Flowerofthefen
Well-Known Member
Its something I've never done and I know nothing about it!! Could someone explain what goes on please and any websites I couldook at to find out whats on in my area. Thank you
Endurance
- Thread starter Flowerofthefen
- Start date
J&S
Well-Known Member
Look at the Endurance GB website and then search for what is planned in your area. You can enter most rides as a non member in the Pleasure Ride class or start at the 32 km level. Your horse will be trotted up and his heart rate will be taken both before and after the ride. Your speed is ascertained over the ride to give you a time which will then all be logged. The idea is to complete a ride in a good speed with a low heart rate at the finish. Speeds are allotted to each level so as a beginner you do not have to race round! For the pleasure ride I think the speed expected is 8 kms per hour minimum to get a finishing rosette. If you are a riding club member there is a special class for teams which is great fun and a real challenge.
Flowerofthefen
Well-Known Member
For the shorter rides how fit do they need to be?? What would be a weekly routine to get them fit enough?
tiga71
Well-Known Member
I have done a lot of endurance on my cob Izzy when he was younger. He is nearly 24 now so just does pleasure rides.
The speed for pleasure rides is between 8-12 km/hour. The slow end of that is quite a lot of walk, some trot and bits of canter. A pretty slow ride really. To get the top speed you need to be able to do a steady trot most of the time, obviously walking when necessary and a steady canter whenever possible. The trick in getting a good heartrate is to keep your pace as steady as you can. I wasn't that serious about it so we always had a gallop when there was a gallopy place but the serious people stick to a steady canter.
The more hill work you can do on hacks the better. My weekly routine was probably 2 decent hacks that were 2-3 hours long, including hill work and some fast work. We mostly trotted and cantered on hacks. Then I would have a lesson once a week, jump once a week and a couple of shorter hacks or groundwork. My boy also hunted in the winters and we were on the Downs so he never lost much fitness. He would also have easy weeks after endurance events.
I do find that when I hack with my endurance friends, we hack differently than with other people. Cover more ground, more trot and canter, trot/canter downhill etc.
A good way of testing whether you/horse are fit enough is time yourself on a hack that is about 18/20 km. It will give you an idea of how fast you can go comfortably and where that speed fits in the 8-12 km/hr spectrum. I did quite a bit of escorting newbies and I quickly realised that when you ask someone how fit their horse is, they can have very different idea of fitness levels. One lady said she hacks for about 3 hours. I thought we would be fine. It was the first ride I failed on time, we basically had to walk most of the way as they couldn't trot more than about 200 yards without stopping for a rest! Her 3 hour hacks were all at walk! She just didn't realise and I didn't ask the right questions.
It is great fun and most people are very friendly and helpful. Checkout the Endurance GB website and the FB page. They also have regional FB pages which should help if you want someone to ride with.
The speed for pleasure rides is between 8-12 km/hour. The slow end of that is quite a lot of walk, some trot and bits of canter. A pretty slow ride really. To get the top speed you need to be able to do a steady trot most of the time, obviously walking when necessary and a steady canter whenever possible. The trick in getting a good heartrate is to keep your pace as steady as you can. I wasn't that serious about it so we always had a gallop when there was a gallopy place but the serious people stick to a steady canter.
The more hill work you can do on hacks the better. My weekly routine was probably 2 decent hacks that were 2-3 hours long, including hill work and some fast work. We mostly trotted and cantered on hacks. Then I would have a lesson once a week, jump once a week and a couple of shorter hacks or groundwork. My boy also hunted in the winters and we were on the Downs so he never lost much fitness. He would also have easy weeks after endurance events.
I do find that when I hack with my endurance friends, we hack differently than with other people. Cover more ground, more trot and canter, trot/canter downhill etc.
A good way of testing whether you/horse are fit enough is time yourself on a hack that is about 18/20 km. It will give you an idea of how fast you can go comfortably and where that speed fits in the 8-12 km/hr spectrum. I did quite a bit of escorting newbies and I quickly realised that when you ask someone how fit their horse is, they can have very different idea of fitness levels. One lady said she hacks for about 3 hours. I thought we would be fine. It was the first ride I failed on time, we basically had to walk most of the way as they couldn't trot more than about 200 yards without stopping for a rest! Her 3 hour hacks were all at walk! She just didn't realise and I didn't ask the right questions.
