Hi I started competing with my mare in endurance this season (new for both of us).
I’m curious to learn what your winter training regime is like. Do you keep the intensity up or drop it back or give the winter off completely?
I live in France where there’s no snow and mild weather so it’s possible to ride outside all year.
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That would depend on the horse in question.
When I had a fit horse who had competed all season, they would get the worst 2 months of winter totally off. Then be legged back up in time to start the next competition season (here that is late march to late october).
A green horse would keep working, with the intensity dependent upon things like the horse’s age and our goals.
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Thanks for your reply !
My horse is 7. I only decided in July to start training for endurance (before we did trail riding and dressage for leisure). Here in France you have to start at 20km and qualify for 40km, then 60km, 80, etc. I wasn’t aware of this rule so I had trained her for a 40km in September but then we had to compete 20km. So now I’ll plan to do the first race in May at 40km and then maybe do a 60 later in the season depending how things go.
I’ll for sure keep riding through the winter as I normally would have before we started the endurance training (3-4 rides per week mix of dressage and trail rides) but I don’t know if I am meant to keep doing the faster rides through the winter or we pick that up again a couple months before the first race?
If that was my horse, I would keep doing your normal rides for the winter and then pick up the pace a couple months before the first ride. Get your base really solid with long, slow work and then you will have a solid foundation for faster work.
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