What constitutes a LARGE meal? Forage? What type and how
much? Concentrate? How much and what kind?
What constitutes "working them hard"?
Horses have been moving down the trail and eating around the clock since,
well, since they've been horses. It is kinda the nature of the
design.
If someone wants to feed a "large" meal, and then get on Ol Shep and (in
the parlance many endurance riders seem to favor these days) "boogie" down the
trail, I'd consider:
1. The fitness level of the horse, more
pointedly, how do the horses systems respond to the type of work and timelines
being employed.
2. Is the horse used to eating and then
working?
3. Will the horse be asked to work and stay
in the aerobic zone, or will the horse be tasking anaerobically?
4. Did the horse have ample "opportunity" to
drink well after eating? (Note "opportunity" is not the same as actually
having drank. If you wait for the horse to drink while you're watching,
you might never get on the horse and get to conditioning.)
Looking for the right answers for YOUR horse is the key.
Being considerate of the horse is always a wonderful thing...but creating
hard and fast "rules" about this and that might actually be doing more harm than
good when one is trying "make" an endurance horse.
Truly understanding your horse and his responses to what it is
that is being asked is so very important. It is my opinion that if
the rider hasn't worked these things out before the horse is in
the throes of "working them hard", a more intimate and critical look
at things is needed.
ADAPTABILITY, and being given the opportunity to learn new things,
especially those things integral to participating in the sport of endurance is
always a good thing.
Sidenote: My horses eat and we go riding when I'm
ready. If I know they've just finished eating a good portion of hay and
sweet concentrate (grain, etc.)...I know how the conditioning should go THAT
day. (Typically, I wait an hour and a half or two hours if I know
we'll be doing length and intensity type of conditioning. If I'm just
going to go easy trot twelve to fifteen miles, I just go.)
Get to know YOUR horse and the fluid nature of "limitations based on
anecdotes garnered from CER (cyber-endurance-riding).
