> race. A friend of mine who rode endurance in CA, said that the best way
> is to do six days of work, one day rest. She also said that it is
> important to exercise fast and slow twitch muscles. In other words, one
> should alternate the types of workout every other day. One day the goal
> is to work for several hours at the walk on the trail in order to build
> endurance. The second day would involve plenty of trotting and cantering
> to build better lung capacity for stamina.
<snip>
>
> Stephanie *&* Mahni
Hi Stephanie,
I'm by no means an expert endurance rider compared to some of this crowd,
but here's my $.02 anyway!
When I started training Shatirr, my "mentors" were of the mindset to
train a horse 5 or 6 days a week, and I ended up putting as many as
65 miles a week on my poor little arab. Hard miles, lots of climbing.
Walk 10 to 15 miles (hills) on day one, trots and canters, on flat,
8 to 10 miles on day two, repeat day one, repeat day two, repeat day one,
then on the 6th day do 25 to 30 miles of interval work. Rest on the 7th.
Well, he burned out. He loves going to rides, but he really doesn't
enjoy the miles anymore. He just gets bored. Maybe it's him, maybe it's
just too much training. He wants to quit, but it wasn't always that way.
Since the early days, I've run into lots of successful riders that start
off doing 5 days a week of light training to "leg up" a horse, then drop
down to two or three days of training to develop and maintain a horses
condition. Particularly after the ride season starts. These horses look
crisper and more athletic than horses that are over trained, and they act
more competitive.
The advice I've gotten from some great distance veterans and vetrinarians
is to not overtrain/over-condition.
But then, I'm not a *typical* endurance rider! I'm out her to have a
good time.
Linda