Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The way I read the first post was this horse alredy comes with an issue - probably caused somewhat by being off the track. Like the original poster I would have been concerned that he had not learned the "skill" of drinking. The horse did the LBL 50 - which was not an easy ride and managed okay -but was dehydrated and lost a significant amount of weight - about 6% if he is an average size Arab. There, however, was plenty of water on the trail. From the few times I have monitered the SERA scale and looked at the forms - not very many horses lose 50 pounds. The average is about 3% of starting body weight. For example at that same ride my horse lost 8 pounds in the 50.

Starting with a fresh sheet of paper - starting with multidays might work for some, however, I personally would not do it since I want my horse well honed in the necessary skills before I increase the risk. While I think you can do too many 25's be they LD's or CTR's before you do a 50 - they are the very place to train your horse skills. Some people swear by CTR's (mostly 25 miles) to do this and if used correctly an LD can work just as well in teaching the horse the baisc skills, rating, drinking, following horses, being followed without kicking the other horse into next week, etc. I'm going to be starting two horses in the next year or so and my program is to start with very slow 25 LD - taking the whole time if necessary. Then once he/she is comfortable with that and well enough conditioned and he/she can comfortably do a 6 to 6.5  mph pace for 25 miles - move up to CTR's (that's the window for CTR's in FL.  Once he/she is he confortable with that stress level and has the skills in place to move up - a 50 mile endurance ride is next. I expect it will take about a year of CTR's or equivalent before either of my two guys will pass my test for being ready.

CTR's work well down her in the swamp and I know they are used a great deal in the upper midwest to get horses ready for endurance. LD's will work as well if they are used for that purpose.  I can tell you if you come to FL you will find several world class riders at the CTR's getting new horses prepared for an endurance career. They are an integral part of the training for these riders.

Before I double the stress on my horse by going twice as far I want him to be have the skills to be able to eaisly handle the stresses at the shorter distances - be that doubling 25 to 50 miles or 50 miles to 100 miles.

Cheers,
Truman

Jonni Jewell wrote:

I live in SE Tennessee and have been doing 25's on my 9 yr. old mare for
        

a couple of seasons.  She is off the track and she does go into race horse
mode at the endurance rides.  Trying to rate her speed is very hard and
tiring.<<<

But, IMO, the best thing for a horse like this would be to do the rides as
SLOW as possible, using ALL the time allowed. The longer the horse is out on
the trail, the more likely it will learn it has to eat and drink. If the
horse is zipping through 25's, and getting done in  few hours, it has not
had time to realize it needs to eat and drink, and take better care of
itself. It may be hard and tiring to rate a horse like this, but in the long
run, it will pay off, as you will have taught the horse how to take care of
itself on the trail. It will learn it does not know how long of a day this
is going to be, and it better drink when there is water, and eat when there
is food. If the rider gives in to its pulling and wanting to race, then when
you move up to longer distances, I feel your chances of metabolic crashes
have greatly increased.

I am really liking the idea of starting horses on Multi-day rides, going
slow, teaching them they need to conserve excess energy, as they might have
to go again the next day. I'll know how well this works after this summers
XP2004, with one of my horses that I am taking who has very limited
experience on rides. I will bet the first day he will be very excited about
the other horses on the trail, and want to GO. But he will learn to go slow,
and not be allowed to set the pace. Setting the pace is my job........

Jonni

  

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  For this reason, he has integrity. The person of inferior integrity

  never loses sight of his integrity.  For this reason, he lacks integrity."