Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I've done exactly one (count 'em, one!) 100 miler.  I, too, had heard that horses will sometimes hit a bit of a slump somewhere around the 60-80 mile mark, and then perk back up.  My horse never hit a slump; he was perky and forward the whole ride.  We rode alone off and on the first 40-50 miles, and were alone the last half of the ride.  But then, I never got to see any of the hallucinations at 3 or 4 am that 100 milers talk about, either, and I'm definitely disappointed about that.  So maybe my ride was just unusual.  ;)

 

Dawn in East Texas

and Bear (who *hopes* Mom doesn't see any hallucinations - she freaks out enough when she hits a spiderweb!!)

 

On 10/31/06, Chrystal Woodhouse <Chrystal@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

HI :-) all this talk about 100's has got me thinking about  my first 100 I want to do next June, however I have  question/concern that has been buggin me for a few months. Last August I did 75 miles with my awesome Morgan mare, :-)  Miss T, :-) ;-) we had done  3 yrs of  25' s.CTR"s and a year and  a half of 50's before the 75. Anyway my rule for the day was to keep under 130 HR ( I think Angie gave me that advice) which we did, ,my mare was awesome and strong all day  but on the last loop she was TIRED!! That last 10 miles was just a slooow trot/walk , although she was tired on that last loop, she vetted out fine and the next morning was pulling me around the field. :-) I have read a few times that sometimes horses just can't go more than 75 miles, that is their personal limit, however I wonder if this happens to people/riders in general, I hope that had we kept on riding ( i.e doing a 100 so we would have had another 25 miles to go) she would have found her "second" wind. Does that happen? Or are 100 mile horses  fine the whole 100 miles?  I thought that pacing going under a 130 was slow enough but I am thinking for  a 100 I will try to go slower ,.( we did the 75 miles in just under 10 hours, not many hills but hot and humid and then a couple of thunderstorms during the day to keep things interesting. :-) So my question is are 100 mile horses consistent for the whole 100 miles or do they wax and wane? Also does having a "riding " buddy help in the last loop (s)?We tend to ride alone but I was wondering if she would have been perkier that last loop if another horse had been aorund. :-)