Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Personally believe our horses do best
with focused training and plenty of
rest rather than lots of miles.  Horses
are far superior to humans as endurance
athletes (and in other ways :>)  )
and need far less mileage comparitively.

In preparation for first the Canadian
National 100 Mile Championship Aug. 31
and then the AERC National Championship
on Oct. 20, here was Jayel Super's
weekly training program.  Note
that Super is 14 with a 10 year base now and over 15 100s.

-2 equitation lessons per week of about
40 minutes in a sand arena,
      walk, trot, cantor,
shoulder-in, leg yield, etc.  - total mileage - neglibible
1 mountain workout of 10 to 20 miles
with intense uphill work (2000 to 4000 ft of climbing)
       and easy
on the downhill (easy trot or walk or rider jogging beside the horse -
       Super's favorite
:>)   )
4 days of rest per week.

Jayel Super won and received BC at the
Canadian National.
Jayel Super was 2nd at the AERC Championship
to the fantastic winning team of John Crandell and Heraldic
Super was  A's on attitude, impulsion
and gait with a 48/48 CRI 10 minutes after crossing finish line.

Note endurance horses should be built
up gradually over several years.  Ideally they
are raised in an environment where they
can run around and grow up tough.

IMO many of the rules of thumb for endurance
horse are incorrect.
People have taken them from training
for human runners.  The rules of thumb
put far too many miles on our horses.
 When I trained for the classic marathon distance
of 26 miles, I trained 50 to 60 miles
a week, i.e. twice the mileage of the competition.
By contrast, Super does less than 20%
of the mileage of the competition or a factor of 10 less.

Key takeway is don't overtrain  -
train smart and save the miles for the competition.


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