How long to recover...

[normandy_shores]

…after an LD ride?

This season I’m still going to be focusing mostly on eventing, but also planning to squeeze in an LD ride or two. Horse is pretty fit as is, and we’re not doing the rides to “Race”, but just to finish. Is it feasible to do an easy paced LD ride and a week later enter a lower level event? During event season we often end up doing back to back events, but he gets the time in between just off or hacking. We don’t really school or drill much during the season (Last season, I don’t think I jumped outside of events for several months!)

I’m looking at mid June, and we have a month of no competing leading up to the LD ride…

Thanks!

[ehwaz]

A day for every ten miles is a good rule of thumb, adding an extra time if the ride was very hot or tough.

[candysgirl]

I generally give my Arab the day after off entirely then I’ll just hack the second day after. I don’t do anything strenuous, just get him out and moving. Days 3-6 (depending) I’ll usually do pretty normal workouts an hour to an hour and a half of (which if he’s trotting/cantering most of amounts to a good 10 miles). These are either going down the road or we’ll stay in the arena and do dressage work - sometimes with ground poles. The day before the next ride I’ll give him off basically and we usually haul in that day. I’ll usually get on and hack around for a half hour or so once we get there. Do an easy walk/jog down the trail or around camp just to loosen him up after the trailer ride before putting him in his pen for the night.

[normandy_shores]

So assuming he handles the ride well and feels ok, I could theoretically compete a week later? I would have my entry for the event in knowing that if he didn’t feel 100% I would obviously scratch.

[chicamux]

You know what, I’m going to disagree with the other posts. Many people find that their first LD was a bit more than they thought it was going to be. It may have a lot more hard road than your horse was conditioned for, it may be a muddy 25 miles. You may not be measuring your training rides with an accurate GPS and you haven’t been doing 15-18 mile training rides before the LD. If your horse has stocked up legs or is tired after that first LD than this first time you may want to skip that event the weekend after the LD and just go out for a sensible ride.

I remember my first 25 mile ECTRA CTR. There was so much hard blue stone road that my sweet horse windpuffed all four legs. I had been doing road work to condition her legs to hard surfaces and was sure that all of her training was sufficient. I was wrong, it was harder than I thought it would be. It was longer than I thought it would be. Do you need to get an entry in ahead of time for the event? If not just wait and see how that first LD goes.

Chicamuxen

[The_Equestrian_Vagab]

I like to say it always depends on the horse. Chicamux can be right… depends on how hard the LD is, the terrain, conditioning, etc. Of course, if your horse feels good a week later, you can always try the lower level event and see how it goes. It’s not like you’d be throwing him into the Grand National, right? and sometimes a horse will start out tired in a ride and get stronger as he goes on. maybe it’s the same way eventing? (I don’t know anything about eventing - yet!)

[bornfreenowexpensive]

I suppose it depends on what you define as a LD rider and lower level event.

I’d say don’t do it. It is just more stress and complication than needed.

I think it is better to give a bit more time—and I’m an eventer who also will do some events back to back (training level and below) but feel that is a bit different. To me, when you are doing a new sport, you need to be more conservative and more focused until you have a better feel for it. So I would reduce your distractions around this first LD ride–and that includes the worry about getting to an event the next weekend. Look at the schedule and pick a different event later in the season.

[normandy_shores]

BFNE - the LD is 22 miles, and by lower level I mean Entry (2’9). I’ve got a few months to see how he handles longer conditioning rides, I can decide whether to even put my entry in later.

[HappyTalk]

LOL. I had a friend who was a vet who would do a 25 mi CTR and then drive from the CTR to compete in a horse trial (novice) the very next day. She regularly competed in 50 mi CTRs. Her horses (morgans) were very fit.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

[QUOTE=normandy_shores;7403884]
BFNE - the LD is 22 miles, and by lower level I mean Entry (2’9). I’ve got a few months to see how he handles longer conditioning rides, I can decide whether to even put my entry in later.[/QUOTE]

That sounds like a good plan. Entry isn’t very hard on them at all so he may be just fine. I’d think a 22-25 mile LD wouldn’t likely be more stressful than a solid day hunting on a fit horse.

If he seems to be handling the conditioning well…and you don’t mind losing the entry fee for the event if he seems like he will need more recovery time—I’d go for it. Unless there was another event that is good two weeks after the LD ride.

[normandy_shores]

The next event after that is in another 2 weeks (so 3 weeks after the LD). I work on call and it’s extremely hard for me to get time off. They’ve given me a few early season dates (5 weeks prior to the LD) and the week after and 3 weeks after (and that’s it).