Tapering/Peaking (was warming up)

[Roberta Jo Lieberman <woik@home.com>]

<...was wondering how much riding does a person do before the endurance
ride itself.>

Hi Carla,
How much riding to do the week before the ride depends upon many
variables, such as how fast you're planning to run, how seasoned your
horse is, whether the horse is turned out on 30 acres or kept in a pipe
corral, when you last competed, the distance, how far away the ride is,
and the horse's energy/behavorial makeup.

So I can't give you a "prescription" for _your_ horse.  When training
for 50s, 100s or multidays, we try to have our "last major work" no
closer than 10 days before the event. (For some, even that may be too
close. Heavy training causes some decompensation of tissues, which
depending on the system involved may take up to 10 days to rebound and
supercompensate. In addition, you run a risk of injury with no time to recover.)

From there on we go into "taper" mode, significantly lightening up on
the work demand so that we're basically keeping the horses loose. We do
try to give them some form of exercise every day, such as free exercise
or ponying, since they live in pipe corrals. The more you want to
sharpen speed, the greater the taper which will, in Ti's words, "top off
the gas tank". Shipping is stressful and will take something out of the
horse, so you need a bit of reserve before you start out.
 
About the only reason you need to ride the week before is to keep your
horse loose and happy. You won't be adding new capacity at this point --
your horse is about as fit as she's gonna get for this particular
contest. Having said that, exceptions might include a horse who would
otherwise be too "high" at the ride if you let up on her too much. 

Bobbie