Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Boy, I'm full of questions lately.

I'm wondering if I should be concerned about my mare's behavior/recovery 
rates on the trails we use for regular conditioning, or if this is just 
something that comes with the territory when you ride an intelligent horse 
on the same trails a minimum of once a week.

First, she is a joy to ride on new trails. She is eager, forward, and wants 
to GO, but will also listen to me and let me set the pace. After a few 
miles, she generally settles into a really nice trot. She is new to distance 
riding, and a Morgan, so she doesn't have the longest stride, but over the 
summer she has shown a few moments where she really seems to "get it" and 
starts pushing more from behind and actually taking longer steps (instead of 
just getting higher and higher in front). Her walk is also coming along 
nicely... she can get pokey at times because she likes to be a little "looky 
lou" and look around at stuff, but she's getting better about keeping a 
marching pace. Her recovery times are also usually quite good. This weekend, 
I rode her on a completely new trail, and though I forgot to put on my heart 
rate monitor before the ride, I checked her as soon as I got her saddle off 
when we made it back to the trailer, and she was already at 58. By the time 
the tack was put away, she was in the mid 40s.

However, I think she has gotten "mentally" conditioned to the trails we use 
for conditioning. We trailer out at least once a week to a local rec area 
which has three loops for a total of about 20 miles - we don't always do the 
same loops, or go in the same direction, or go at the same pace (we may do 
anywhere from a fast 6 miles to a slow 20 miles) but we have done all the 
loops multiple times at this point. While she generally starts the ride 
fine, she definitely seems to know when we are nearly the end of a loop - 
she gets herself worked up, and although I do not allow her to canter or run 
to the end, her heart rate still goes up because she's excited (you know how 
a horse's heart rate spikes when he comes across one of those man-eating 
deer? Same thing happens when she realizes we are nearing the "finish 
line"). Regardless of which loop/loops we do, her heart rate does not come 
down nearly as well at trails she is less familiar with, and I'm assuming it 
is because she gets herself worked up the last mile or so of a loop. She 
also can get sloppy on the trails - they are narrow trails with a lot of 
tight twists and turns, some rocks (but not many), and when she starts 
getting excited she feels like she's just throwing her legs around and not 
watching where she is going (anyone remember the Friend's episode where 
Phoebe and Rachel went running together? You'll know what I'm talking 
about). Note - while I don't consider myself a great rider, I do take 
regular dressage lessons and have a fairly good seat. I do try and keep her 
together when she gets like this, but it ain't much fun. It takes her MUCH 
longer to recover once we return to the trailer, regardless of what pace and 
distance we have done. I believe this is because she gets so excited near 
the end of a loop.

I guess I have 2 questions: 1) Is this normal behavior once a horse becomes 
really familiar with a set of trails (she is EXTREMELY smart), and 2) should 
I worry about her recovery rates when she recovers so well on every new 
trail I've taken her to? It is behavior I can deal with - she never does 
anything that scares me, she just frustrates me because I know how lovely 
she can be when she settles and relaxes. It isn't for the entire ride, just 
near the end of a loop (regardless of which loop and how long we've been 
riding), and the only thing that really concerns me is her heart rate at the 
end and her recovery rates.

(I've considered going halfway on a loop and turning around, but since we 
often do the loops from different directions, I don't think it would help 
much.)

Thanks!

Karen and Mazzie (she doesn't have attitude, she has MAZZITUDE)

_________________________________________________________________
Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! 
http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=