This Evening I will mainly be.....

PaddyMonty

PaddyMonty

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Taking horse to local all weather gallops.
Originally this was just for fun but I was thinking it provides a good opportunity to check her ground coverage prior to eventing (a possibility for next season).

Gallops are a measured 5 furlongs so I was thinking doing once at steady canter to simulate tricky combinations speed, once at forward canter which would be good for most XC fences and once at a rather more forward pace for those times you can open up between fences.
With the three times over a measured distance I should be able to work out what her average MPM round a course would be.

Any fatal flaw in my thinking or better ideas?
 
No idea in terms of the best way to work out mpm etc but I seem to remember your relatively local to me - which gallops are you using?
 
The math is not an issue. In previous life I worked as a business analyst.
But is my plan sound on the speed front. Gallops are up hill so worst case scenario.
 
Sounds like a plan as long as you remember the stop watch ;)
Took the youngster out to the allweather at the weekend .. confirmed he is the slowest thing I've ever ridden :eek: but he did finally manage to stretch and drop into a proper gallop which I've not got him to do before so hopefully that will improve!
 
Oooh, ooh, I see flaws! :D

You are assuming that the trickier fences, straightforward ones and opportunities to travel on the course are in equal thirds. The Event level will dictate the mpm and the style of course (mostly twisty vs mostly straight for example) will affect how lenient you can be about average pace. As the gallops will not involve mimicking any preparation for fences and 'time in the air' it will produce a more inaccurate result as will the fact you are using the gallops at leisure rather than under a competition environment with will contort your perception of speed in both scenarios.

So I'd take the required mpm speed and average length of course you plan to do and work out how fast you need to be travelling between each furlong marker to mimick this. Use a timer to check you're hitting your marks. Once you are able to 'feel' that speed, you then need to travel faster to take into account fence prep, opting for longer routes and time off the ground that will be taking up extra time when you are actually on the XC course. Then you need to 'learn' that speed and use it as the default speed for that level of XC competition and adjust it on the day to slightly faster for a twistier course.

You need to have a default speed to keep rhythm and prevent tiring your horse by changing gears too much.

IMO, anyway. :)
 
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You are bang on about course affecting the timing. I was planning or weighting the results to 20% slow, 30% fast and 50% in between pace. This is based on experience of courses where there are a few fences I would need to set up for such as water complex, a few more that i generally just jump out of the horses stride and the rest that need setting up for without dropping speed too much.
My intention is to get a feel about her being able to make the time at say a novice course. If she is way down on that pace then I will point her career in a different direction (SJ and DR). If it looks promising then we will give eventing a shot.
My issue is she is one of those horses that doesn't appear to be moving much but could well be covering the ground. Experience has taught me that pushing a slow horse to make the time is not a lot of fun.
 
Haha, you're right, the XC is hard enough without having to 'carry' the horse too!

Well, enjoy your evening and I hope she travels across the ground well for you. :)

P.s. Is she fit enough to give a fair shot at an average Novice XC speed? If things don't go quite as well as hoped maybe the new ground surface of the gallops and the uphill factor might affect the overall outcome this time round?
 
Well said, Illusion!

PaddyMonty, I cannot make my brain work out the maths involved as 'tis already the afternoon but it sounds like you've thought it all out :)
As I'm sure you're already aware, some horses take a while to find the gallop - sis' horse was the slowest thing out when he started doing fast work, took a while for galloping to click in his brain and now he'd make the time at novice easily.
 
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Illusion100 said:
P.s. Is she fit enough to give a fair shot at an average Novice XC speed? If things don't go quite as well as hoped maybe the new ground surface of the gallops and the uphill factor might affect the overall outcome this time round?
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Fitness should be ok for the trial as not having to jump, wont have done the DR and SJ phases first and only doing approx half a novice course distance. I wouldn't want to run her novice at current level of fitness but would be fine for a 100. If/when we did get to run a novice she would certainly be fit enough.
 
Ah - taken me a while to catch up, as the idea of getting anywhere on time (certainly round a XC course) is alien to me.

So you're aiming to see if she would be capable of making the time at Nov XC? Think the plan is a good one, recognising that it also has its limitations, which you're probably already aware of! How long she will take to set up for a fence, for example, how well she will jump out of a faster pace, whether her galloping gear is actually useable (so you can in fact kick on between fences and get her back when you want her back) or whether, once you've let the handbrake off, you'll be in Scotland before you've managed to slow down.
 
HotToTrot said:
Ah - taken me a while to catch up, as the idea of getting anywhere on time (certainly round a XC course) is alien to me.

So you're aiming to see if she would be capable of making the time at Nov XC? Think the plan is a good one, recognising that it also has its limitations, which you're probably already aware of! How long she will take to set up for a fence, for example, how well she will jump out of a faster pace, whether her galloping gear is actually useable (so you can in fact kick on between fences and get her back when you want her back) or whether, once you've let the handbrake off, you'll be in Scotland before you've managed to slow down.
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Couldn't agree more, but would also add, that by the time she's at Novice, she'll (hopefully) be more experienced and rideable, so that the adjustments take up less time.

I always used to tell my WPs that every pull was a second lost......
 
Well it didn't go quite to plan. No timing done!
That's because is became very obvious on the first run up the gallops that time would not be an issue. The girl can move. :)
She was in the lead (2 other horses) on the first run so the second run I put at the back to test the brakes. Other horses set off, I told the girl to stay in trot and she did. Let off the brakes and flew up the track. Half way up i asked her back to collected canter and she obliged, asked her on, she went, asked her back she slowed. We have control. All in NS team up snaffle and no martingale.
Very happy bunny.
There is some vid or pics which I'm trying to get hold of as owner was there to watch. Will post when I get them.
 
The pics of our slower run
IMG_3366_zpshpz2qnuq.png


IMG_3367_zpsobmofsyw.png
 
Yay, brakes! Always handy! :D

Nice pics however I am very disappointed that you flufffed doing the timing......... I was looking forward to a huge mathmatical/physics equation that provided the optimal formula for XC speed. I feel very let down! :p
 
Illusion100 said:
Yay, brakes! Always handy! :D

Nice pics however I am very disappointed that you flufffed doing the timing......... I was looking forward to a huge mathmatical/physics equation that provided the optimal formula for XC speed. I feel very let down! :p
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If you weren't feeling so let down ( was having too much fun to get all techie) I would show you the vid :p

PS why do i make horses look small? She's 16.3 :o
 
Something to do with your long legs I think! She really doesn't look 16:3 with you on board does she.

Sounds like this one is going to give you lots of fun.
 
JennBags said:
Something to do with your long legs I think! She really doesn't look 16:3 with you on board does she.

Sounds like this one is going to give you lots of fun.
Click to expand...

But the thing is I don't have long legs - 5'9" with 31" inside leg. Previous horse was 17.3 and he look small in pics as well. Very strange!

and I'm already having huge amounts of fun with her. :)
 
Looks like you had a good time! If it's of any help I use a stopwatch when I give my boy a run on the gallops.

We normally do four runs of a 4-5 furlong gallop track which has a gradual incline.

The first run I do is a normal canter just to warm him up, then for each run thereafter I open him up so he can beat his time by 5-10 seconds each time. In the end I normally end up at top end intermediate speed. Although this isn't perhaps the most scientific approach it has helped me gage how many gears we have.

My trainer is going to provide me with a heart rate monitor for next year's gallop training which I think will be more beneficial to gage fitness rather than what speed we can manage.
 
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