Basic Conditioning

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net

Lif Strand said:

>> I am much more concerned about running my horses legs off than I am about 
>> running his heart out. <....> 
>> The metabolic pull had absolutely nothing to do with cardiovascular 
>> conditioning. 
>
> Hmmm. Then where do some of those metabolic crashes, tying up, etc. come from during
> a race if not from lack of cardiovascular conditioning? 

I did not mean to suggest that horses cannot suffer metabolic crashes from lack of cardiovascular fitness, but merely to state
that I have found that if I do enough work with my horse to get
its legs in condition for the effort, that will be more than
enough work to get the cardiovascular system into condition for
the effort.

So if I am running my horse past its cardiovascular
conditioning, well...I am probably running it past it
musculoskeletal conditioning as well (which, if I had to guess,
is the primary cause of most "tying up" episodes in endurance
horses--but that is just a guess).  And while my horse is
unlikely to "crash" at an endurance ride from this type of
overwork, I (and the horse) will be sorry for it down the road. 
Neither a heart rate monitor, nor a ride veterinarian can tell
me if I am running my horse's legs off; and the horse won't tell
me either (at least, not while I am doing it).  The only way to
get an inkling of whether I am running my horse's legs off or
not is to know how much conditioning of the horse's legs I have
done up to that point, compare it with the effort that I am
asking of it on any particular day, constantly be very aware of
the nuances of my horse's movement and gait/s, and regularly run
my hands all over the horse's body.

The cardiovascular system is not, in my experience, the limiting
system in an endurance horse, and if I work my horse to maximize
its cardiovascular conditioning, his legs aren't going to last
very long; while if I properly work my horse to maximize its
musculoskeletal conditioning, then sufficient cardiovascular
conditioning will be done as a by-product without any thought or
consideration on my part.

And, you will note, that I say "properly" working my horse to
maximize its musculoskeletal conditioning.  

I don't have to give any thought to conditioning my horse's
hooves, the hooves are attached to the legs and if I have
conditioned the legs, the hooves will be conditioned as a by
product too...with no thought or consideration on my part.

I don't have to give any thought to conditioning for agility,
because if I am conditioning my horse's legs sufficiently and
schooling my horse's mind properly (i.e. engageing its
hindquarters), strength and agility are a by-product of that
work...with no thought or consideration on my part.

I don't have to give any thought to conditioning my horse's
back, because if I am conditioning my horse's legs sufficiently
and schooling my horse's mind properly (i.e. engaging its
hindquarters), then a strong and supple back is a by-product of
that work...with no thought or consideration on my part.

In fact, I can look at my horse's hooves, its back, its
cardiovascular fitness level, and its strength and agility and
use these things to evaluate the condition of my horse's legs;
because they will tell me whether the schooling of the mind and
the conditioning of the legs is being successful.

This may not be true for people who wish to race their endurance
horses rather than just ride them. (I don't know, because I
don't race endurance.  Whenever I have finished in the top ten
it has been a "happy accident."  I am sufficiently busy with
taking care of my own horse and riding my own horse to want to
concern myself with how and where the other people on the course
are riding theirs.)

But I cannot think that this is poor advice for a novice rider.
A novice endurance enthusiast needs to learn how to ride their
endurance horse before they try to race their endurance horse.

And I wish, when I was a novice endurance rider, that somebody
had told me "don't worry about your horse's cardiovascular
conditioning, just do enough work to condition your horse's legs
and you will have more than enough cardiovascular capacity to
get through an endurance ride."

Because then I wouldn't have made the mistake of thinking that 
I could race my endurance horse just because he was more than
cardiovascularly fit to do so.

Even after thousands of miles of competition, I am still trying
to figure out the best way to condition my horse's legs for the
effort (and evaluate that condition, and not go beyond that
condition).

By comparison, the cardiovascular system was easy; I had the
cardiovascular fitness level of my first endurance horse more
than suffienct for anything that I asked of him, before I ever
took him to his first ride.  And it is easy to tell, even without
a heart rate monitor, when I am over taxing any horse's cardio-vascular system.

kat
Orange County, Calif.