Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> In a message dated 5/17/2004 12:28:25 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> rides2far@xxxxxxxx writes:
>
> > In Lou Hollander's book, "Endurance Riding Beginning to Winning" he
> > said  that when your horse can do a 6 hr. 50 he's ready for a 100.
> Boy, I'm glad Chewy can't read!  And I haven't ever read the book.  I
> think  his fastest 50 prior was 6:45.  He probably wasn't quite fit
> enough for the 100  at Biltmore, we were out there longer than I like to
> be.  But he doesn't hate  me, looked great the next morning and still
> looks good.  Needs more weight, I  think (where they had the scales was
> not a a good place, I kept forgetting to  weigh) he lost tops 20 pounds
> at Biltmore.
>
> Nina
LOL!  Yes, it is often good that they CAN'T read, isn't it?

Lots of good comments on this thread so far.

I don't think "Lew's Rule" is a hard-and-fast one--as someone else pointed
out, what sort of terrain, etc. makes a difference.  But it is a good
general ballpark figure.

Joe is right that it isn't just the time--it is how you and your horse
feel afterward, and how your horse is meeting parameters.  If you both
have something left in the tank, then yes, you can certainly consider
going further.  If you are ready to go crawl in a hole and die, or your
horse is struggling to meet criteria and then goes back to the trailer and
just stares at his haynet, you are not ready.

I'm with Nina here that one of the biggest factors is how the horse takes
care of himself.  If he is one of those "Hoovers" that eats everything in
sight and sucks the water up at every opportunity, he is a good candidate.
If you are having to micromanage him through 50s, then he is not a good
candidate.

And again as Joe pointed out, a lot of it is mental.  You have to have
made up your mind that you are going to do it, and that you CAN do it. 
And when you have gotten that mindset that it will be dark when you
finish, and that you are going to just keep chugging along, then you find
that you CAN do it.

One thing that I think everyone should do before attempting 100s is to
schedule some training rides on familiar trails so that you finish them in
the dark sometimes.  This gets you used to trusting your horse in the
dark, and also gets him used to the concept that you will be riding this
time of day.  It isn't such a big deal if you are already used to doing
100s, but if it is your first one, I think it is worth the extra effort in
preparing.

Another thing that any aspiring 100-mile rider should do is work on the
horse's WALK.  It is by far THE most neglected gait on most endurance
horses, and I can tell you from personal experience sitting around waiting
for riders to come into checks and to come into the finish in the dark
that most horses travel at 2-3 mph at a walk in the dark.  There is no
need for this--work on the walk on training rides, and on any horse worth
his salt and capable of doing the distance, you ought to be able to foster
a reliable walk of AT LEAST 4 mph.  (I'm still working on the walk on the
current one that I'd like to do 100s on, alas...)  I've had one horse that
delivered a 5.5 mph average walk for the last 12 miles of a 100 up and
over a mountain on a tough single-track trail--what a difference that
makes in the dark!  (We managed to hang onto 10th place that night in a
pretty tough field--we literally "walked off and left the competition"
that was right behind us at the last vet check, and that ride remains one
of my all-time thrills.)

Heidi


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Many of the endurance riders in our top echelons of competition, now and in
the past, exemplify the 'common man' not the hierocracy. It is this
possibility, this chance to come to the fore, that makes endurance
competition of the Aussie/American type so much more desirable to part of
the world.
~  Bob Morris

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