Ridecamp: Re: [RC] how many days a week do you ride for a 25?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Long" <jlong@xxxxxxxx>
>
> It's more than enough.  Most horses kept on pasture or ridden
> weekends can do a slow 25 with no additional conditioning at all.
>
>
Joe, I'm shaking my head here and with all due respect (a lot of respect for
your experience and achievements, and all other high-mileage veterans of the
sport that say the same thing), I have to say you might be doing a huge
diservice to horses to make statements like this.

This has NOT been my experience based on years of observations.  That
statement implies you can take a horse out of pasture, and do a 25....even
with a SLOW 25,  you have to some trotting and cantering to finish in 6
hours; and what about hills thrown in?  Unless people have huge, hilly
pastures like Bob Morris or Kat Swigart, most horses don't get  continued
aerobic exercise in pastures!

I have seen far too many colics and tie up's over the years from the
plod-along-huge-club-crowd riders; and those horses get out somewhat
regularly and do a lot of walking....but every year at Pt Reyes, when people
ride up and over the ridege to the beach and back (16 miles); horses come
back dehydrated and colicking, or have tied-up on the way back-there is
frequently a vet in camp that night.!

I have a great example in my back  yard right now-a boarder Appy cross mare
(arab?) that I first saw 7 years ago and thought would be a great distance
horse given her conformation and spirit.  But she has sat and done not much
at all.....and now boards with me at age 14.  Now, she likes to move, and I
often see her trotting or cantering in for feeding, on a 3 acre flat
pasture.  She is not fat, but not much muscle tone. But, to get on her back,
and ride for more than an hour or so, would be cruel.  She would no doubt,
be sore.

Maybe it is different to take a CONDITIONED endurance horse (that has had
skeletal and metabolic systems fit at one time), lay them off in pasture for
a winter, then hop on and do a slow 25.....I don't know.  Around Calif.,
even some of the LD rides have significant hills.....
I absolutely can't fathom taking this horse 25 miles, even WALKING.

I just can't believe that horses are any different from dogs or
humans....you just don't go out and do 10, 15, 25 miles from scratch!
Karen


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