Working HR's & recoveries

I'm new to this list & am using your post to dip my toes in the waters of the ridecamp pond, hoping against hope that the resident "piranhas" won't bite them off!

I have a relatively limited (10 yrs) experience of horse-breeding & endurance riding but have concocted some methods which work for me & my horses.

I believe they are an invaluable tool, certainly for any kind of anaerobic threshold training, but I wouldn't want to become too dependent on them. I use them fairly frequently in training initially to get to know the horse's parameters, thereafter only on training rides & almost never in competition, but this last may be my mistake.

We generally have 4-6 horses in training & often pair them up as its easier all round. I would be wary myself of comparing two horses' parameters. They are such individuals. I personally don't get overly concerned with resting rates, apart from knowing what they are for particular horses of course. Its recoveries that interest me more. However given the recent discussions on CRI's perhaps this is where I'm going wrong!

What exactly do you feel the problem is with the mare? I don't see a problem, apart her not having the same parameters as the gelding, but maybe I've missed something?

What sort of rides did you do with the mare do get her HR over 200bpm? I've used my hrm occasionally in competition, at 130/160kms level & have never managed to get the hr up anywhere near this, either on steep climbs or in deep sand, although this was with experienced horses.

My other query is the work they are doing. I was impressed to see you were doing 200miles in training in 2 weeks with a 5yr old. Yours must be much more mature than mine at the same age. Are these Arabians?

I guess ours don't mature quickly because they come in at night as weanlings but then they live out all year from then on until they are started at 4yrs but they don't compete until they're 5yrs. I'm unusual in this, the majority of endurance horses in France start to compete at 4yrs.

I must say I wouldn't have thought of putting that sort of training work into a 5yr old in its first season. Don't get me wrong, this isn't criticism, I'm just curious. Perhaps I don't work mine hard enough. Also I don't know what speeds you're doing in training.

I'm think I'm right in saying that bloods are the same as hr parameters, it doesn't really help to compare the bloods of two horses. Better to compare the bloods from the same horse taken at different stages of the season. Even then you need to knows how to interpret the results. Bloods are like using hrms, you can get tied up in knots worrying about every slightest change in the parameters.

Anyway I'll stop here & go get my tin hat & my asbestos suit so's I can ride out the storm.

Plus Darrar, Pearl, Nayla & Syruss who are twitching nervously in their sleep at the thought of having to do even MORE training than they do already!

[Date Prev]	[Date Next]	[Thread Prev]	[Thread Next]
[Date Index]	[Thread Index]	[Author Index]	[Subject Index]