I can guarantee you from personal experience that it will!!!
G.
I can guarantee you from personal experience that it will!!!
G.
Wow - we ride 3-4-5-6 hours days in a row regularly. I’ve never had a horse seem tired from that. I’d agree with doing some blood work. I do ride a lot in generally, over varied terrain and at all gaits. All of my friends go camping and ride multiple days, at least that much. I think it’s pretty typical for trail horses.
I do agree with dismounting for a bit - it’ll perk you up, and the horses always seem to appreciate a bit of a break. I also let mine stop and eat periodically. More than four hours without forage is too long for most horses. I’m fortunate to live where there’s nearly always something for them to munch, and as long as they treat it as fast food and not a sit down meal, I’m happy to let them have a bite.
You will love camping! Just take it at a speed that works for you both, and enjoy!
For people suggesting blood tests, what did you have in mind?
Are you thinking that QH panel of genetic tests that includes HYPP?
Or insulin resistance?
Or something else?
This is a suburban horse that hasn’t had many long rides in her life (I just got a truck and trailer two years ago). She has always seemed very healthy, and will certainly run with the herd in pasture. But we’ve certainly had issues in the past with her not wanting to go forward.
I’d ask your vet for thoughts on what might cause her low energy. She may just be lazier…some of us are!
She has a split personality. Dopey Paint or crazy green eventer.
I call her that because she went to schooling cross country events with my coach exactly twice and aquitted herself with promise, didn’t get eliminated in any phase and ripped around the cross country phase at warp speed.
Some days she comes out with a bounce in her step, some days she comes out dopey but then the green eventer switch goes on and she wants to canter nonstop, and some days she is just dopey the whole ride.
The last few years I’ve been working on having her manifest her lively side more consistently.
So its not just laziness.
As we work on more speed and distance, part of the conundrum is that when she gets hot, she’s happy to overdo it and canter everywhere, and be exhausted the next day.
I don’t have her papers but she’s said to be Paint crossed with Appendix. So figure there is 1/4 OTTB in there and 1/4 QH, both giving speed and the OTTB giving that switch on to run. But 1/2 Paint, which makes her calm and confident, and maybe a bit of a couch potato.
She can be as hot and fast as an OTTB in turnout with a huge buck and run, but she gets winded faster than OTTB, and quits while they are still doing laps at full speed.
When I was scribing for endurance rides last year the vets said trailering is roughly equivalent to a ride one quarter the length of the trailer ride. So two hours in the trailer adds 30 min to your total work time.
The other thing to consider is that in drier weather any sweat will evaporate more quickly and you might not be aware of just how much sweat she produces - and how much she might need electrolytes to help her recovery.
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For testing, I was thinking of a DNA test - you might want to check for PSSM, I’m not so familiar with the other stock horse energy metabolism issues and if they exist in a more subtle form or if it’s full-blown symptoms or nothing.
For instance, full-blown PSSM includes tying up and inability to move. Yeah, we had a Percheron who was showing tight back, bucking (especially into canter), mysterious back end lameness that would come and go, stumbling … well, turns out he is positive/positive for PSSM (some crazy percentage of that breed is) that now at least we had a direction to go with management. He never once has tied up, which is the number one symptom of that condition … he just wasn’t able to use his back muscles - they didn’t work!
You might want to do maybe HYPP and PSSM more to rule it out and look a different direction. (Maybe do some reading up to see if you want to?)
Anyway, it’s super simple. Here is the link to the PSSM testing page: https://www.animalgenetics.us/Equine/Genetic_Disease/PSSM.asp
Just rip out some mane hairs with roots still attached, put them in a baggie and mail them off labeled as instructed.
Say, looking around on the site - there are lots of new cool genetic tests for lots of stuff. OMG, I’m such a nerd!
we rode NATRC competitive rides that were 50 to 60 miles over a weekend… to leg up an unfit horse a non-stop workout of 1 to 2 hours per day, four or five days per week would be a reasonable program. Walk the climbs and descents, and trot only on good, level ground
here is a general outline on how to prepare a horse in about 30 days
https://www.natrc.org/preparing-for-ctr
this worked for us as we are at about 600 feet but did rides in the mountains above 7,000 feet.
It sounds like you’re on top of just about everything so I’m assuming you’ve balanced her minerals, too?
I’ve noticed that as our herd ages (20’s) they do seem tired the day after we ride (an hour at the walk, hour coffee break, then another hour wtc to get home), But then, as I’ve aged I’m much more tired the day after too, so I get it.