25 mile ride - not an endurance rider

[Wigwag]

A friend recently asked if I might be interested in joining her on a 25 mile endurance ride. Apparently her trainer (who is an event trainer/rider) is organizing one for this fall. I’m unsure what kind of footing (lots of hills, flat open spaces, roads, soft grass/dirt or rocks), etc…this type of ride will be, and I know that makes a huge difference in the question I’m about to ask… (this is Indiana though, and it’s relatively flat most anywhere you go).

What kind of conditioning are we talking for a 25 mile ride? I typically ride 3 x’s a week, normal schooling type things (w/t/c) and recently started doing a bit of galloping once or twice a week. This is a 6 yr old Thoroughbred.

I asked what kind of pace she planned to ride at, and she said you typically trot/canter throughout with short walk breaks. Her horse is worked about the same or even less than mine. He gets two very light workouts and 1 mid to heavy workout a week. Sometimes there is an extra ride in there, and I may be able to regularly hit 4 times a week if necessary over the spring/summer/fall. We’re moving to a different barn that doesn’t have so many ridiculous restrictions on riding times and days, so I expect that’ll make a big difference just in and of itself in being able to get out there more. My horse will also be on 24/7 pasture turnout in 12 acres with some big hills. This is the most turnout he’ll have ever had in his life. Currently he gets 3 hours a day, max! If he’s lucky. In the past it was much better…yet another reason for the move.

I think it would be a fun change of pace and a great experience for all of us. But I don’t want to hurt my horse, and I work too much to be a 5 or 6 day/week rider (barn is too far away). So if 3 -4 mid level workouts a week aren’t enough to properly condition him for this, I will decline the invitation.

Thanks for any advice

[saratoga]

3 to 4 days of riding is plenty. A 25 is not generally that difficult for a sound horse with good basic fitness. I would just do your regular riding, with one day a week of hitting the trail. When you work up to doing about 15 miles at the pace the ride will be at and your horse handles it great during and afterwards, you should be able to do the 25. Theres definitely no need to be conditioning really hard. Also it would be good to practice riding in groups if your horse is not used to it because that can be a problem for some horses. Also, make sure he is used to being tied to the trailer and camping out (assuming you will be doing that.)

[Wigwag]

I don’t believe there will be any camping involved. I thought 25 miles was a one day ride? It’s local, so I think we’re just hauling there the morning of and hauling home afterwards.

The most he’s been in was a group of 6, and he was great.

[Shadow14]

It’s an easy ride. A jog is about 8 mph and sticking to this easy jog you are done in 3 hours, 4 at the most and any healthy young horse can easily do it.
I predict you will have more trouble then him.
Try spending more time in the saddle out on trail. Wonder around for a couple of hours to get yourself use to the time in the saddle.
I find walking alot harder on me then jogging and posting. Walking gets the butt sore.
You will have no problems.
Sounds like fun. Go for it.

[sunhawk]

Find out how quickly his pulse rate drops to 60 beats per minute after working, and make sure he trots out nicely beside you when you need to show for the vet, a lot of newbies at endurance rides can’t trot their horses out, you may also have to trot your horse in a large circle both ways.

[I_m_EBO]

Worry about yourself, too. That’s a hard ride for a person who isn’t used to much distance. If you can manage, you might want to start with riding five or six miles, then build from there.

[Wigwag]

I really appreciate all the advice. If we decide to go for it, then I’m sure I will have many more questions to come!

The new barn has a lot more land than we’ve ever had. There aren’t any “trails” in the woods, but apparently you can pick you way through. It would certainly have to be at a walk though. There are lot of country roads that may be safe to ride along (he’s road safe), so I’ll evaluate that more once we’re there. The best part is a beautiful grass 1/2 mile galloping track. Now THAT I will definitely be utilizing a lot for conditioning work, and for the first time we’ll really have a chance to open up a notch of speed in a safe environment. We’ll start with some nice long trot laps, and go from there.

[Auventera_Two]

I’m no expert, last year was my first season, but I just have a couple ideas to add what everybody else has given you:

As for camping - yes 25 LDs are one-day rides, but the camping is because you need to vet-in and register the night before. Rides usually start very early -dawn to around 7:00 a.m. The horse has to be vetted and you have to be all registered prior to this. It would be a lot of stress to get up at 3 a.m. or earlier to try to get to the ride site in time. Besides, the rides I did had VERY packed campgrounds. If you showed up on ride morning, I don’t even know where you’d park??

Also, the pre-ride briefing is generally held Friday night. This is where they tell you all the nitty gritty you have to know about criteria, and the trail. So I’ve found that you definitely have to take 1/2 of Friday off and get there Friday afternoon/early evening, set up your camp, do your registration, take your horse to the vet, and then relax for the evning. Get a good night sleep if you can, and get up early and be ready to ride out early.

