They are held during endurance rides but are governed by the Ride and Tie Association.There are two types of Equathon- one with a partner and one solo (called Iron Person).
The picture above was from a partner one. The rider goes out and rides the loop (this one was 10 miles) and then comes back to camp for a vet check. As soon as the horse is at the pulse parameter (usually 64), the runner can take off on the same loop. Then the times are added together. If you are doing the Iron Person you ride the loop, vet and then run the loop for your total time.
It sounds crazy but it’s a lot of fun and amazing group of people
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As in a person on two feet running??
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Yep 
Very impressive!
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Just seeing this. No, I don’t ride in the rain. My horse gets really demonstratively unhappy. He’s one of the first to run into his run-in shed when it merely sprinkles. I’ve worked him through sprinkles and short rains but he’s demonstratively unhappy and his focus is gone.
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I will ride while it rains (indoor arena) but if I can avoid it, I will not ride in the rain. If I am in the outdoor and it is sprinkling or only raining lightly I will stick it out although perhaps cut a ride short. Otherwise, ha, no, absolutely not.
I have one memorable show year where our first outdoor show of the year had me warming up in a blizzard (in the second to last weekend in May! In Chicago!!!) and then the August show had hellacious delays due to storms and then when we got the all clear per lightning being done, we were still stuck riding in soggy wet downpour. (Venue’s footing is great in extreme wet so that wasn’t a concern.)
My horse and I were, in both instances, the picture of stoic resignation. I did not enjoy having to get my show boots off after being soaked through to the bone, though. I would not care to repeat the experience if at all possible
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I only have an outdoor and I don’t deliberately ride in real rain except for lessons/clinics/shows. A) I hate my tack getting soaked. I finished a lesson in a torrential downpour a few years ago and had literal puddles in my boots. It started so suddenly that by the time we could have gone inside we couldn’t get any wetter anyway. B) My arena builder says I won’t hurt the base but their hooves do sometimes punch divots in it when everything is saturated. Also, it drains so beautifully when I seal it before heavy rain that once I do so, I hate to put hoofprints in the footing. C) I am very busy and over-scheduled so a rainy day is sometimes a nice excuse to just stay in the house!
If it starts while I’m already riding I will continue my ride though. Neither of my horses enjoys riding in the rain and will demonstrate that with some ear pinning and head flipping. The younger one has some headshaking tendencies and it feels cruel to force him to work with rain firing his nerves. Interestingly, he ended up doing two dressage shows in the rain this year. I am too cheap to scratch and he needed the mileage. I figured if he was truly miserable under saddle we’d scratch once there and at least he would have had an outing. There was no head flipping in the show environment though, I guess because he was too distracted to remember he hates rain on his nose?
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My horses could never convince me that they would melt in the rain because they stood out in it (and snow) all the time, in spite of having two very nice, deep sheds available.
Rebecca
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I don’t yet know about Lola, but she doesn’t seem to mind standing in her paddock in the rain at all. I used to trail ride Feronia in light to medium rain, as long as there wasn’t any lightning or high winds. I only hand walk her now, and generally skip it if it’s raining.
There are some that don’t have a choice and would think this is a funny question-pros that work on horses, mounted search and rescue units, etc. I would be interested to know what they use for all-day raingear if there are any on this board.
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One reason I don’t, I realized, is that I’m leasing this mare, and I took her out one day for a roll after a rain. She loves her roll! Anyway, I brought her back up to the barn and the owner had a bit of a fluster about how wet she was and how she needed to be towelled off.
The mare has a thin coat, it’s true. But it was also about 50 degrees out, so that seemed over the top to me. I don’t want to run afoul of the owner, so I guess I crossed that off my list entirely.
I’ve always held that people and horses are basically waterproof, even if our clothing isn’t. But it was a surprise when that gal asked if I was going out and I realized I hadn’t even considered it.
I find that if I have a quarter sheet on the horse and a long raincoat on me, the only part of the horse that’s wet is the neck. Which gets wet even in a rain sheet. I also find that a wool cooler will dry a horse off better than towelling but it does take an hour.
I would love to know what our mounted police units wear in the rain here! Of course police and rescue units tend to ride more slowly and methodically. You could have heavier slickers than you’d want for schooling flying changes or jumping in the rain!
Case in point… we got 2.5” of rain last night but my arena is lovely because I sealed it! With hoofprints it would be splashy for days.
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What do you mean by “sealing” it? I’ve never heard of that before.
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It just means dragging it to flatten out the surface, so the water can run off and puddles don’t form in the hoofprints. Some people use a roller but I don’t have one, just a regular arena drag. It seriously makes a HUGE difference in draining/drying time, at least in my footing, which is sand with some rubber.
My BO added a log at the top of his drag. Pretty low maintenance and low cost, it’s pretty even and he likely purchased it from someplace like Lowes. I drag the arena a lot. I can send you a pic if you’d like. The log weights down the typical drag and really helps even out the hoofprints. Same thing, we seal the arena before rains and I drag 4 “swooshes” toward the now formal drain but previously unofficial gravity grain. I convinced the BO, who is kind of new to arenas, that 4 swooshes are better than one with this particular grade and drainage pattern.
Ah ok, that makes sense. Learn something new everyday. Thanks!
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