Help me plan my Anything You Ever Wanted to Know about Endurance talk that I'm hosting

[tabula_rashah]

So about a year ago, I somehow found myself as a board member of USA Northeast Endurance and in September we are having a big ride and educational event

In prep for this, I’m hosting a question and answer discussion night at a local barn complete with cookies Basically a what is distance riding, how to get started, what’s a ride like, etc. I’m trying to come up with questions that I might get asked. I know I want to dispel a couple myths like that you have to have an Arabian or that we all just gallop our horses hell-bent the whole time. But I’d love questions/ suggestions if anyone has any

[ParadoxFarm]

I would want advice on how to get conditioned if you don’t have easy access to trails. Like, for the everyday training, and then do trails on weekends, etc.

I like cookies.

[tabula_rashah]

Thank you- that is a great question! especially it really probably describes the majority of riders

[ParadoxFarm]

Thanks! (And this is a true question of mine! I always thought endurance would be fun, but I don’t have a lot of space, and trail riding is limited.)

[tabula_rashah]

It can definitely be done with ring work during the week and trails on the weekends.
My ring-work conditioning days (twice a week) usually look something like: 10 min walk warm up, 3-4 trot sets of 5 mins trot, 1-2 mins walk (depending on fitness), 10 minutes of walk/ lateral work, 3-4 canters sets of 3 mins canter, 1-2 mins walk, 10 min cool down walk. Sometimes I throw in some pole work or jumps or play with collection and extension just to keep things interesting. Then on the weekends do a long trail ride

[ParadoxFarm]

Thanks for that. I appreciate it. Good luck with your presentation.

[OverandOnward]

You probably have already thought this out and it’s in your plan – When I first started looking into endurance riding, almost all I knew about were the ones that get the most publicity, the 50 to 100 milers.

My questions at the time very much centered around much shorter distances. And if I can do endurance as a side discipline, occasionally, and not make a life out of it. I have another discipline that I focus on and thought endurance would be a great additional experience and learning option for both myself and the horse.

5, 10, 20 miles … can you stay at those levels, can you do them occasionally and still be fit for them.

I also didn’t really care about being competitive. Are people at rides just for the experience welcome, where do they fit in the community.

Basically, what is available, what are the differences, between short-distance to long-distance, competitive and not so competitive. That kind of thing.

I would love to hear your talk about endurance riding, one day!

[tabula_rashah]

Those are all fantastic questions and ones I wouldn’t really have thought of!
Did you get the chance to try endurance?
I’ve been involved in distance riding since 2001 and I still am just there to have fun, not to be competitive per say. If I can finish with a happy, healthy horse then I’ve had a good day, anything else is icing on the cake

[OverandOnward]

I did not, sudden horse health changes. The OTTB had been introduced to trail riding on a huge ranch and did well with a small group, 4 to 5 horses. Had a friend in another state who had done a few endurance rides and she and her horse really enjoyed it. Hopefully there will be another chance at some point.

I haven’t done any endurance info searching recently. But at the time several years ago (pre-covid) I was struck by how much information had to be learned by endurance community word of mouth, and how little was online. Was thinking that devotees are so busy with their horses and activities, they don’t have time to build out websites and online info.

I know endurance is a special demand on the horse and rider. I wanted to know some things and be prepared. It was apparent that most of the learning would be in-person.

That would be another thing for your talk – where and how to find out more about endurance riding. Information and organizations. Is there instruction, how to find it. Gateway info for newbs, basically.

[MorganMaresVT]

We’ve hosted several intro clinics at GMHA the past few years, and, in no particular order, some of the questions that come up:

1. What does it really mean to maintain an average pace of 5-6mph? How much walk, trot, canter is that? When in the ride should you walk, trot, canter?

2. Vetting:
   

   -What happens at a vet check?
   
   
   -What are “pulse criteria?”
   
   
   -How do I prepare for a vet check, especially when my horse is fine with me and my vet, but freaks out with a new vet in that environment?
   
   
   -How do I do a trot out? Trot circles (more of an ECTRA thing, but there’s a lot of cross over in this region)
   
   -What if I don’t agree with the vet scores?

3. What is a hold? How does time at the hold factor into completion?

4. What is rider optioning, when/why would I do that?

5. If my horse or I get hurt on trail, how do we get help/get back to camp?

6. How do I teach my horse to camp? What do you use to keep them contained safely?

7. How do you manage to not get lost following ribbons?!

8. How can I find a mentor to go out on training rides with me or go out with me at my first few rides?

9. How will I know if my happy trail horse will become a fire-breathing race-brained dragon when we get to our first ride?

10. What tack do I need? Can I use my roping/barrel/dressage/jumping saddle?

11. Boots vs. shoes. Discuss

12. Bits vs. bitless. Discuss

13. What do you mean I can get pulled after I finish the ride?!

14. Why should I volunteer before I do a ride? What will I do as a volunteer? How can I find a ride to volunteer at because the info on the AERC website is minimal?

15. What is the difference between an AERC ride and ECTRA/other CTR ride? Why are the rules so different? Which is “better?”

