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[RC] 5 mph average - shermanThe way to build up is to allow those heart rates to get high during a workout. How high does your horse get that you need to slow down to 2 MPH? I push my horse to walk faster downhill if he goes that slow. We can usually walk down a decent grade at 3.5-4.5 MPH, unless it's rutted or big rocks everywhere. When I started conditioning 4 years ago, we walked up the hills for about the first month, then we started jogging up partway, and within about 3 mos. were trotting up all the hills in my very local area. The hills are not long, but some are steep, between 6-12% easily. It's okay for the horse to have a high heart rate for short periods of time. We did not trot for such a long time that the horses were fatigued. Our rides were about 8-10 miles. After about 4 mos. we took a leap and started riding in the canyons. After I got a HRM, I discovered that my horse rarely went over 150 BPM unless he was being pulled by other horses, and then only on an official ride, rarely on conditioning rides. I needed to push him on conditioning rides up to about 180 BPM occassionally for him to get stronger. Still, overall, my conditioning rides average MPH is usually 5.5. That includes times of galloping, walking, water stops, grazing, etc. I did nearly "turtle" at a couple of 50s, but I'm better at getting out of the vet checks now and have moved up just a bit. We trot as much as possible, walk when we have to and canter when we can.... Kathy This thread has been very interesting since I'm still too chicken to try a 50 with my Arab. This weekend we did a 3 day camp trip and rode every day. He has more energy at the end of every day but we have only been going 6 - 10 miles a ride. The problem as I see it with going slow lets say 5 mph average is hills. I work him on hills but it still really gets his heart rate and respiration up and it can slow an entire ride down to an average of only 2 mph. I"m in Georgia so these are NOT any major hills either. It would seem to me you'd have to do a lot less walking to be able to bring the average back up to finish in time. Kathy - SE =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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