Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> Perhaps the difference of opinion that we are seeing here is a
> difference in our definitions of intensity training.  When I refer to
> intensity training, _I_ am talking about increasing the stresses on the
> musculoskeletal system. I find the cardiovascular system to be totally
> irrelevant, since if you are doing enough to stress but not doing too
> much to overstress the musculskeletal system, you are doing more than
> enough to build a completely adequate cardiovascular system.  I don't go
> out and gallop up hills to build the heart and lungs; I go out and
> gallop up hills to build muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments, etc.  The
> fact that this also builds the heart and lungs is a "happy accident."
> :):):)
To put this another way, the cardiovascular system is usually the quickest
system to condition.  So yes, generally the cardiovascular system
conditioning in interval training is the icing on the cake, even though it
is the one that produces numbers that you can measure.  Bottom line--you
have to have a REALLY good "feel" for how fit the bones, tendons, and
ligaments are before you add more stress, since they DON'T produce numbers
that you can look at on a monitor.  And unless you REALLY have a good base
on the horse, it is apt to be the tendons and ligaments that bear the
brunt of the interval training, even if your HRM is telling you that
"everything is fine" with the cardiovascular system.  I'd far rather plan
my intervals based upon the horse's previous history than on his HRM
reading--granted, if the HRM reading is too high, you are likely going too
fast and too hard, but if it is "fine," that doesn't mean that everything
else is fine.

> If you want to build the butt muscles to handle sustained exercise at
> speed through sand, heart rate is virtually irrelevant...but if you DO
> the appropriate conditioning of the butt muscles to be able to handle
> sustaned exercise at speed through sand, then I guarantee you, you will
> have built more than enough cardiovascular conditioning in the process,
> but if you were to do this type of intensity training with an endurance
> horse that already had a "cardiovascular base" on it by working it to
> its HR max/recovery that you will rip your horse's suspensory aparatus
> to shreds.
Basically, you have to condition every muscle group to do what you will
ask it to do.  One of the most interesting tie-up cases I ever saw at a
ride was on a REALLY fit little QH mare, who had been conditioned almost
exclusively in mountains.  She Top Tenned a ride that was very flat,
trotting full out for 50 miles, and had truly outstanding recoveries.  A
couple of hours post-ride, she presented with what we initially thought
was a colic, given her posture and discomfort--but her gut sounds were
normal.  We finally realized that her abdominal muscles were tied up
tighter than tight--the steady trotting and the fact that she had good
self-carriage and rounded well put a stress on her abdominal muscles that
she had never put on them in her hill work, where she could constantly
vary muscle groups.  For all of her cardiovascular fitness, she had a set
of muscles that had not been conditioned for the job she was asked to do.

Heidi



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