I try to work my horses every 2nd or 3rd day - shoot for 5 conditioning
rides in a 2 week period. One 10 to 20 mile ride, and the rest under
10 miles each - some hills and sprints, and at least one ride that
is just relaxing - whatever the horse is 'happy' doing. When I can
make myself do it we do 10-15 minutes of arena work before the short
rides.
Once the ride season is under way, we ride even less. I have found that
a two-week layoff after a hard ride can result in a very enthusiastic
horse next time we go out. And I think the layoffs are necessary for
keeping the horses sound - a minor twist or bruise can become a
major lameness without allowing time for tissue repair.
The only problem with this kind of schedule is that I need at least
two horses so I can still go out riding with friends and exploring
new trails!
Steph
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> On May 31, 1:05pm, Stephanie Greenway wrote:
>> Subject: conditioning
>>
> <snip>
>> race. A friend of mine who rode endurance in CA, said that the
>> best way is to do six days of work, one day rest. She also
>> said that it is important to exercise fast and slow twitch
>> muscles. In other words, one should alternate the types of
>> workout every other day. One day the goal is to work for
>> several hours at the walk on the trail in order to build
>> endurance. The second day would involve plenty of trotting and
>> cantering to build better lung capacity for stamina.
> <snip>
>> Stephanie *&* Mahni
> Hi Stephanie,
> I'm by no means an expert endurance rider compared to some of
> this crowd, but here's my $.02 anyway!
> When I started training Shatirr, my "mentors" were of the
> mindset to train a horse 5 or 6 days a week, and I ended up
> putting as many as 65 miles a week on my poor little arab. Hard
> miles, lots of climbing. Walk 10 to 15 miles (hills) on day
> one, trots and canters, on flat, 8 to 10 miles on day two,
> repeat day one, repeat day two, repeat day one, then on the 6th
> day do 25 to 30 miles of interval work. Rest on the 7th.
> Well, he burned out. He loves going to rides, but he really
> doesn't enjoy the miles anymore. He just gets bored. Maybe it's
> him, maybe it's just too much training. He wants to quit, but it
> wasn't always that way.
> Since the early days, I've run into lots of successful riders
> that start off doing 5 days a week of light training to "leg up"
> a horse, then drop down to two or three days of training to
> develop and maintain a horses condition. Particularly after the
> ride season starts. These horses look crisper and more athletic
> than horses that are over trained, and they act more
> competitive.
> The advice I've gotten from some great distance veterans and
> vetrinarians is to not overtrain/over-condition.
> But then, I'm not a *typical* endurance rider! I'm out her to
> have a good time.
> Linda