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I have been working on conditioning my pony for an LD.  She is  
noticeably fitter and in better shape than she was a few months ago.

So, how can I tell when she's fit enough to attempt an LD?  She's not  
there yet, it's still a work in progress, but I was wondering this.

Here are some assumptions I'm working with, too, you can let me know  
if I'm mistaken.

- She needs to go at a 5 mph moving average in order to get a  
completion.

- She is a Mustang and built thicker than an Arab, so I'm going to  
assume her pulse-down rates will generally be slower than the little  
arabs I see trotting around.

- I don't actually have to ride 25 miles on a conditioning ride in  
order to think she can do an LD, or if I do, I can make it slower than  
a race.

Right now our longest conditioning ride has been 16.3 miles and it was  
done at a 4 mph rate.  Typical "short weekday workout" right now is 5  
or 6 miles done at between 5.0 and 5.2 mph.  This includes a warmup  
walking mile but not the cooldown mile.  If I include the cooldown  
mile in my rate, it goes down under 5 mph.

I don't use a HRM and my stethoscope broke a while back, but she's  
pretty good at letting me know when she's tired.  Good little pony.   
Handles uneven ground like a champ and just gets into her "work mode"  
and trucks along.   We did 10 miles over hills last weekend and  
included more cantering than we usually do because, when we weren't in  
crowds of hikers or on really nasty hills, we used some flat ground  
and good trail visibility to make up time.  She was pretty tired at  
the end, not like exhausted or anything just her walk got pretty slow  
even though we were headed back to the barn.

Thanks,
Betsy

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