Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Now Jon I know you have the Ph.D. and my physics is very crude so 
don't beat me up on this one. We have these weight classes and it 
tends to make us think that 20-30 pounds means a lot cause it changes 
our classification but to the horse IMHO it means almost nothing. 
What really matters to the horse as far as energy expended to cover 
the distance is the speed at which we make him travel. These are 
approximate calcs for actual ride time (no holds) for 50 miles.
Horse & Rider 1200lbs.  8 hrs = 510,000 calories
Horse & Rider 1200lbs.  7 hrs = 670,000 calories
Horse & Rider 1450lbs.  8 hrs = 670,000 calories
So these numbers tell me that if I chose to increase my speed over a 
50 mile course and cut 1 little hour off my time it will impact the 
energy used by my horse the same as if I chose to add 250lbs to my 
ride weight!!! A truly staggering statistic to remember when asking 
for more speed. So don't think you can knock 50lbs off your ride 
weight and go tear up the course. 50lbs means you can drop your ride 
time by a whopping 12

Don Huston  


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

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!!

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