I would not recommend that you ride that often. Of
course it depends on the length and relative difficulty of the ride as to how
often. I would probably start with five or so miles of slow to moderately paced
trail work, depending on the condition of the horse. Maybe twice during the week
and then a longer ride on the weekend. Take a few weeks to work up to moderate
to faster paced trail work. Perhaps four or five hours on the weekend ride, and
maybe two hours during the week. Try to find varying terrain with some gentle
hills and perhaps steep ones of short duration to start. Even walking up the
steep hills is difficult work in the beginning and is good for building cardio
vascular fitness.
For goodness sake, don't get so ambitious that you
override your horse. You want her to enjoy going out with you. I think some
people make the mistake of making it drudgery for themselves and the horse. 25
miles should not be difficult for a horse that has been conditioned properly.
Remember that you have plenty of time and just try to maintain a conistent pace
rather than rushing and walking and speeding up again. This is also harder on
the horse.
I think it would be well worth your while to
invest in some of the books on the market written specifically for endurance and
read the AERC handbook. It gives quite a bit of information.
Most valuable of all assets is to find an
experienced endurance rider and go out for rides with them. It is amazing how
much you will learn just by enjoying a day on the trail with them. Once
conditioned, it should not be necessary to concentrate so on how often you
train. If you have built condition slowly, and if you are entering endurance
rides on a fairly regular basis, the rides themselves will serve to help
maintain condition and you can back off of concentrating on training several
days a week.
....and most important of all......enjoy your time
with your horse.
Pat
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 12:34
AM
Subject: Re: [RC] leasing and how many
days a week do you ride for a 25?
Well, the lease thing
fell through with my horse. I was going to put an ad in the paper, but
I'm having second thoughts. I have spent a lot of time training this
mare, and would hate to have someone screw that up. I want to do a 25 in
about 3 months. I have read that I need to be riding 5 days a week.
Does anyone agree/disagree with this?
Pamela
