Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Even if you can only ride on weekends, you should be able to get your horse in shape for a slow LD.  If you can squeeze in an occasional short ride during the week, even better.  I had to use that schedule for my mare the year I rode her, and got my older gelding in shape the same way.
For 50s, I currently ride twice a week.  I have a friend's 5 yr old (Rae of tallcarabians who has already posted) that I'm doing 50s on.  I try to do one ride of around 20 miles, plus a shorter ride of 10-15 miles, each week.  I work from 7:30 -4pm (although I can't remember the last time I actually got off at 4 - it's usually 5 or 5:30).  But even if I'm *able* to leave at 4, I usually work an extra hour most days, to enable me to take off early once a week and ride.  Right now it's hunting season so we're not riding on the National Forest, but I have two good road loops (one is 20 miles, the other is 22.3 miles) that I can ride from our house.  I try to ride one of those once a week, and then squeeze in the shorter ride, usually with Rae, my husband, and some friends, on the weekend.  It's working for this horse.  At endurance rides, I don't ride fast, but rather shoot for a nice steady pace.  We did our last 50 in a ride time of 8:45, I think.  It was fairly hilly, and we don't have hills around our house, but the horse did fine.

So, even if you don't have a lot of time to ride, you can often squeeze some conditioning in, and if your work is flexible, one can sometimes sneak in a mid-week ride.  Just remember to ride your ride (whether a 25 or 50) in accordance to the amount of conditioning you've been able to do.  :)

Dawn in East Texas