Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> Feel free to disagree, but I think it is important to let people know
> that they don't have to give up everything to condition a horse for
> miles & miles and hours & hours in the dark several days a week with
> reflective materials on them to be able to do a 25 every month!
Ideally, one doesn't ride every day anyway--only about three times a week.
And even prepping horses for 50s, a couple of those rides are short. 
When I was conditioning and competing during the years that I spent the
longest hours working, my weekday rides rarely exceeded 30 to 45
minutes--and most folks can find that kind of time a couple of times a
week.  (I was working 60+ hours per week at the time and caring for about
30 horses, so yes, some of those WERE in the dark--but on most work
schedules, they needn't be, particularly in spring, summer, and fall when
the daylight hours are a bit longer.)  The general schedule of two
shorties per week and one longer ride (usually on the weekend, depending
on one's work schedule) is all one needs to condition for ANYTHING!  And
if one can't do that much, even once a week riding will gain sufficient
fitness to do LDs if one follows the advice of the bulk of the posters
here and rides one's own ride, not in a hurry to run up front.  And heck,
I don't figure I have to do more than 12-15 miles on my "long" ride each
week to have a horse ready to start completing slow to mid-pack 50s--if
you are going even 8-10 miles once a week, you are quite capable of slow
to mid-pack LDs.

And as others have mentioned, the LDs themselves become a part of the
conditioning program--and one can use them as further building blocks.

One reason that some folks ride LDs in the first place is because of
limited time to condition--it is a do-able distance for the horse that one
can't get the time to prep sufficiently for 50.

Heidi



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

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!!

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