Ridecamp: RE: [RC] Born to Trot?

 Having done 10k road races at both the "racing walk" pace and a slower job
I can tell you it was much harder for me personally to do the race walk than
to jog.  It tore up my knees and hips and was more physically draining.  I
can jog real slow for miles but race walking just about kills me.  Perhaps
it's the same theory for horses?

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Sofen
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 5/26/2002 1:03 PM
Subject: RE: [RC]   Born to Trot?

My older horse on flat to slight uphills, will canter at 12mph with a
105 heartrate for miles  versus a trot at the same speed pushing his hr
to 130-150.  I have to drop this horse to a 7-8 mph trot to keep his hr
below 120.
 
He is a natural cantering machine...we've cantered about 20 miles of an
easy 50 and do a fair amount of training at that gait.  When I've
allowed him to do an extended trot for longer distances (like at a ride)
or attempted to force him into doing them for longer distances in an
effort to increase his trot speed (during training), I discovered that
he would get muscle soreness (or perhaps the equiv of a tight hamstring)
in his hind quarters.  When I alternated trotting and cantering (as
Angie describes in her email), it worked much better for this horse.
 
Remember, when it comes to heartrates, absolute numbers are fairly
meaningless - only relative numbers count.  For horses bred for the
track (like mine), his max hr is up in the 215-220 range, while other
horses may never be able to break 200, and that's ok...that's their max
and it doesn't seem to correlate with better or worse physical ability
or stamina.  What is crucial in my use of an hrm is the recovery times -
if I do a trot or canter up a very steep hill and hit hr-max, once we
get to the top and stop, does he recover to under 110 within 90 seconds?
That's a broadly accepted bar.
 
If I put him into an extended exercise period right below his anaerobic
zone (on this horse, about 160), again, how long to recover?  This is
how I tell where he is in his conditioning cycle - the recovery numbers
keep improving until a plateau is reached.  After a while (a couple
years) I discovered I could tell without the hrm where he was
heartrate-wise.  However, coming in to a vet check, they are invaluable.
 
Mike
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Howard Bramhall
Sent: Sunday, May 26, 2002 9:31 AM
To: JUDYK89@xxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [RC] Born to Trot?


I'm hoping this gets lots of replies, because, according to my heart
rate monitor, I would definitely disagree with this, especially when
doing long distance riding.  But, since it's a new toy for me, I'm
counting on those of you who are the experts to challenge this one.
I've been assuming the extended trot is the way to go and that the
canter is what tires out your horse. With three of my guys I get numbers
in the 130's in the canter and the low 100's during the extended trot.
At least that's what the heart monitor has been telling me.



cya,

Howard (has no idea how you measure energy expended on a horse; are they
counting sweat droplets?)





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