16. How much prize money is there?

I’m sure I’ll think of more, but those are the ones that came to me initially. Thanks for leading the educational session - every effort to attract new riders and help them have a good first experience is so important right now!

[SharonA1]

Hmm. I don’t see them anymore, but it seems to me that the Endurance and Trail Riding section of COTH used to have bookmarks at the top of the page for AERC (American Endurance Ride Council?) and Ridecamp@endurance.net and https://www.natrc.org/ (North AmericanTrail Riding Conference.

In any case, those resources might have some topics of discussions. I remember them as having tons of information available, everything from conditioning your horse to what to expect at rides.

Here’s a couple links:

Home - AERC

Home - AERC

[tabula_rashah]

These are all great points and not ones normally brought up- I really appreciate you taking the time to post here!
We are working towards getting more information out there online between all the different distance organizations. What state are you in and I can send you the links to your local organizations?
As far as instruction, while I’m sure there are some barns that offer lesson, most “instruction” is more mentor based or via clincs (often held at rides).

[tabula_rashah]

These are all fantastic- thank you!
I definitely plan on discussing ECTRA (I’m in Maryland) and Ride and Tie/ Equathon also.

[tabula_rashah]

Thank you- yes, I definitely have all of the info from AERC available as well as ECTRA (our local competitive rides as opposed to NATRC)

[ParadoxFarm]

Maybe this would be a good presentation to have video recorded and maybe posted on a YouTube link. I know I’d watch it.

[clanter]

Explain the differences between Endurance and Competitive Trail.

We went the Competitive Trail route racking up many thousands of miles.

[OverandOnward]

@MorganMaresVT

How can I find a mentor to go out on training rides with me or go out with me at my first few rides?

So – add to that, a mentor who is truly a trail-riding mentor, not a race-brained hardcore who is excited about taking more horses over the trail, but completely oblivious to the needs and safety of absolute newbies, both riders and horses.

I saw a potential disaster ride with a ‘mentor leader’ who was leaving the newbies behind at obstacles where they were struggling. Completely blind that most of her group was becoming spread out behind her, because they had little idea how to keep their horse on the designated trail, and what to do at points with small navigation issues that were new to them. Yes, some of the horses were becoming anxious, and this lady was oblivious.

All the while she was talking on and on about how great her horse was on so many grand long competitive rides. And how race-brained her horse was. (So why select this one to lead a newbs’ first ride??) She explained what race-brained meant. My thinking, based on observation: She was way more race-brained than her horse!

I posted elsewhere in a trail ride discussion about my long experience with the considerable danger of any human member of a trail ride group who doesn’t understand that, by necessity, the slowest and clumsiest sets the pace and tone of the ride. Sometimes veteran riders are the worst, because they have forgotten what ‘newb’ is.

Especially as someone new to trail/endurance riding, a first-timer on early rides, one has to be cautious about who is on the ride, as well as the trail itself. Horses can be weird on trails, they need a lot of supportive riding. Veteran rider promises to ‘go easy’ and keep the group together are not always kept. Problems can escalate quickly.

[CoffeeLover]

In addition to the excellent suggestions above on conditioning and starter rides, I’d love to know about equipment. I’ve seen endurance folks and their horses wearing all kinds of different gear - what do I need/not need to get started?

[goodhors]

Should you get anyone looking at conditioning for DRIVING, you need them to know their horse needs canter-gallop work to get fit. We had to learn that the hard way, retired when horse did not recover well enough to go on after Vet Check. We WERE trotting 14 miles during a workout!! Along with that, is that not all carriages “canter-gallop” well. Especially older vehicles may want to jack-knife on you at the canter. Most modern, metal vehicles, 2-wheel carts, can work well for the canter-gallop work. Horses need to “learn the feel” of harness and shafts pulling on the horse body VERY differently than when just walking and trotting. You don’t want them spooking at that feeling!! Training for the canter-gallop should be in any well-trained driving horse’s skills book! It can happen, horse just rolls into a canter sometimes, so train for it!

Always do your canter-gallop work heading AWAY from home, do it a little longer distance than you think horse needs it. Get him puffing a bit as you build stamina, wind capacity, then slow down. Horse is NOT allowed to slow to trot or walk unless Driver asks for it! Horse is GLAD to slow when asked! Ha ha The more starts and slow downs you do, the easier it is to get and keep horse well-controlled at speed. Just like riding. Canter-gallop is no big deal! You ABSOLUTELY cannot get the Driving horse fit enough to compete in even gentle hills on a Marathon course without the canter-gallop work.

Fitting, conditioning a Driving horse is not the same as a ridden horse. These are points we learned years ago, the hard way. No FUN in having to retire early, but not the horse’s fault if WE didn’t do her conditioning correctly! We learned from our mistakes, did a MUCH BETTER job as we continued in our Driving competition. Try getting a Four conditioned to compete! ALL need to come down fast, to allow further Marathon progress.

Good luck with your talk, and thanks for putting it on! It should be very helpful to those starting out in distance riding and maybe driving too.

[Mango20]

When I decided to do a 25 mile ride (25 years ago), I think my biggest unknowns were about the vet check. I was also worried about camping the night before with my horse (who was fine the whole time).