endurance

[horsecrazysarah]

Hi
Is there anyone here who does endurance riding? I ride western just for fun and to spend time with my horse, but I've always thought that endurance riding would be fun. I have a 9 yr. morgan/ quarter horse gelding who loves to go to new places in the hills, mts., you name it, and when we do he has lots of energy and stamina, but the most we can do around here is go for long rides in the hills behind us. But sometimes, he gets to where he is panting, but always wants to keep going. I'm sometimes worried that he might get dehydrated or something and collapse because there is no water in the hills. I ride him or lunge him AT LEAST 4 times a week. What kind of training and work has to be done for endurance riding and how much? Also, what is it like? lol :)

Thanx :)

[Waikato Valuta]

I'm doing my first ride in two weeks. :D

So I don’t have any experience but I can tell you what I have been told.

With training you start with a legging up period witch is just walking and is done 6 days a week. Start with just 30min and build up to 2hrs of energetic walking up and down hills.

Obviously if your horse is all ready being ridden a lot this can be skipped.

Then you do the fitness part where you build up your periods of trotting by just 5-10min per day. So that you start with 1.5hrs walking and 30min trotting. And finish with 1.5hrs trotting and 30min walking. Don’t trot in one lump spread it out. This is done 5 times a week. And can also have periods of cantering and gallops.

Then there is the keeping the horse fit stage. As an endurance horse needs a lot of time to repair its body the time you work it will be decreased to 4 days a week. And this will be about 2hrs trotting and 30min walking.

Depending on how long the ride you intend doing is you may not need to do as much as this or you may need to do more but this is good to have a horse really ready to tackle a 40km-80km ride.

[entreat]

Something else to think about when planning his training is his recovery rate. In an endurance race, you have 30mins for your horse's vital signs (heart rate, breathing, hydration) to return to an acceptable level. You can check these things during your training to find out how ready he is for an actual endurance ride, or how much training (and what type) you need to work on.

My OH is doing his first endurance ride with WV, and I had to explain a few times about fitness & building endurance muscles because OH had Pippin cantering everywhere!! He thought that because we had limited time before the ride, he could achieve more fitness by cantering. Incorrect! Cantering encourages the growth of 'fast twitch muscle fibres', or Sprinting fibres. It's great for a high speed horse race, but endurance is about completion, not competition. You want to do slow work to develop 'slow twitch fibres' (endurance fibres) but lots of walking and trotting.

You're bound to have a local endurance club/association that can give you lots of good tips on how to get your horse started (even though he sounds like a great candidate for the sport!)

[horsecrazysarah]

Thank you both for the info. It really puts endurance riding into perspective for me. I'm not involved in much with my horse, actually nothing at the moment. I'd really like to, I just need to look into what is available in my area.

Thanx again! ;)

[virtuallyhorses]

Our local endurance clubs have 'have a go' days. Very informal and if it's your first time you can hook up with little groups (3-6) of riders on the day at your level and do a 10k ride and see what it's all about. You might find the same thing with your local CTR clubs. 10k is quite within the capabilities of most horses even with light fitness.

Check out your local clubs - there's serious endurance competitions and CTR which is usually a bit more relaxed. The training rides can be used to get your horse fitter and you gain points toward various levels of competition if you want to take it further.

[horsecrazysarah]

what are CTR clubs?

[virtuallyhorses]

Sorry - Competitive Trail Riding. It's a step down from endurance. There's also a sport called Ride and Tie and Le Trec is a sort of trail riding sport. Take a look at my Distance Riding (http://worldzone.net/recreation/virtuallyhorses/endurance.html) page - as well as explaining the various sports it also has links to various endurance sports clubs and associations - which should hopefully link to something local to you :)

[horsecrazysarah]

thank you, I'll check it out :)

[entreat]

OOH! Le Trec!! That sounds like fun!! If I remember right, it has three components: Endurance, orienteering, and something similar to an obstacle course! It's pretty hard work for horse & rider, but it's a great test for you both!

Australia has 'have a go' days for endurance, but are usually 20km. It's funny VH said 10kkm, 'cause most of our hacks are 10km anyway!!

[parker88]

Hi, My name is Abbe and im 16 years old. I have actaully competed with Endurance GB 4 3 years. Its a great thing 2 do but very tiring for your 1st few Rides. To find out more about endurance riding go to www.endurancegb.org.uk and that will tell you what it is all about and how to get started as there are different ride speeds and milages that you can do .I dont compete anymore, the reason being i dont have a horse to ride or to do it on, as i rode for someone else. But if i had the chance i would defiently do it again. It keeps you very fit.lol!!
Good Luck with it and i hope you enjoy it, cause its a great thing to do.
Abbe xxx

[virtuallyhorses]

Originally posted by entreat

Australia has 'have a go' days for endurance, but are usually 20km. It's funny VH said 10kkm, 'cause most of our hacks are 10km anyway!!

Yep, Ours do 10km for first timers and others can do either 10 or 20km rides. Then on 'normal' training or ride days they ride anything 20,40 or 80k rides and get points etc

When I'm out on our weekend rides I'll often do the 10km courses as part of one of our hacks if I see them marked for an event.