I do not have a scientific answer to your question, sorry. I do have an intuitive one based on experience, however. I ride the ride my horse is ready for. Now let me first say that my first 50 was on an exceptional horse I had conditioned for his rider who finished Tevis in 7th place a month before. He was a Serafix grandson top and bottom and a talented athlete to say the least. We made a deal for me to condition the horse for Tevis (his rider lived out of the area and I lived on the Tevis trail) that included me getting to do my first ride on him after Tevis.
I have brought more than 10 horses to the point of their first 50..some for myself and some for others.
What I CAN tell you is this: Do not bring a horse to a 50 until you can go out and do a 25-30 mile training ride on moderate terrain similar to the ride you are planning to do. In my personal opinion, you should be able to do that training ride trotting all the terrain that is trottable (not rocky, not steep downhill) and recover to 60 within just a few minutes when you stop trotting.
What that translates to around our terrain (last 20 miles of the Tevis trail) is about 70-80% of the time we are trotting. Recently I took a group of 4 riders on such a training ride, planning for a "vet check" at a place on the trail where I knew there was a hose and green grass. Each rider had brought a mash of sorts for their horse and we stopped for about 20 minutes or so. Our ride was in the heat, and we trotted all the terrain we could. We calculated we traveled 30 miles that day. All the horses looked great after the ride. I remember being asked by one rider, "Are we going to be out here all day?"...I smiled, and said, "Yes..?" She did fine, it was just already getting hot at about 9am.
So, Kathy..watch your horse, do your homework..e-lyte (with knowledge) if you believe in doing so, and above all else, "Have fun!"
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne
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> Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 14:38:21 -0400 > From: kramspott@xxxxxxxxxxx > To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [RC] First 50 > > Just curious. If any of you can remember long long ago doing your first > 50 on a horse thats done a 25 or 30 miler roughly what percentage of the > time is spent walking/trotting and cantering? I think a while back > someone mentioned the mile per hour average only has to be around 5 and > of course it would depend on terrain and heat but what would a rough > gauge be? 80% trot? > > Thanks, > Kathy > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > > 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!! > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >
