Endurance - fit enough?

mynutmeg

mynutmeg

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Hi, I did a 10 mile ride with my mare about 3 weeks ago. She did really well the whole way round and felt full of running right until the last field (last 5 minutes or so) at which point she started to flag a little. I'm doing entries for ticknal ride next weekend in the day or so and am swithering between the 7 mile and 15 mile ride - I'd like to do a bit further than the 7 miles but am worried that adding 50% more onto the distance is going to be too much. She's only been in work for about 3 months and while she is fairly fit she's still rather podgy.
I really don't want to risk injuring her when she's starting to go so well - am I right in thinking that 15 miles at the moment will be too far and unfair on her?
 
Too hard to tell from your description: 'fairly fit .. still rather podgy'.
You could get a horse fit enough in three months to do 15 miles if she has been fit before, but it depends on what workload she has been having and what progression you have done. Would also depend on what speed you were doing on the ride itself, and whether or not it has hills /uneven ground etc.
did they check heart rates at the first ride? Doing recovery rates (e.g. 20 minutes apart) is one of the best ways to tell if they handled the work ok, but it still doesn't account for muscle stiffness etc. There are some very good books around on training endurance horses (I think a classic might be by Marcy Pavord??? or similar name) but a friend of mine does around 3 hours training at least three times a week and this includes a combination of steep hill work, beach work, and road work; but she is doing much longer distances than you. It takes about 2 years to build up a base fitness for long rides.
If you can find someone experienced to evaluate her then that would give you more of an idea, but i would tend to play it safe if you have any doubts. Far better to have a shorter fun ride than take home an injured horse.
 
She's fit in that we're doing 7-8km 3-4 times a week, trotting the vast majority of it and she's full of energy at the end but she's also fat - despite being in during the day on soaked hay, a rather bare field and the amount of work she's in I just can't get the fat to shift (she's easily a 4).

They didn't do heart rates as was a charity ride, didn't work her the next day at all but she didn't seem particularly stiff, had a gentle walk out the next day and a shorter hack on the third and she didn't seem stiff or sore at all.
We average about 8km per hour so the lower end, I believe it's fairly mixed terrain. Workload wise we started out at 30 minutes walk and gradually built her up that way, adding distance and trot work in. Before the last 3 months she's basically been a pasture puff for about 3 1/2 years apart from 3 months last summer. She blew a tendon 3-4 years ago, had ages out, was coming into work nicely and damged her check ligament - we caught it on the verge of properly going so she's healed really well but had the winter out because of it so there was no fitness what-so-ever behind her.

I'm on the same lines as you of keeping her on the shorter distance - I'm just dreadful for overthinking stuff and it helps sometimes to have someone kick me up the butt and go, stop stressing. :-)
 
Based on the work you are doing each week I would say the longer distance wouldn't be a problem - your plan looks very sensible (and it does take time to shift weight). But, based on the past leg injuries I would definitely go shorter. Easy for a horse to lose concentration towards the end of ride if it starts to flag a bit, and this is when a mis-step can tweak an old injury.
So, go shorter and enjoy yourself without having to worry (particularly if ground turns out to be muddy/slippery/ very uneven on the day). Then see if you can find a more inbetween ride for next time.
 
thanks - the legs are why we've taken our time 'legging her up' the old fashioned way - my mom used to be involved with hunters so I know about getting them fit and went down that route with her.
Hopefully will fit one more in this season (I scrounge lifts as don't have my own transport so can be a bit limited when/where I can go) but am hoping to work on fitness over the winter and be ready to do 15-20 mile rides next summer.

Both injuries have healed really well - the tendon she put a 50% lesion in her hind leg DDFT, had 2 years out of work etc, when she was having the front leg scanned I got them to scan the back as well as I was interested in how well it had healed and it hadn't been rescanned and they could barely see anything so it's healed very well but I am always a bit paranoid about her legs
 
I like your plan too, but maybe start to add a longer ride into your training once a week, say a 10 km ride at the weekend. They adapt to what they are doing regularly, so upping the training a bit step wise keeps them progressing.

My old mare strained a tendon endurance riding, but with six months rest and a sensible program of legging up, she was back to her best the following season. I was a bit mindful on boggy ground, but it never gave her any trouble.
 
I would stick to the shorter ride for this one given the leg injury in the past. Even when competing in race rides up 50 miles, I rarely go out for 3 hours at a time. I do however go much quicker than you. I would look at using some interval training, and regular hill work.
I am planning on taking one of mine, who last competed in 2010 due to injury to her first ride in a few weeks. She will be doing 20 miles. I did about 15 miles in 2 hours yesterday, without putting her under any pressure, so we are on course for that.
My longest home training ride is 20 miles when racing fit it takes under 2 hours.
 
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