Definitely teach your horse to trot out on lead. They need to be able to step off snappily when you ask. If you can’t get a good trot out then the vet can’t get a good look at their gaits. Practice with a dressage whip and reach around with your left hand, give them a little crack and say TROT UP! Mine took no time at all to learn this.

I totally agree with Shadow14 - walking is MUCH harder for me than trotting and cantering. Get used to trotting for longer distances at a time and cantering. You can go slow and finish in 6 hours but if you want to ride with your friend, make sure she’ll go that slow for you. Or otherwise, you’ll have to be sure your horse can get left behind while she canters on down the trail without you. Or you can also ask her to hook you up with a slow rider that is happy to walk more and finish just in time. That’s how I rode my first LD and it worked really great. I didn’t care about speed. Just being happy, taking care of myself and my horse, and getting the completion in 6 hours. We did it in 5 and that included a lot of putzy putzing on the side of the trail because my horse was a 4 yr old baby who wanted to look at everything.

[Wigwag]

ahh, well I was not aware of all that. Perhaps we will be arriving there at night. If that’s the case, and there are no stalls, this will probably be a deal breaker. He has very limited experience tying to a trailer and I would be a nervous wreck leaving him tied to one all night.

[Auventera_Two]

There are rarely ever stalls at an endurance ride. You always hi-line, tie to the trailer, or set up a portable paddock. If your friend is an experienced endurance rider, she almost certainly has a portable fencer??? If so, you can set up a portable paddock for very cheap and run an electrical connection from hers to fire yours up. But if she only hi-lines or hi-ties, she might not have one. She should be able to give you more advice on this.

My mares had never tied anywhere for more than 30 minutes or so either, but they stood tied quietly to the trailer all night with two big haybags stuffed full and they never made a peep all night. Each horse is different though.

How close do you live to the ride site?

I found out real quick that a 25 LD is not the same as a 25 trail ride. LOL! Don’t get me wrong - there is nothing particularly “hard” about it - it’s just runs a little different than a casual trail ride.

[Wigwag]

No - friend is not an experienced endurance rider. This is an event trainer (hers) who wants to put on the ride. The vast majority of riders will be event riders.

I can not imagine this is an overnight thing, as while I was sitting and eating lunch I remember that this friends horse doesn’t tie to a trailer at all. Not even for tacking up.

[Auventera_Two]

Ok - so it sounds like it is NOT an AERC sanctioned (or other endurance ride organization) sanctioned race? It’s just a 25 mile trail ride? Okay, I don’t mean “just” a trail ride, I mean it’s a trail ride without the vetting and sanctioning and governing bodies and all that, correct? If that’s the case, then yes, that’s a whole different deal than what I’m talking about! :lol: I guess I assumed it was a sanctioned ride.

[Shadow14]

25’s do not require over night camping.They also start later in the day after the 50’s are well off. Since this is ONLY a 25 mile ride it will start later and even at a slow pace 4 hours is plenty. Octra never allowed a 25 to run faster then 4 hours and I found myself wasting time near the finish line waiting for that 4 hours to pass. A slow slow jog will get it done in 4 hours and Vichey if you took 5 hours you must have really slacked off beside the trail???

These are eventing people so it is just a fun thing for the day.
If you ever have to leave a horse tied overnight and I include your friends non tieable horse, run a high line, about 3/4 inch rope as high between 2 trees as you can and then either tie a neck line to this rope, or run a swivil like I do so the horse can clothes line himself up and down the line but NO horse can break away from this, no horse. Use a neck rope passing through a halter and the high clothes line plus trees give enough flex that NO horse can break free and they are free to lay down, graze or walk back and forth.
Tied to a trailer is something else entirely.
Get a good neck line, use it all the time to tie and your horse will be there when you go looking for him. Do not tie with just a halter.
Do you guys know what a neck line is???

[Shadow14]

You beat me too it Vickey.
Norval

[Auventera_Two]

@Shadow14;3194889

25’s do not require over night camping.They also start later in the day after the 50’s are well off. Since this is ONLY a 25 mile ride it will start later and even at a slow pace 4 hours is plenty. Octra never allowed a 25 to run faster then 4 hours and I found myself wasting time near the finish line waiting for that 4 hours to pass. A slow slow jog will get it done in 4 hours and Vichey if you took 5 hours you must have really slacked off beside the trail???

Norval - I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again. EACH RIDE IS DIFFERENT. The ones I’ve done, the 25s have started before the 50s. The 100s go out earlier than everyone. EAch ride management is different.

Also - AERC regulation is to allow 6 hours to finish for 25LDs. This is per Appendix A of the rulebook. I’ve never heard that ride management could, at their discretion, shorten that time to 4 hours. But then again, I’m not an expert, and I know nothing about the rides you do in Canada. A person would have to call the sanctioning bodies and find out the regulations on such things. I’ve never had a reason to question it before.

