Page 72 - March 2017

2016 APHA World Champion Ivoriona
A race horse with little lateral or medial deviation will have more speed since the legs do not swing out of line much and there is no wasted motion. Fractions of a second can be made up with each stride over the course of the race.
2-time 2016 Champion EC Jet One
Correct conformation can help determine whether a horse can withstand race training. A horse is less likely to have problems if the front angles are correct, and a strong hind end with efficiency of motion will help deliver speed.
What a horse inherits for talent, conformation, and muscle type makes the biggest difference in what distance he can run.
Thoroughbred blood into the Quarter running horses—Thoroughbreds that had the ability to create a fast Quarter Horse that could sustain that speed for a distance. The horses that can run 870 tend to be that type of horse,” he says.
“I recently had a big 17-hand Quarter Horse that looked just like a Thoroughbred. A friend of mine at El Paso wanted to buy the horse and make him into a dressage horse. So, I ended up having that horse at my place in Texas and ran him. He broke his maiden and won, running 350 yards, which really amazed me (because
he looked like a distance horse) and I think he won four races—including some at 550 yards, and he might have won at 870 as well. But when I looked at that horse, it seemed like he was registered in the wrong breed because he looked a lot more like a Thoroughbred than a Quarter Horse. He was fast at short distances (winning at 350 yards), but I am sure he could have carried that speed for three-quarters of a mile,” Casner says.
“The Quarter Horse breed has had Thoroughbred blood infused into it from the very beginning. Many of the early foundation horses were Thoroughbreds and a lot of them were from the Army Remount program. They were big, rugged horses and could carry a big person all day long on those Texas ranches. They were big-country horses,” he says.
When selecting a running horse, people generally study pedigrees and look for the Thoroughbred influences and speed. “If that element in the pedigree matches what you see with your eye when evaluating a horse, this gives an idea about what that horse might be able to do. The smaller Quarter Horse may not run as far as the horse with more stretch and leg,” he explains.
“I also believe that the biomechanics of the rear end are absolutely paramount because the racehorse is rear-wheel drive! That horse needs a strong hind end with efficiency of motion. When I look at a young horse, it’s the rear end that I am most interested in; I want to see a horse that is very efficient, with no lateral or medial deviation that will diminish speed.” If the legs swing very much out of line, it can cost fractions of a second at each stride, and that time lost adds up over the course of the race.
“Angles of the hip and hind leg are probably the most important aspect in whether or not a horse will be successful on the racetrack. Some horses can overcome bad angles and still run well, but at the very highest level for speed
you won’t find horses that don’t have a good hip angle,” says Casner. If there is any wasted motion—wherever it might be in that leg—it takes more time to straighten that leg and move it forward again. Inefficiency will catch up
with that horse, adding more fatigue as well as reducing the overall speed.
“At the end of the day, however, what makes a good racehorse (whether Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred) is what we can’t see. It’s that intangible aspect of talent. You can have two horses standing side by side and one might be knock-your-socks-off beautiful and the other one you can pick apart with some faults, yet that second horse might be faster. There are no perfect horses and there are a lot that are close to perfect that never do run well. They sell big because they look good, but they can’t run.”
Some of the plainer horses may surprise you because they put it all together. “They have the talent, the proper physiology, and the gumption— that try. They want to run and want to be at the head of the pack. Many horses will run, but don’t really try to be at the front. The safest place to be in a herd is in the middle, and a lot of horses are con- tent to do that; they have no interest in getting out in front. It doesn’t matter how much talent they have. I’ve had dozens of horses that were incredibly talented, but they just didn’t have the gumption to want to be ahead of the pack,” he explains.
“There are superior individuals that have great talent, good biomechanics, and great cardiovascu- lar attributes, but the most important thing is that they have the desire to run at the front of the pack,” says Casner.
70 SPEEDHORSE, March 2017
equine health
Bee Silva
Linda Earley