endurance folks - when and for how long do you dismount and walk/jog?

[Shadow14]

[QUOTE=Romantic Rider;3865890]
This is funny. Around here, (Midwest region, mostly Wisconsin and Minnesota), the best 50 mile riders are tiny women on monster horses who NEVER get off. .[/QUOTE]

that goes against the perfect endurance horse. An endurance horse is NOT muscled like a quarter horse and is lean with ribs showing.
Our light weight riders had to make 160 pounds??? I ran heavy weight and had to make a certain weight or I was booted down to middle weight.
'Really light girls had to carry weights to make class.

I weigh 190 without saddle so with saddle I forget the weight break but I carried full water bottles for the weigh in so I could make heavy weight.
It was better to be at the bottom of heavy weight then the top end of middle.

A runner, a good runner can give a horse a rough time in the bush so think of a good runner leading a horse and splitting the distance with him. It sure saved the horse. I was on the ground constantly.

[patti]

Ah, Elk Valley …

… my first endurance ride too, with Ned, one week after his first recognized dressage show. He had the most nicely pulled mane and banged tail at the ride!

Bonnie, do you remember Donna Shrader’s friend, Nancy McAninch? (She won a bunch at Elk Valley and Fort Armstrong … with Czar Fire. Super neat lady.)

In any case, I was riding with her once, and she told me this as we were climbing a big hill – “365 days a year I feed and water this horse twice a day, I pick up all of his poop, I do hay, and pay for the vet and the farrier. He can carry my butt up a hill.”

I thought it was funny.

I think the answer on this one, as with most things endurance, is: It Depends.

[Romantic_Rider]

@Shadow14;3870562

that goes against the perfect endurance horse. An endurance horse is NOT muscled like a quarter horse and is lean with ribs showing.
Our light weight riders had to make 160 pounds??? I ran heavy weight and had to make a certain weight or I was booted down to middle weight.
'Really light girls had to carry weights to make class.

Maybe I should re-phrase that. I mean “monster” in comparison to their riders. I know what an endurance horse should look like. I mean that these are women riding Featherweight, (under 165, and no, there is no minimum weight), on like 15.2 hh horses. Believe me, they are incredible endurance horses, they just look huge compared to these tiny, tough women.

Though I absolutely do NOT agree that they have to have their ribs showing. When I bought my 15.3 hh Anglo mare she was quite thin, you could see all her ribs, if she wasn’t exactly gaunt, and she wasn’t doing to hot at the rides either. The last two seasons I’ve ridden her I’ve turned her into a consistent top ten horse, and she looks sleek, shiny, and absolutely in peak condition. I could not count all the compliments I have gotten on how amazing she looks, even from vets. And she’s done pretty darn well, even though I can’t see any of her ribs. There is one set of riders who come to our rides with horses that look like rails, nice sets of ribs showing-- they ride hard and usually do pretty well, but they also go through horses like crazy. They don’t have a good reputation and people are always commenting on how awful their horses look. Those are people who give this sport a bad reputation. My horse doesn’t. If you want I’ll post pictures of her then and now. Just don’t tell me ribs are a necessity for a good endurance horse.

[Shadow14]

![]( don’t want too much rib showing but at the same time I don’t want alot of excess fat either. A good endurance horse in good condition when he breathes you should see some rib. Why carry excess weight. 50 miles is not that far and you don’t need excess weight to carry you through a short distance like that.

This is Echo. I consider him a touch too ribby but he is in good shape
[IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/6r3pjc.jpg)

[saratoga]

Any time I see a thin, ribby horse, I think it is being over-trained or not fed properly, or maybe has ulcers or some health issue going on. I think its good to carry a little extra weight, especially for multi-days and that type of ride. When I did the a multi-day in Utah a few years back, my horse lost a lot of weight from trailering 600 miles each way, doing back to back 50s and then coming home in the course of 5 days.

[Auventera_Two]

I’ve seen Romantic Rider’s horses and they are lovely, fit animals - like she said, in peak condition. :yes: None of that skinny, ribby, ratty looking stuff for me either. My horse is in my profile. That’s what she looks like every day. She had raging ulcers when that pic was taken, though I didn’t know at the time, and I worked danged hard to keep her looking that good because she was (and still is) a very hard keeper.

I also agree with her assessment that in our region (Midwest) it seems like the itty bitty women on 15.2 or 15.3 hand horses are the top competitors.

The quite famous Louise Reidell said something that I’ve heard repeated by people more than once - If this horse can’t carry me every mile of a ride, then I need another horse. I did not know her (she is now passed on) but from what I hear, she rarely was off the horse.

I’m a lightweight, not a featherweight, so I get off and walk into the vet check to make sure my horse is pulsed down. If I could lose 30 lbs, that might not be necessary. Ahhh, another goal for this coming season…But otherwise, the only time I’ve ever gotten off during a ride was when Sweets was being a lunatic on her first LD ever. Sweets would love to be a top competitor, front runner horse and for me to try to bumble along beside her on the ground would only make her angry, and probably get me a twisted ankle or something. I am not very coordinated on the ground and trip on my own feet.

[saratoga]

I dont think people who take some time to walk or jog do it because they have to, they just want to. I do know some people who will run alongside their horses for maybe half of the whole time. They also do ultra-marathons and that type of thing.
I definitely like to do some walking and jogging, makes for great fitness and makes me less sore!! I was planning to do a half marathon next month, but didnt get around to training- been riding too much
Really, theres all types in endurance, from the very fit athletes to the obese riders.