endurance riding enthusiasts pls help!

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Morgan123

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Hello, I've just started endurance with my horse and I love love love it. I want to learn everything I can about it so anyone who's done lots, pls tell me all you know!! Eg :
Do you ride the day before a competition?
What would you feed a good doer who feels like he wants an energy boost but is prone to bring fat?
What do you do the day after a ride, give the horse a day off or walk in hand to stretch him out?
How often on a ride do you measure heart rate??
Approx what is your fitness regime for various levels?
Etc etc! Any help appreciated!! I am an affiliate member of egb but not a full member yet.
Thanks!
 
Morgan123 said:
Hello, I've just started endurance with my horse and I love love love it. I want to learn everything I can about it so anyone who's done lots, pls tell me all you know!! Eg :
Do you ride the day before a competition?
What would you feed a good doer who feels like he wants an energy boost but is prone to bring fat?
What do you do the day after a ride, give the horse a day off or walk in hand to stretch him out?
How often on a ride do you measure heart rate??
Approx what is your fitness regime for various levels?
Etc etc! Any help appreciated!! I am an affiliate member of egb but not a full member yet.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Ok I'll try my best to anwser your questions. I'm no expert myself but I do have a passion for endurance and I'll give it a bash!
1) Yes, but only for a leg stretch in walk just to check if everything is working as it should be.
2) I compete on my fell who is a good doer and he doesn't get anything other than grass, hay and a handful of alfa-a with electrolytes in it. What you feed is totally indivual for each horse. Trial and error and just seeing what your horse does well on. Norm never feels like he needs any more energy, his coat is glossy so he doesn't need anything else!
3) Norm is out 24/7 and I do give him a day off as he as plenty of chance to stretch his legs by moving around his field and doesn't stiffen up.
4) Not often enough. :o
5) Lots of slow hill work gradually getting faster. Also I try and school him out hacking to get him off his forehand so he finds it easier to carry himself and me on the longer rides as he's using himself properly and efficiently. Hills are your friends!

Hope I've helped! :)
 
Morgan123 said:
Hello, I've just started endurance with my horse and I love love love it. I want to learn everything I can about it so anyone who's done lots, pls tell me all you know!! Eg :
Do you ride the day before a competition?
Generally no, although a light hack occassionally
What would you feed a good doer who feels like he wants an energy boost but is prone to bring fat? It depends on each horse, they are al different, my friend stuffs her horse with blue chip, i wouldn't touch that but use horse and pony mix or endurance mix
What do you do the day after a ride, give the horse a day off or walk in hand to stretch him out? turn out but don't ride
How often on a ride do you measure heart rate?? rarely!
Approx what is your fitness regime for various levels? we just pleasure ride at endurance rides. our fitness regime consists of 4 or 5 hacks per week, lots of trot included!
Etc etc! Any help appreciated!! I am an affiliate member of egb but not a full member yet.
Thanks!
Click to expand...



Hope that helps! Endurance is such fun and vastly under rated by many!
 
Do you ride the day before a competition?
Depending on the length of the ride I would cut down training ride from up to 2 weeks before. For shorter rides (up to 65km) you should be alright with a week off (maybe less). Not to say you couldn't go out for a walk to stretch everything out, but wouldn't do hills.

What would you feed a good doer who feels like he wants an energy boost but is prone to bring fat?
Feed according to work done! If he's going happily on grass and not loosing weight then fine. Maybe add a balancer. Maybe add a slow-releasehard feed or a little oil to his feed. Make sure to feed enough electrolytes though either in a little feed or water. This goes for training and competition days.

What do you do the day after a ride, give the horse a day off or walk in hand to stretch him out?
Stretching would be good, although if turned out would probably keep moving enough. Keep an eye on joints and hydration for a few days. Again I would give a week or more off after any serious work after a comp.

How often on a ride do you measure heart rate??
All the time if wearing a heart rate monitor. As soon as I get off the horse and then until HR is down to required level at end or vet gates if not.

Approx what is your fitness regime for various levels?
If you let me know what you're training for I'd be happy to give you a few ideas - not claiming to be an expert but been at at 15 years and been through all the distances with various horses. It depends very much on your horse - breed, age, other competing, how well schooled, vet history, etc etc

Hope this helps!
:)
 
Do you ride the day before a competition?
I'm generally too busy packing and panicking! There's nothing scientific about my week before a ride but I do tend to back off a bit and also a quick lunge a couple of days before just to assess how the horse is moving.

