Hollander suggest a 6 hour 50 as the key. When you think about it if
they can do a 50 in 6 hours you won't want to do the first 50 of a 100
in that time. So say 7 hours. Since the horse has done a 50 already he
won't do the second 50 in 7 hours so say 8 hours. Now depending on where
you ride you will most likely end up in the dark and you will slow down.
That adds an hour or two. Now your are looking at between 15 to 17 hours
out. Add 3 hours hold time and your are looking at 18 to 20 hours. That
leaves your with the necessary margin of time to get lost and still make
it ;-).
So a 6 to maybe 7 hour 50 seems to be a pretty good number to shoot for.
I think that's about right. I would add that you and your horse need to be able
to do 50 mile rides in seven hours or less AND not be exhausted at the end of
the ride -- still feel able to go back out. If you're making 50 in seven hours
but are completely hammered at the end, how are you going to do 50 more?
When I went through the mental timeline many years ago, I figured that
a 7 hour first 50 was a good number to shoot for in a 100 so in order
to do that and still have a "fresh" horse, one would like to be able
the horse to be able to do a six hour 50.
Clearly a six hour 50 may be fast on some trails - however, if a horse
has never done a 50 in less than say 9 hours - I think you would be
very hard pressed to finish a 100. The key is the horse have to be
capable to do a 6 hour 50 - not that he goes out and does that on every
trail every time out.
