Ridecamp: RE: [RC] Training ride epiphany

Adrenaline and start aside...12 miles in 75 minutes (1.25 hours) is only 9.6 mph. Sounds like your horse was nicely warmed up from the 5 mile "pre-ride," so that's good. At least you didn't start at that speed cold. :)

I am training Tanna and we are approaching the 9 mph mark for the second loop of our longer (20-25 mile) training rides. (First loop is usually slower...more like 6 - 6.5 mph due to warm-up time.)

I'm no expert and I have NO endurance (50 milers) yet. I'm just in training. I would say it depends on your horse's conditioning if you overdid it or not (doesn't sound like it to me...sounds like you had a huge adrenaline rush, though. <gr>). But I wouldn't have a problem at all taking Tanna on a training ride at 9.5 mph. In fact, that's where we're at in training. At least as long as the 9.5 mph loop isn't farther than 12 or 13 miles at this point.

If you were galloping pretty much the whole way, I would have expected a higher mph than 9.6. For Tanna, that's a sustained medium canter.

Sounds like you have an excellent group to practice mass starts with, though. ;)

I also need to rate Tanna at a mass start. He does well enough in certain situations, but I've never taken him to an endurance start, so I'll probably get quite an experience at our first one (now pushed out to April due to "cutbacks" at work).

April
Nashville, TN

PS. Makes me want to take my horse and go for a nice long training ride...Thanks for the post! :)

Jennifer Judkins <jenjudkins@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
>start 'or something like that). ?Anyway, the horses were feeling good and off we all went trotting down the trail together. ?Well, trotting turned to cantering, then to galloping and I can honestly tell you I had no control of my horse for a good 10 minutes. ?Finally we hit some water which forced a break in the pace. ?Long story short, we ended up finishing 12 miles in a breath-taking 75 minutes.
> ?Spent most of my energy keeping my horse in a gallop (versus a 'dead gallop') and making sure my head stayed attached to my head.

<snip>
>So here's what I learned on this ride: I'm not ready for a mass start-need better control of my horse's brain for that kind of competition.

__________________________________________________________________
The NEW Netscape 7.0 browser is now available. Upgrade now! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp 

Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=