[RC] Getting a horse ready for its first endurance ride - long - Cunningham, Marci
I thought newby ridecampers might enjoy reading about my
experience in getting my youngster ready for her first endurance ride. ?I am
one of those old timers who don’t believe that horses need a full year or
two of LD rides before moving up to 50’s. ?Aul Ablaze is out of my
retired endurance mare and by a non-endurance stallion that has bloodlines
similar to several highly successful endurance horses. ?His forte is dressage
and sport horse and has movement to die for. ?Blaze was born and raised in a
pasture and I am fortunate to have irrigated pasture all year long. ?I ponied
her briefly as a 3 year old and sent her to a trainer shortly after she turned
4. ?She stayed with him for 2½ months, and he did a wonderful job with her, and
then I brought her home. ?I immediately started riding her on trails along with
some arena work. ?During the summer with longer days, I was able to ride a
couple of times during the week and on the weekend. ?We didn’t ride far
but I exposed her to lots of different things such as bridges, rivers, bicyclists
and hikers, and quail in the bushes. ?Once the days got shorter I didn’t
ride during the week since I work full time and only rode on the weekends. ?I
also have another endurance horse that is 15 and approaching 5,000 miles and
Blaze is to be my replacement for him.? In November, December and January I
rode her on some 10 to 15 mile training rides. ?
In February of this year I took her to the 20 Mule Team 35
mile LD and rode with two friends. ?I purposefully set this ride up for success
in that we started late after everyone else and had two horses to pace us. ?She
wasn’t a perfect angel and did her share of pulling whenever she saw
horses ahead so I was sure glad I was wearing gloves.? A few other riders
started later than us and she had to deal with horses passing us. ?The great
thing about this ride was that it was all one loop and we didn’t return
to camp until the finish. ?She learned a lot on this ride and was tired at the
end. ?She took extra time to pulse down at the vet checks but that was due mainly
to the excitement from all that was happening around her. ?By the last vet
check she figured out that drinking water was a good thing.? It was her first
experience camping in corrals at my trailer and since she had friends around
her she never was frantic. ?It took us 6¼ hours to finish the 35 mile ride and
I was pleased with the time.
In May, after she turned 5, I took her to her first 50 which
was a limited entry ride so it wasn’t too big or overwhelming. ?Since it
was a 2 day ride I also took my gelding and rode each horse one day. ?Blaze was
ridden the first day and we took 9½ horses to complete. ?Again I had friends to
ride with who were going the same pace and the whole experience was non
stressful. ?We started after everyone else and she was much improved from the
February ride. ?This ride had lots of hills and was a good workout. ?Again she
was tired at the end, but no more than she was from the 35 mile LD.? She was
EDPP’ing like a pro.? I don’t expect my horses not to be tired
after going 50 miles because I don’t train hard and I like to use real
endurance rides as part of my training regimen.? In June I took both horses to
a 5 day ride in Nevada
and my plan was to ride each horse 2 days.? I rode Blaze on Monday and Thursday
and Koztarr on Tuesday and Friday and I took Wednesday off.? On Monday we spent
10½ hours on the trail and on Thursday it took us 9 hours to complete. ?I had a
friend to pace with each day and Blaze again learned so much from the
experience. ?She started the ride at a walk with the rest of the pack, learned
to drink from little streams and she tailed my riding companion as she was
leading her horse up a steep hill on the first day. ?We may or may not go to a
ride in the fall but we will be starting up again in January for sure and I
think she will be capable of doing a 100 the following season when she turns 7
but I try not to plan that far in advance. ?
I highly recommend multi day rides for starting new horses
as the stress level is almost non existent. ?Most riders start out at a walk
and aren’t in too much of a hurry to go faster until the horses are well
warmed up.? Newby riders might think that they don’t know anyone who they
can ride with but if they ask at the ride meeting often there will be someone
who will volunteer.? I strongly encourage new riders to leave camp after the
start to avoid the stress and commotion of the crowds and there are many veteran
riders who do the same thing.? Even if you don’t have any close multi day
rides consider finding one to go to. ?The Nevada ride was a 12 hour haul and we took 2
days going but came home in 1 day. ?I will also add that I started endurance in
my early 30’s and have been at it for close to 25 years. ?
