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[RC] "conditioning" - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: ti tivers@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== So.............after the interval training & the long rides when is enough, enough? When do I stop "conditioning" my mare and let her rest? What do people who ride 50 miles fairly regularly do? I KNOW my mare needs a break as she is not as excited about going out as she used to ( though has awesome hr's :-)) but I am wondering how long? And for the future, how often should she have a big break? At this point we are riding 80 km's ( 50 miles) a week( over 3 or 4 days) - with 3 or 4 days off, then we start again. We have done lots of CTR'S and our first 50 in July, we are now looking at doing two more 50's before the season is over, my gut instinct is to ride her lots this wknd ( being a long wknd and everything:-)) and then pretty much give her the next two weeks off before our next 50. Am I making sense??:-) Thanks for any and all help! Chrystal :-) :-) > Your gut instinct is off the mark. You're at the beginning of a long progressively loaded conditioning process. And conditioning of the athlete never stops. Still, you never upgrade stressors (distance, speed, more complex terrain, etc.) more than just a little more than the horse accomplished last week. A suddenly hard work today, or this weekend,followed by two weeks off, is the perfect setup for tying up and colic--and poor performance. If your horse shows ANY signs of exercise intolerance, including what you're observing as "needs a rest", you're trying to do too much, too soon. While it appears that you are doing enough work to accommodate a 50 competition, it also appears that this workload is implemented arbitrarily. Competitions can be integrated into the overall conditioning process, but not if they require special preparation due to the fact that the horse is already showing signs of exercise intolerance. Any horse that needs two weeks off actually needs to start all over again. On the other hand, it appears that you're not monitoring what you're doing closely enough to make an intelligent decision about changes in daily workload. At least, the details of what you are doing and what you are seeing are completely missing from your post No one can offer useful advice based on the facts given. Here are some questions that require answers in order to make such decisions: What does the horse weigh today and what is its body weight history? What is the daily feed intake, in lbs and components? How far, how fast, and at what heartrates is your horse working right now--for example, what exercise has the horse accomplished, day to day, for the past month? Do you have a training log? What lameness/medical conditions are being addressed? At what speeds and over what terrain will the upcoming competitions be taken? ti =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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