabians — I’ve worked with some flighty ones, I’ve worked with some really bombproof ones. And then the final one today — Pony of the Americas — very versatile pony breed. They look like, some of the ones I’ve seen look like Appaloosa — tiny Appaloosas. I go back to my good friend at Texas A&M, Max — her little POA, Pony of the Americas that she had — I think he stood maybe 13 hands. He was tiny, but oh, he’s a beautiful horse and he was fun to work with.

[46:48]

And I would say any horse that is just sweet as can be could make a good therapeutic riding horse, because you’re putting children and adults on the back that may have trouble staying on, and so you want a horse that’s very calm. This podcast is in honor of Lis Hartel. When I first read this story, my jaw hit the ground. She has done a lot for therapeutic riding. The Paralympics began in 1960, but then again in 1996 the Paralympic equestrian sport began, so you had para-dressage in honor of Lis Hartel. And you have para-driving, and the FEI brought para-equestrian sport under its umbrella in 2006, so they have organized competitions throughout the world. And if you can just imagine being paralyzed and fighting through that, and within three years you’re back at the top of your game — Lis Hartel’s story has just got to leave you in complete awe, doesn’t it?

[48:02]

[Music] Well, that completes our two-podcast series on performance breeds, and probably something worth revisiting in lesser-known sports — like in pulling, or big Shire horses, or some of the muscle competitions — and then we haven’t even really touched upon culture classes and what they’re looking for there, and how they differ from, say, a show jumping horse. So it’s definitely a topic we need to expand on more. But trying to keep this under an hour — because again, I can talk all day — I could just talk about Lis Hartel all day. Like, holy smokes, what an incredible story.

[48:42]

If you’re enjoying the podcast, please don’t forget to subscribe. And if you’re at this point listening and you haven’t given a five-star rating, it means so much to us, and it means a lot to me. It helps get the circulation out, helps us get in front of other people’s faces — they go, “Oh, I want to listen to that, I want to learn about horses.” Helps grow our sports and our industry and spread the word on how incredible these animals are. Because I think for the last hundred years, the majority of the world maybe has kind of forgotten about horses, and they are making a comeback, and they are important to all of us.

[49:21]

And you can also help big time with sharing on social media one of your favorite episodes — that’s how podcasts grow, it’s through word of mouth. A big thank you from the bottom of my heart if you can do that, and you’re part of the story — so you’re helping grow and be part of these animals’ lives. Again, don’t forget to go to madbarn.com — free education, “Learn” link, articles, tons of them. I’m going to link some in the show notes as we go, and more stuff’s coming in the future — we’ve got more stuff in the works. Social media — check us out on TikTok. I’m starting to put TikTok videos out, going around New Zealand — so if you want to see where I live, see some beautiful backgrounds, I’m trying to find ones just around me, and then as I expand out across the country, kind of give you a tour as I talk about horses. Check us out on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. And any comments or any topics you want to hear more about, you can always email me at podcast@madbarn.com. But thank you for listening, and stay tuned for next week — more stuff coming your way. [Music]