I guess what so amazes me about this is the Horses are so powerful and yet takes so long for them to fully recover from the effort the put out on a race.
I wonder what the equivalent would be for a human? What action would they have to engage in which would take a month to recover from? The first thing coming to mind is a prize fight but that’s physical abuse in the sense people are whaling on each other while a Horse race is more akin to a foot race. Do long distance runners take a month to recuperate fully? I have no idea but it is very interesting and I thank you for your answer.
I can only guess that running a marathon or scaling Mt. Everest would be equivalent. In my opinion, horses are coddled too much. If not for the speed they’re expected to go at, American horses would race more often. Some do, but horses of Triple Crown caliber make more money at stud than in racing, so the incentive is to baby them. Not that long ago, Standardbreds, or Harness racing horses would run heats, sometime 2 or 3 in ONE DAY. The Grand National, in England, is 4 miles over 30 fences, but the average speed is much slower.