It is great fun and most people are very friendly and helpful. Checkout the Endurance GB website and the FB page. They also have regional FB pages which should help if you want someone to ride with.
sbloom
Well-Known Member
This lady is a mine of information, endurance coaches are very rare and she's very good: https://groenequestrian.co.uk
Sprig
Well-Known Member
Definitely give it a go. Maybe start with a pleasure ride. Endurance people are the most friendly ever so don't worry about not knowing what you are doing, there will always be people to point you in the right direction at a ride.
Quigleyandme
Well-Known Member
I agree. I used to do non-competitive rides on my Dales. 32km of rising to an enthusiastic Dales trot notwithstanding, endurance people are the best.
Flowerofthefen
Well-Known Member
Do you get start times? Are times well spread out? My boy is an ex racer who hunted to qualify for pointing/NH but he would have been very fit and probably mentally tired. He now is a leisure horse and I'm not sure how he would react. The sponsored rides round her are really quite dangerous!
tiga71
Well-Known Member
Yes you do get start times and there is space between people/groups. They don't generally let big groups ride together. Mostly pairs but sometimes 3s and 4s. You can get people passing you, though probably not if ex racer, but people tend to stick to the rules and ask to pass at trot. You don't generally get anyone cantering past you. People can get warned/disqualified if they get reported for bad riding.
Usually pleasure rider times are after the serious competitors so you won't get tonnes of people passing you.
They are much less frantic than fun rides. When people ask me to escort them on a fun ride I usually suggest doing an endurance ride. Much less exciting for the horses.
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite
Well-Known Member
I'm not an endurance participant however a very good friend of mine has ridden at high levels in the sport.
Ditto what others have said about endurance folks being a friendly lot and always willing to offer help and advice. What they tend to suggest is that if you are interested it is a good idea - if you really want to see what goes on - to offer to Steward at an event in the first instance. You'll then find out what you'd have to do at for e.g. vet gates.
Something that will help you a lot if you wish to progress up through the sport - and you will certainly need if you get beyond the very basic levels - is a ground-crew. If you haven't, not necessarily a problem as often there are non-riding members (like you'd be at your first event) who are happy to volunteer to non-crewed riders and help each other out - so at some point in the future you would be expected to volunteer in this capacity.
Also my friend said to me that for anyone wanting to do endurance, your horse will need to be able to cope with other horses going past you at speed i.e. canter. If you and/or your horse are going to go into freefall at this prospect then this might not be the sport for you!! But any horse that has hunted should be able to deal with it!
Most endurance regional groups hold pleasure rides which I believe are "open" so that anyone can go? That might be a good starting point.
Ditto what others have said about endurance folks being a friendly lot and always willing to offer help and advice. What they tend to suggest is that if you are interested it is a good idea - if you really want to see what goes on - to offer to Steward at an event in the first instance. You'll then find out what you'd have to do at for e.g. vet gates.
Something that will help you a lot if you wish to progress up through the sport - and you will certainly need if you get beyond the very basic levels - is a ground-crew. If you haven't, not necessarily a problem as often there are non-riding members (like you'd be at your first event) who are happy to volunteer to non-crewed riders and help each other out - so at some point in the future you would be expected to volunteer in this capacity.
Also my friend said to me that for anyone wanting to do endurance, your horse will need to be able to cope with other horses going past you at speed i.e. canter. If you and/or your horse are going to go into freefall at this prospect then this might not be the sport for you!! But any horse that has hunted should be able to deal with it!
Most endurance regional groups hold pleasure rides which I believe are "open" so that anyone can go? That might be a good starting point.
Steerpike
Well-Known Member
Maggie Pattinson is a very good endurance coach and has 20+years experience
https://www.onthehoofdt.co.uk
If you go on the Endurance GB website you will be able to see which group covers your area and they tend to have their own fb/website page.
https://www.onthehoofdt.co.uk
If you go on the Endurance GB website you will be able to see which group covers your area and they tend to have their own fb/website page.
J&S
Well-Known Member
If you do start and get keen and fit you might find that you don't need to do too much in between each ride. some of the serious riders only hack gently/lunge during the week as each ride you do improves the horse's fitness level.
Learn to take your horses heart rate your self to check what speeds suit him best. As an older rider I found it best to keep changing pace, I used to ride with a friend on an ex racer but her horse never out paced my smaller TB x.
