Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

You don't mention how fast you are doing the 5-7 miles (how long it takes 
you) or what the terrain is like on the 5-7 miles.  You also don't mention 
how often you are doing this 5-7 miles a week.  There was a great article in 
EN last month or the month before on fitness evaluation.  It might be on the 
AERC website under education articles.  You might find reading that helpful.

With the information you give, my suggestion is not to increase speed and 
distance at the same time.  If you are going to add to the distance you are 
riding be sure to go slower as you add more miles.  I would also try to 
figure out if what you perceive as dead tired is an attitude or boredom or 
if your horses is really not able to handle the distance you are riding 
(because of speed or type of terrain).  Use of a stethascope or HR monitor 
can be really useful in this situation.  After you finish your 5-7 miles, 
see how long it takes your horse to recover to 64 BPM.  In general if the 
horse takes under 4 minutes it means the horses is working under it's 
capabilities, if it takes between 5-7 minutes it is working within it's 
capabilities and if it takes over 7 minutes you are probably working over 
it's aerobic capabilities.  These are just general numbers but should give 
you an idea of how the work load is effecting your horse.

Getting a better understanding on how to use heart rates to evaluate a 
fitness level will help in finding out whether there might be a physical 
factor involved in the horse's attitude or if this is just part of the 
horse's personality.

Kim





> >   Now that I have a saddle that fits my horse, I am going to start
> > conditioning for our debut in the spring.  But, I've only been doing 5-7 
> > mile
> > rides, mostly walking, some trotting.  My horse acts dead tired at the 5 
> > mile
> > mark.  Do I need to continue these short rides untill she doesn't act 
> > tired
> > before bumping her up to 8 or 10 miles?  She is 6yo BTW, and only under
> > saddle for the past 6 months.
> >
> >   Susan in NV
> >
> >
> >
> >   Happy High Desert Trails
> >
> >   Susan in NV
> >   Nevermore Ranch http://users.oasisol.com/nevermore/
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >   Do you Yahoo!?
> >   Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.
>
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