Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The longest mileage days I have ever
done were on XP.  I love how people love to pick on multidays and
aren't smart enough to realize how many other rides are short.  I
rode a lot of rides last year, 45....and also rode the same horse a lot
of miles so it gave me a good gauge of the distance of various rides
(besides I've done enough full distance rides and with a GPS to have a
pretty good feel), and I can say without a doubt that the shortest rides
I did last year were not in the multidays.  

My horses have grown stronger by doing multidays---they are able to
maintain a steady pace all day long, which does get them thru the ride a
lot quicker.  Also, one of the lessons I learned last year from
riding slowly intentionally is that I can finish faster on a ride with
less vet checks, because more time is spent going steady.  When I
have ridden in the front, I have clocked the top multiday horses
averaging 12 to 14.5 mph for extended periods. In this last year, Chief
went from being able to average a 8 to 8.5 mph trot to doing 12
mph.  It took him a couple thousand miles to work up to that, and
he's still not as fast as my other horses but he still has a long way to
go <G>.    

Karen
West Region