Learn to take your horses heart rate your self to check what speeds suit him best. As an older rider I found it best to keep changing pace, I used to ride with a friend on an ex racer but her horse never out paced my smaller TB x.
spookypony
Well-Known Member
I'm assuming that you're in England or Wales rather than Scotland: Scotland has its own devoled national body (SERC), as well as slightly different rules and qualification levels. A few things to add to other posters:
Both SERC and EGB have a qualifications system under which you have to complete a certain number of rides in a given distance class, at a certain minimum speed, in order to qualify for the next distance classes. The EGB system is more lenient here than the Scottish system: under EGB rules, the Spooky Pony (now retired) was qualified to enter any distance, while in SERC, we were still limited to 80km classes.
If you're worried about your horse getting over-excited when being passed (passing at canter willy-nilly is actually pretty rude, especially if you've not got the other rider's permission: a little "May I pass? OK to trot past, please?" will go a long way), then there are exercises that hunters also use to help the horse learn how to pass and be passed, and on a ride, it can help if you have a calm buddy until your horse learns what it's about.
What happens at a ride differs slightly from country to country. For example, in Scotland, Pleasure Rides involve a trot-up to check soundness before and after the ride, and a heart-rate is usually also taken, although this is not required by the rules. Competitive rides involve a vetting before and after the ride, and also during vet gates, which happen roughly every 30km at any ride of 50k or more. This involves a trot-up and various metabolic checks including heart rates using the Cardiac Recovery Index (basically, 2 heart rates, taken before and after the trot-up (should be 60 seconds apart)).
For the ride itself, the mechanics of how the route is indicated also varies from country to country. In SERC, we get a map (about a week before the ride), a talk-round of the map, and the route is also marked. It's a good idea to study the map ahead of time, and to write down some target times for different checkpoints. So, assuming you're doing a Pleasure Ride in Scotland, after your trot-up, you have 30 mins to tack up and present to the starter. The starter will make sure the riders in front have had sufficient time to get ahead (usually 2 minutes or more), and then you start, making sure to remember your start time (and start your Garmin, if you have one). You ride the route, keeping an eye on your time targets, and then after you finish, you have 30 mins to untack, cool your horse, and present for your trot-up. Then you give your horse a wee post-ride feed and/or haynet/grazing, chill out a bit, and wait for your rosette!
So to do a Pleasure Ride, you really just need you and your horse to be fit for a fast hack, and you don't really need any special gear or vast amounts of water etc. to get started. But doing a season of Pleasure Rides first is a great way to become familiar with the way more experienced riders do things, and also to build up fitness in your horse.
Both SERC and EGB have a qualifications system under which you have to complete a certain number of rides in a given distance class, at a certain minimum speed, in order to qualify for the next distance classes. The EGB system is more lenient here than the Scottish system: under EGB rules, the Spooky Pony (now retired) was qualified to enter any distance, while in SERC, we were still limited to 80km classes.
If you're worried about your horse getting over-excited when being passed (passing at canter willy-nilly is actually pretty rude, especially if you've not got the other rider's permission: a little "May I pass? OK to trot past, please?" will go a long way), then there are exercises that hunters also use to help the horse learn how to pass and be passed, and on a ride, it can help if you have a calm buddy until your horse learns what it's about.
What happens at a ride differs slightly from country to country. For example, in Scotland, Pleasure Rides involve a trot-up to check soundness before and after the ride, and a heart-rate is usually also taken, although this is not required by the rules. Competitive rides involve a vetting before and after the ride, and also during vet gates, which happen roughly every 30km at any ride of 50k or more. This involves a trot-up and various metabolic checks including heart rates using the Cardiac Recovery Index (basically, 2 heart rates, taken before and after the trot-up (should be 60 seconds apart)).
For the ride itself, the mechanics of how the route is indicated also varies from country to country. In SERC, we get a map (about a week before the ride), a talk-round of the map, and the route is also marked. It's a good idea to study the map ahead of time, and to write down some target times for different checkpoints. So, assuming you're doing a Pleasure Ride in Scotland, after your trot-up, you have 30 mins to tack up and present to the starter. The starter will make sure the riders in front have had sufficient time to get ahead (usually 2 minutes or more), and then you start, making sure to remember your start time (and start your Garmin, if you have one). You ride the route, keeping an eye on your time targets, and then after you finish, you have 30 mins to untack, cool your horse, and present for your trot-up. Then you give your horse a wee post-ride feed and/or haynet/grazing, chill out a bit, and wait for your rosette!
So to do a Pleasure Ride, you really just need you and your horse to be fit for a fast hack, and you don't really need any special gear or vast amounts of water etc. to get started. But doing a season of Pleasure Rides first is a great way to become familiar with the way more experienced riders do things, and also to build up fitness in your horse.