I started in the early 70s with comp and then
endurance when it came into my neck of the woods. My first horse Charlie
(and actually all the rest) was trained with fast miles, sprints, finally
elytes, grain, hay, nothing fancy. Considering that I only had about 5
rides a season to go to, he made in his career which lasted into his 22nd year,
2500 + miles. He won 50s, he made BC a couple of times, he won the coveted
Locust Cup in Ohio and the AHAM MI trophy which were based on competitive, no
horse could beat him when we ran the endurance-competive mix. That is
another story.
Then Santee, a homegrown mare. She eventually
made almost 5000 miles of both comp and endurance. We ran a 3 1/2 hr 50, a
little better than a 9 hr 100, plenty of 4 hr 50s. I did feel that
the 3 years of fast 50s did affect her ankles although she continued on with
comp rides to gain her 5000 miles. Bay was trained the same way and he
made 2000 miles of comp and endurance before his lack of joint fluid in his rear
hock stopped him. I didn't win as much with him but then he was a harder
horse to rate and gave me quite a few wild rides from pigs, geese, cows, bear
smells, etc. Maggie has over 5400 miles of comp and endurance. She
is still sound although I do have a problem with selenium level. I can't
seem to keep it high enough. The fastest 25 I did was in about 2 1/2 hrs
but I let her, the trail, and the weather determine her speed. The fastest
50 was 4 1/2. I never felt of all the horses that I rode, that I had her
in her best shape. She was in great shape to do what I asked, but not in
shape to run hard. As I get older, I get lazier and don't do my
conditioning homework like I should. All of these guys did 3 years of comp
and then we went to endurance. I did endurance until my body begged
different and hopped back to LD cause I can stand that. Above all, I
want a conditioned horse to do as I ask at whatever speed I think is possible, I
want a sound horse, and I want to have fun. I have nothing to prove to
anyone, I do love to make folks work for wherever they will place, I like the
challenge, and most of all I just simply like to ride and fast sometimes. I
don't do any loading protocal, I don't use alot of elytes, I don't use beet
pulp, I do feed a small amt of grain at vet checks, I do monitor water
intake. I did try the loading protocal but decided it was not helping my
horse since 1. I wasn't going fast enough 2. I wasn't going far enough.
Tom agreed with me. But there are no short cuts to having a good horse do
well on a ride. Conditioning is a must. For the most part I do
condition, I do sprints too but there is no doubt about it. I have slowed
up, running lip hill with the kids almost looks dangerous to me, the one sharp
turn on our mile run scares the bejeevies right out of me, half mile hill is
still fun, quarter mile hill was the scene of my last parting from my mare
although the 2nd time we did do it right with no sidepassing, I am
not willing to give up my training rides with my juniors although they are
slower than they should be. The 10 yr old has got to have a better handle
on his ex barrel horse.
I don't know if this answers Wendy's questions are
not, I feel that age has slowed me down, and maybe I have gained some smarts in
my aging process too. When I ran 50s, I did the 1st loop as fast as the
3rd loop, and the 2nd and 4th loops were the same speed too. So the riding
time was more even over the 50 miles. I have no problem stopping and
letting the horse eat grass, and I have no problem walking in the last quarter
mile, sometimes half to the vet check. It just means that when I do that,
Maggie goes right thru the gate and reaches parameters within 2 min or
less. All the gizmos in the world like loading protocal and whatever else
one wants to do is not going to help if the horse is not in the proper
shape.
It is true that almost any horse can be taken out
of pasture and do a 25 and finish sound with a SMART rider. I did it with
ol Charlie when he was 16 or 17, took him out of pasture and we did a 6 1/2
50. The vets gave me a hard time, he looked so good the question was why
didn't I speed up? Well I didn't want to hurt the old boy, I just wanted
to finish the ride. I suspect that his previous years of conditioning had
a lot to do with how well he finished that particular 50. My theory which
I learned from a vet in the 70s who vetted the Tevis, was to train faster at
home than what I would do at a ride. I averaged between 50 - 60 miles a
week at home, all fast. I learned to lay off the week of the ride, if the
horse isn't in shape, it isn't going to be in shape in one week. There are
some out there who condition in a similar fashion and others who don't. I
figure my horse is an athlete so it is my job to get it ready for whatever I ask
it to do. The biggest gain of all is to whip down trail with a bunch of
juniors behind me and we are all 'varooming' around the tight turns! I
think I even got a squeak of a varoom out of Kari once!
Jeanie
