Of course, you must realize, I started at
the walk, 22 months ago. The poor horse thought I was killing him at
first, just walking up our hills. Puff, puff, pant, pant.....but
gradually, gradually, he started to muscle up, to improve his respiration.
It is only now, after a long time of legging up and conditioning that he is
increasing his speed. His escape from the effort which he felt was beyond
his capability, was to try loping. I checked him up, back to a walk or
trot. Loping was very non-productive. He is just about to reach
the end of the first two years of trail training and conditioning. It is
said it takes about three years to make an endurance horse. We'll see if
he's going to be successful at it. He's coming 8 years old.......he had a
slower start in life, for which I am glad. I don't believe in pushing a
horse that is too young.
In a message dated 04/13/2004 4:42:38 PM
Eastern Daylight Time, bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxx
writes:
I think
you will find that as your horse does more and more hills, his muscle mass
will increase and "pushing instead of pulling" will become natural. I
started a virtual flatlander 22 months ago and you should see him now!
He does a running walk up the steeper hills and a trot up the more moderate
ones. Time and conditioning will take care of this issue.
I have conditioned in the Mountains for years on
different horses. (All of which had no previous hill work) While
training it's best to walk up hills. This will build muscle. A
horse will naturally want to trot or run up a hill, it's easier on him.
You are right about time and conditioning. If you do this type of
training, the hill is where you will make up the most time and distance in an
event. While you are pushing up, your competitors will be pulling
up.
