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[RC] Newbie Stuff - Bruce Weary DCMy favorite aspect of endurance riding is "building a new horse." By that, I mean I love the process of bringing a horse to fitness, in all aspects, and successfully campaigning him. I have learned a thing or two along the way.1) Julie Suhr told me to always look in those eyes to see how he's feeling. I list this as #1 for a reason. It's that important. 2) Jim Holland reminded me of the difference between "training" and "conditioning." Training involves handling, shoeing, trailering, ground manners, dealing with fears, camping, tying, etc.,. Conditioning refers to the actual physical fittening of the horse. They are equally important. 3) Bill Bohannon taught me not to fret when a horse shows some signs of inadvertent overuse from overzealous conditioning. We have to know how much a horse can take, and back it off a bit, so as to always keep him in a safe zone. Ya gotta know where the"edge" is, so you don't go over it. I have always honored this lesson. 4) I don't remember who taught me the principle of "The Three D's." They are distance, duration, and difficulty. A good rule of thumb is to only increase one of these at a time, even then by only 10%. This helps assure time for the horse's tissues to supercompensate in response to exercise. 5) Horses are animals, and, as such, subject to emotion. They may have a bad day every now and then, or get sour with extremely regimented exercise. Let them have a fun day from time to time. Chase some cows, hike with them, pony a buddy horse, run some barrels--anything to break up the monotony. They will get their mojo back quicker. 6) Matthew Mackay-Smith writes about not feeding the horse heavily in anticipation of work. Rather, put back into the horse what you took out of him that day. It works. 7) Don't work the horse if his legs aren't cold and tight. Ever. 8) Working on hills is an excellent way to teach the horse to use his back end, build impulsion, strength and wind without stressing his legs. 9) My friend Ron Barrett taught me "Horses get stronger with rest." In fact, I think horses do better with more rest days than work days. 10) Before, during and after all workouts and competitions, please see #1. Dr Q =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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