Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

On 10/5/07, Donna Deyoung <skyhorseranch@xxxxxxx> wrote:

the example assumes that you are riding forward at a minimum pace for 10.5 hrs and never stop or pause to give your horse water, let him graze for a minute, take a break other than vet cks, etc.

 

Donna, as a previous poster noted, some horses can *walk* 4.76 mph...I have a little 14.2h gelding who can walk 5 mph (GPSed speed) without even exerting himself.  So if one does some trotting, and an easy trot is around 7-8 mph, then that increases one's average speed considerably...leaving plenty of time for water stops, grass breaks, pee breaks (for horse and rider <G>), etc. 

I've been doing long, slow recreational distance riding for many years. I want to give endurance riding a try. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my mind around the speed. maybe I will surprise myself.

 

I think you just might!  Give it a try...when I was just getting started, someone told me, you'll be amazed at how far your horse can go.  And I was...we finished our first LD (25 miler) with 15 minutes to spare.  We did some trotting, but a whole lot of walking, too.  In fact, we walked the entire first 3 miles, because the new friend I'd just met at the start was on her and her horse's first ride, and her horse was spazzing out and she didn't want to trot. 

PS. I own a half-draft (don't intend on riding her in endurance) and I highly doubt she could finish a 50 mile ride in 12 hrs in Texas. Maybe up north. And my Andalusians would roll their eyeballs and faint if I suggested it. Not that they couldn't do it, I just doubt they have the desire. :) the task is left up to my newly acquired Peruvian...he likes to go, but his little legs don't cover alot of ground!

 

Go for it...my husband's Paso Fino is not big (14.2h) and does just fine.  He's completed a 50 miler in 6:41, although we usually putter along more slowly.  He just did 55 miler that had a fairly strenuous middle loop, and some good climbs on the other two loops, in 8:48...and that was with a LOT of stops for grass, water stops, stopping for me to puke from the heat <G>, and walking for quite awhile to let my stomach settle. 

 

Dawn Carrie, Texas