What would you feed a good doer who feels like he wants an energy boost but is prone to bring fat?
Trial and error. Actually, with this type of horse, it's often not feed that will perk it up but additional targetted fitness work. So get thee to some gallops :)

What do you do the day after a ride, give the horse a day off or walk in hand to stretch him out?
Mine live out 24/7 anyway. The OH is a massage therapist so they'll generally get a good groping and then left to their own devices. The old rule of thumb of '1 day off for every 10 miles ridden' hasn't done me wrong yet.

How often on a ride do you measure heart rate??
I may have a quick glance if I've happened to stop and get off but otherwise, unless I'm wearing a monitor, rarely.

Approx what is your fitness regime for various levels?
Variations on a theme, really. I aim for two long slow rides and two shorter faster rides (or schooling sessions) a week. They generally only get worked 4 times a week. For pleasure ride/novice fitness the long slow rides may be a 2 hour hack and the short fast sessions may be a half hour blast, but for the longer stuff the long slow ride may be 20 miles out from home and the short fast ride may be an hour including some gallopping and/or interval training. I tend to use the rides themselves to build fitness, ie start with a flattish one at a slow speed, then move on to a hillier one, or a flattish one taken a bit faster. Once they're actually competing, I find that due to the days off I give them I actually end up riding them far less from home.

I don't know where you're based but we're doing an 'ask the panel' event this Thursday and you'd be more than welcome to come along:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=100344070057406 http://www.westridingegb.co.uk/events.htm
We're going to try and video it and get it on youtube afterwards, too. So if you can't make it and you have some questions you'd like us to put to the panel for you, e-mail us and let us know.
 
Are you a member of a local group? Our one (south-west) runs intro days & training days for different levels which may be of use to you. Then you can pin an experienced rider down & ask any questions you want. Also help with things like vet-gate technique, & how to go onto multi-vetgate rides. If you are a member of EGB, don't forget about the EGB forum. You will need your membership number & password (supplied from HQ) to log on, then you have access to loads of EGB members & be able to ask for their ideas as well.
 
Do you ride the day before a competition?
If doing a 30 or 40km ride, then I might, if I've got time give them a short, easy ride just to make sure everything's okay. For a longer ride, probably not - I'd do the final checking "in-hand".

What would you feed a good doer who feels like he wants an energy boost but is prone to bring fat?
Sorry, can't advise on that. I've got good doers, but I'm lucky(?!?) that mine always have more than enough energy. I only ever feed after a ride, if they need it - and then it's usually Speedibeet.

What do you do the day after a ride, give the horse a day off or walk in hand to stretch him out?
Mine always have at least a day off depending on the length of the ride. Usually on the basis of 1 day off per 10km ridden (some people use km, some people use miles). So after a 30km ride on a Sunday, I might ride again on the Weds or Thurs evening. After a 65km ride, horse would have a week off. Mine live out 24/7 anyway, so get all the gentle movement and stretching they need.

How often on a ride do you measure heart rate??
When on the move at a ride - not at all. (Although people with a heart rate monitor can keep an ongoing check). On a ride with a midway vet gate, I would measure heart rate ASAP (I use a simple stethoscope) after completing that loop of the ride and keep measuring it every couple of minutes or so until it's below 64bpm, because you want to present to the vet as quickly as possible, because the "ride-time" clock is still ticking. At the very end of a ride, the "ride-time" clock stops when you pass the finishing post, and you've got half an hour to present to the vet, so I would check it periodically during that half hour, in between cooling down and everything else that needs to be done.

Approx what is your fitness regime for various levels?
Mine live out 24/7/365 and keep themselves fairly supple naturally. I admit that I've been lucky with mine and can get away with quite a lot less work than many people need to put in. Mine each get schooled for 30 - 45 minutes twice a week on weekday evenings, and hacked out (sometimes fast, sometimes slow) at the weekends if I'm not competing. In the Autumn I ease right back, as the season is coming to and end and they'll be as fit as I want/they need to be by then, so they have a rest up until January, which fits in nicely with the fact that in winter I don't get to ride midweek at all (no school, no lights) so I tend to hack one day at weekends just to keep them ticking over. January onwards, I re-introduce schooling on the other weekend day and then as soon as there's enough light in the evenings, work proper begins!

FYI - just to help with the distances I'm working at - one (Open Level) horse will be doing 65km in mid June, the other (Advanced) horse will be doing his first 80km of the year at the end of June (touch wood!).
 
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