Also Norval - your AERC ride record shows you did a handfull of 50s and were in the mid to bottom of the pack. You say you did a bazillion races that AERC never logged, and that’s something I know nothing about. But the ones that they DID log didn’t give me any indication that you had to hang around at the finish line burning time. Besides - why would you?! Your finish time is your finish time. You finish - you vet - you’re done. Go back to your trailer, have a cold soda and wait for awards. What do you mean you had to hang around the finish line burning time?

And also remember that the ride time is dependent upon the horse, and trail conditions. Saying that 4 hrs is plenty to jog it easily is ridiculous. It depends on way too many things to be able to make that comment. I always review the ride results on the AERC site and see what the common finishing times are. That gives some indication as to the difficulty of the trail. MANY 25 LDs have riders finishing in the 4-5 hr timeframe, or even 5 1/2 hours. One of the rides I did last year - the places 4-10 were all in excess of 4 hours. Spend some time in the database studying ride times and you can start to see a pattern - the harder trails just take longer. That’s just common sense anyway. When the going is flat and easy, the horses can go faster. Rocky and hilly - slower.

Did you used to ride competitive trail ride, and not endurance? Somewhere there’s a disconnect

[Shadow14]

I’ve never been to a ride where you could NOT finish in 4 hours for the 25. Take as long as you want but do NOT come in under 4 hours. I never had a ride that I needed the 4 hours to do the 25.

Vickey we have been through is a number of times. I rode under different names for different stables to accumulate miles for others to keep their horses qualified.
Check Bobcaygon, June 8th/ 91, Wildfire, 65 miles. I babied him through hell at that ride, the start was 11 miles of swamp.
Lorna Bell lost the horse right behind me with a stick through the gut when the beaver dam collapsed with her on it.
Ride put on by Connie and Jim Rawski. You won’t find my name mentioned anywhere but like many many rides I was the rider.

I can give you date for 32 of them and the name of horses I rode.

Vickey the only reason I didn’t go on to become a top endurance rider is because I choose not to. My wife wasn’t into it at all. Going away a couple of weekends a month, spending $200 plus on each of them was not something I was willing to do nor was I interested in devoting all that time.
They don’t come much tougher then me when it come to sitting a horse and many many a weekend I did 2 day 50’s just for breakfast.
I still run 40-50 miles in a weekend when the snow trails are right just for fun.
No Vickey I choose not to spend the time/ money but that doesn’t stop me from riding the distance for plane pleasure.
Strider was an unbeleivable tough horse and as the miles rolled on he became faster and fresher. My riding buddies slowed him down and I choose not to leave a partner no matter what.

[pandorasboxx]

Octra never allowed a 25 to run faster then 4 hours and I found myself wasting time near the finish line waiting for that 4 hours to pass.

This sounds like a CTR rather than an endurance ride. There is no minimum time that I know of to finish endurance but, correct me if I’m wrong, don’t CTR’s dictate the pace so that you would have a certain time before you crossed the finish line?

[Shadow14]

[QUOTE=pandorasboxx;3195023]
This sounds like a CTR rather than an endurance ride. There is no minimum time that I know of to finish endurance but, correct me if I’m wrong, don’t CTR’s dictate the pace so that you would have a certain before you crossed the finish line?[/QUOTE]

25 miles was never an endurance race. It was an introduction and they limited the time to prevent fools from burning up a horse. You could NOT cross the finish line in under 4 hours or you were disqualified. Mileage counted and they still gave out best condition.
I won BC with my jumper at my first ride ever in Crosshill Oct/89, on Savanna and again in Oct/12/91 on Echo, no that was my daughter on my horse in her first ride, I was riding BJ belonging to Connie Rawski, another horse I was never suppose to have ridden.

[saratoga]

This is off the original topic but I also disagree that doing a 25 in 4 hours is a slow slow jog. To me, that is a fairly brisk trot pace with not a whole lot of walking or dilly-dallying.
Doing a 25 in 3 hours is pretty darn fast, maybe Top Ten. A little too fast IMO for a first timer.

[chicamuxen1]

OCTRA stands for Ontario Competitive Tral ride Association. Their CTR rules are very similar to ECTRA. The 4 hours for 25 miles means you were riding in a CTR not endurance.

Endurance rides put on by OCTRA and else where in Canada are AERC sanctioned rides and follow their rules. That is 6 hours for 25 miles. At an endurance ride there is a much longer vet check in the middle of the ride and it can be as long as 60 minutes. It is also possible to have a second short vet check, it is allowed by AERC in LD rides which can be up to 39 or 40 miles in length, can’t remember. Usually they are 25-30 miles. ECTRA allows a windo of 4:10 -4:50 for 25 miles with a 20 minute hold in the middle. Lot’s of time for most rides but if you are in a rocky/mountainous area or high heat and humidity then that can be a hard pace to make. I have taken 6 hours for an LD put on by the Old Dominion years ago that had two vet checks and three steep/rocky mountain ridges to get up and over.

So there are rides and there are rides.

Bonnie