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RE: [RC] [RC] Conditioning Miles - What Counts? - Erin Clutter

Hello!
 
For conditioning...I don't think you need to worry about the miles per say(is that how you say it?)...but its the time you spend on their back.  My dad has a GPS monitor so we can average how fast we are going and how far we have gone.  My dad and I usually ride on either Saturdays or Sundays...about 3-7 hours depending on when we need to be home and average 15-30 miles.  During the summer we ride on Tuesdays when I am home from school and my dad is home from work and we do about 6-12 miles on a trail by a river and bike/running lane(great for just keeping them moving).  I will say though that our horses don't get much exercise in our backyard.  We live on a 1 acre parsel and we have a big front yard, house, garage, barn, swimming pool, spa, and a full drive way going from front to back so they have quite a small area to walk around in...barely enough to do a quick gallop if spooked.  I have never in my life consistently ridden more than 2 times a week.  I will admit that my da d and I can make up a lot of miles when we go out on the weekends, but we don't really care about miles as much.  We trot almost everything...trotting for about 5-10 minutes, then walking for 1-2 minutes(that little tip has worked great for myself and my dad).   Appy's will be harder to condition I think.  Just their bodies and muscle is so different from Arabians that I think ti will be harder.  I have talked to people before who did endurance on QH and Appy's and some said it was harder and other said it wasn't.  So I guess its really up to how good of a horse yours is.  I wish you the best of luck on training!  And maybe in the future you will try an Arab! (sorry I don't know much about you since I didn't read you "beginning" article!) Good Luck:)
 
-Erin

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