Re: RC: Conditioning program

[DreamWeaver <karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us>]

At 09:25 AM 09/11/1999 -0600, keith Desautels wrote:
>Mon, Wed and Fri rides are about 1-2 hours long each depending on time I 
>get home.
>Never get home before 6pm. Those rides are at all three speeds transitions 
>etc.
>Like to do interval training in the arena because i can most accurately 
>judge even
>distances. Havent been able to figure out the long trail distances yet just
>reallly got interested and dont have any thing to measure with yet. the 
>Sat and
>sun rides are 4-7 hours long depending on how everthing feels, me and 
>mule, and
>are also at all speeds depending on how everthing feels.some of the areas 
>we ride

Hi Anna:  You should have no problem at all taking your mule on a 25 or 30 
mile ride.  It would probably be great to show you how far that distance 
is, so you can start to get an idea of how far you are going when you ride.

When I was starting mine out, I rode them a lot too - usually about the 
same as you, two or three times during the week and one or two longer rides 
on the weekend, with lessons twice a week in the arena with a trainer.

Started them with about 10 minutes of trotting at first.  This is where I 
started losing my old trail riding buddies.  Ten minutes of continuous 
trotting....oh my! <bg>  They were doing about two to four minutes at a 
time, then walking for a half an hour. ;^) So this was where I began 
venturing out on my own.  Started out with the 10 minutes of trotting on 
the flat, or very gradual incline.  Over the course of months I gradually 
increased the amount of trot time by say five minutes at a time, broken up 
with intervals of walking.  Eventually I worked up to 45 minutes of 
trotting continuously.  If I added in a few hills, I wouldn't trot as long, 
or if we were going thru sand.  I used a heart monitor and each horse had 
their target rates, where I would want to work them at, and really paid 
attention to how they progressed with their recoveries during and after 
each session.  I used to carry 3x5 index cards and wrote it all down.  If 
you don't have a heart rate monitor you can use a stethoscope and still get 
the recoveries.

k


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