how far is TOO far?

tigerlily12345

tigerlily12345

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for a hack, would be mostly walking but a little trot and a couple canter/gallops?

me and my friend wanted to go on a long sort of trek and if we ride about an hour we get to a beautiful bit of forrest/woodland

once were there we could potentially ride for days! but we want to go there and back in a day. so planning which route to take and didn't want to plan too far.

both horses are fairly fit (and will be fitter by the time we go!) and there are a couple of places we can stop for a drink (horses and us) and we wanted to stop at a pub for lunch so they would get a rest for an hour or so too.

but all the same where ever we go we have to get back again so even if were constantly making sure they are ok once they start getting tired it could be another couple hours home :S

we will do some longer than normal rides before to try it out but what would you say the limit is (considering they are not endurance ponies!)?

sorry for the essay and please dont jump on me :o just wanting opinions :)

thanks in advance :D x x x
 
At a relaxed pace as you've described I can't see why you can't be out all day. Stop for lunch and just have fun.

You might want a back up plan with a friend and a trailer, just incase you have an 'incident' and for whatever reason can't ride all the way home - lose a shoe, fall off etc

You'll probably find that you get tired before your horses :)
 
When my boy is fit we regularly go for 4 hour hacks, including a fair bit of fast work, so realistically I would expect him to be able to do able 6 hours comfortably at that level of fitness.
Stopping at pubs is a good idea- I used to take mine out all day like that :) landlords often came out with water for the horses too :)
 
brilliant, thanks, do you know how many kph you do on horseback? and we do have someone who could pick us up in an emergency :) but thanks for the suggestion :D
 
I'm showing my age here, I work in mph :)

I do go for looooong hacks and sponsored rides, and generally average 4mph. That allows for stopping for gates, cow parsley etc

Generally a brisk walk is about 4mph, trotting 8mph, cantering 12-14mph. But if you're trying to work out how far you will get in a number of hours I would suggest you use 4mph.

Have fun :D
 
hey tiger sounds like you have it all planned - back up and all so oi get out there and have a lovely long leisurely ride - ps im soooooooooooooooo jealous :)
 
We did 4 1/2 hours on the moors on fairly unfit horses last month with a picnic stop and no problems at all. Horses could have gone on for way longer.
 
I used to regularly ride my horse for 25/30 miles on a weekend, and often did a 20 mile ride midweek too. She was ultra fit, and covered the miles pretty quickly, but a moderately fit horse should be able to stay out all day.
 
I used to go out regularly on my part loan for 2 - 3 hours 2x a week and while I wouldn't say she was endurance horse fit, she was fit enough to be a bit of a tit with me onboard! But I'd always find while she was sweaty when we got back around the ears, girth, boots and saddle area, I was dripping all over!! :D
That was mostly walking, a bit of trot and canter/gallop across the fields.
K x
 
thanks for the replies! well for anyone who would like to know this is the map of the area (we are the red star-top right) the yellow is bridleways and the purple is roads i think the full route is about 30km (18miles) (my VERY rough guess work!) so at 4mph it would be about 5 hours :) however we could cut it short if need be :) and we could add some detours to the pub (red P's) or maybe take a picnic and stop en-route :D

longride.png


i will take the camera so we can have LOTS of photos and vids :D and i promise to give a full report :P

thanks again for your replies! :)
 
Tigerlily hope you enjoy your ride it looks great. I played hooky today and went on a 3 hour hack my bit of string on map says it was just over 12 miles. I,ve just played with that map thingy but haven,t quite mastered yet!
I should have been at an Manure management meeting!
 
hah i work mostly with the metric system at college (chemistry and physics) so thats whats in my head :P plus my map is marked in km so it was easier to calculate :o
 
Just as a bit of an eye opener - for an endurance rider at novice to open level, I would expect to complete a 37km route (your route) in approx. 3 hours at an average speed of 12kph! Just goes to show that we endurance riders do actually work hard - and we don't just amble along enjoying the scenery! (Well, we do actually enjoy the scenery, but we don't amble along!)
 
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