****************************************************************************
****Virginia,
I have spent a lot of time riding and conditioning my horse - LSD - long,
slow distance miles - and while we sometimes spend all day out riding, we
take breaks, let the horses eat, drink, and recover. That's why I put in
those long hours on him - I probably don't spend more than a third of that
time really riding him hard - up hills, etc. We currently are trotting for
40 minutes at a time, without stopping, and he recovers in about 2 minute
(or less), to 60 bpm or less. It took us three years (almost) to get to
this point though, so it didn't happen overnight.
I would also like to know what other riders do to keep their horses in
condition once they get them there - as I am going to be riding my other
horse soon and won't be able to spend as much time with the first horse -
but don't want to sacrifice the hard work we both put in getting him in the
shape he is in now. Please everybody - there are several of us out here
that'd love to hear from you - Thank you! Karen
oh- one more question - I have started doing 50's, and plan on doing several
this year - my horse recovers very fast, never seems tired afterwards, etc.,
but I have to admit that I haven't really done anything with him yet other
than LSD conditioning - we do a lot of hill work though - but his heart rate
monitor readings hardly ever get above 185. Does anybody think that I
really need to push his heart rate higher - is there anything I should try
in particular - or look out for because I'm not pushing him into the
anaerobic thresh-hold? During competition I set the alarm at 165 and don't
let him go above that. Any ideas or comparisons on this in particular would
be helpful :-)