Re: Conditioning for 100 milers

["Karen Sullivan" <greymare@jps.net>]

> I might be mistaken here, but I think Sarah was kind of asking a
rhetorical
> type question.  She obviously has conditioned a horse for a very difficult
> 100 miler (the OD) and was successful.  I think she was pointing out (at
> least it appeared so for me) that you don't have to ride the beejeezus out
of
> your horse to do a 100 miler.  I happen to agree with Sarah and  have
found
> that to be true for my horse over his 6 Tevis finishes.
>
> Sylvia


Yep,  I'm shaking my head over this............not dismissing it, but having
a hard time to
understand.  Absolutely no offense to Sarah, becuase I believe she knows
what she is
doing........but when I read her OD story it sounded like the horse barely
had enough
conditioning to do a 50!

Maybe you can answer this, Sylvia, living near Tevis country, we have often
discussed what
we would need to do condition-wise if we ever wanted to try Tevis.  I
figured at LEAST one to two years doing at least 6 or 7 50's per year, both
for experience, conditioning and just to know the horse.

We DO ride fairly hard and intense when we ride, and often do rides that are
major climbs, for miles,
that we stay in sustained trot and canter.  My daughter and I have done a
long ride (25 plus) where the last half was all climbing, and the horses
have, for fun, RUN the darn thing, galloping the hills.  Which, of course,
goes against sensible endurance practices, which would be to canter the
flats, trot the hills, and walk the really steep parts.  The horses have
recovered fine from this type of riding...........does this mean they are in
condition to do a conservative Tevis?

Ironically, I have never had a problem with my horse doing this kind of
"balls to the wall" riding.  The two 50 mile rides I prolonged by slowing
her down; she had overheating problems..........never ran across in
conditioni ng rides. (could have been dehydration or electrolyte problems)
but sure is perplexing!

Any comments?  Tom, Sylvia, Sarah?

Karen