Re: Non-Arabs doing endurance

[Byron Harward <byron@code-co.com>]

You asked:

>I still
>really want to do endurance but am wondering if I have to have an Arabian to
>start in this.  Could I condition and train the new Quarter Horse that I got
>for the kids, and my husband's mare (Paint) to do LD's and kind of learn the
>ropes of this and then when I feel a little less over-horsed keep an eye
>open for a good endurance prospect? 

Yes, you can do endurance without an Arab!  When my wife wanted to start
endurance riding with me, she preferred riding a big, heavy muscled
Quarter/TB cross (Big Boy) that everyone says is just not the body type for
endurance. She liked this horse because it has very smooth gaits and she
always rides it on our sight-seeing rides. She did very nicely on him this
fall. I and my son had ridden him several times as well. If you want the
LONG story of Big Boy's 4 LD ride experience, read on:

I usually do endurance on an (unregistered) Arab (Tzadik) and he is a
marvelous horse. He has done 800 miles of 50 mile races and always been in
the top 5 (except his first ride and one where he slipped on ice and I
pulled him for a sore muscle) with a number of Best Condition awards.

I rode Big Boy in two 25mi rides a couple of years ago when Tzadik was
recovering from a fall. My daughter Megan (a junior) was planning to go on
her first endurance ride with me when Tzadik's accident happened. I decided
to see if I could ride Big Boy in a 25 with her. I had about three weeks to
add a little to Big Boy's basic healthy but untrained condition. Big Boy
seemed to like are respond to the three weeks of increasing riding and his
recovery times improved in that time. (Yes, I know that 3 weeks isn't
enough time to do more that a slight improvement in cardiovascular
condition and nothing for tendons/bones.  He was generally in pretty good
condition for a pleasure horse.)

The ride was on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. I knew that Big Boy
wasn't true endurance condition, so I found someone else that had done
several endurance rides that Megan could be partnered with (AERC rules
require that a rider under 16 always be in the close company with a senior
rider.) Megan was riding Fletch, an Arab that she had worked hard to bring
into good condition while I was working with Tzadik before his injury. I
went on the race and let Megan and the other horses in the ride head on
down the trail (which Big Boy DID NOT like!) By watching Big Boy's heart
rate on a monitor and giving him a extra stop and recovery on our own out
on the trail, Big Boy traveled right along. We got into  the one VC (vet
check) and he recovered nicely and we went out ahead of several horses that
had already been in. On the return part of the loop, Big Boy went right
along. He passed several horses. When we got in sight of the finish (about
a mile or more) we were traveling with another fellow who raced off to the
finish line. He got to the finish line long before we did. But when Big Boy
got there, he recovered quite nicely and long before the horse that raced in!

As it turned out, Big Boy was 10th place! That was a lot better than we had
anticipated before we entered.

Two weeks later was a 25mi Ride in St. George that I REALLY needed to ride
for a personal reason: Megan and the lady she rode with on Antelope Island,
had come in 4th and 3rd respectively; quite a thrill for Megan. HOWEVER:
the "experienced" endurance rider that had been kind enough to let Megan
partner with her made a REALLY BAD decision that got them both
disqualified! (When they  got to the VC, there were so many horses that
they didn't get seen by the vet within the 15 hold. So the lady decided
that she didn't have to wait any longer when her 15 minutes were up and
skipped the check by the vet and went on. BIG MISTAKE, that is an automatic
disqualification. Megan, as a 1st time rider didn't know what was required.
(I hadn't done a good job with her of preparation about rules, obviously.)
When she went from the elation of being 4th to the embarrassment of being
disqualified, she was devastated.

The only way I could see to resolve this situation was to take Megan and
Fletch to the very next ride and ride with her myself so I would know
nothing like Antelope would happen again.

We went to St. George two weeks later. The strategy for this ride was this:
We would travel the 1st leg of the race at Big Boy's best pace for a quick
recovery at the VC (From the limited training and test recoveries I had
done, that seemed to be to keep his heart rate between 145 and 155 during
that 12 mile leg of the ride. For the 2nd leg we would go at Fletch's best
pace for Fletch's recovery at the end of the 25. (Fletch was in better
condition than Big Boy.)

Big Boy and Fletch were both really happy to go! I had to hold Big Boy back
on that first leg to keep his heart rate where our goal was. Still, we came
into the VC in 3rd and 4th position. Big Boy and Fletch both recovered
heart rates in less than 4 minutes. However, Big Boy had a respiration rate
that didn't recover until 12 minutes. (Big Boy still had his winter coat
and, as I said, he  is a heavy muscled horse.) The rule with Juniors and
their partners is that they have to be together, so Megan and Fletch had to
wait until Big Boy was cleared to go out. (Big Boy gave Megan and Fletch an
8 minute handicap, in other words.)

On the second leg of that 25 (again about 12-13 miles) Fletch was in the
lead and Megan was watching his heart rate. I let Big Boy go. He didn't
need ANY encouragement. His heart rate stayed in the 160-170 range. That
was well higher that I would have liked, but he was happy and eager, so I
didn't pull him back unless it went over 170. We passed several horses
during the return leg.

As it turned out, we came to the finish line in  3rd and 4th position. As
you know, the end of an LD ride is not crossing the finish line, but
recovery of the horse after crossing the finish line. Megan's horse Fletch
recovered right down and earned 3rd place. Big Boy, after that hard work
took a couple of minutes longer to recover. Another horse that crossed the
finish line just after him recovered first but Big Boy earned 5th place.
(Just so you know that the hard riding at the end didn't do more than
lengthen his recovery time a couple of minutes, Big Boy was given the
Reserve Best Condition award too!)

The next year, my son Quin (6'4" 220lb) wanted to ride and started training
Big Boy again. (I think he wasn't too diligent in the training, however.)
He went to a ride with Megan on Fletch. They did a 25 together and I did
the 50 on Tzadik. Sibling rivalry being what it is, Quin asked far too much
from Big Boy to keep up with Fletch. Big Boy didn't recover at all well at
the end of the 25. If a horse needs vet attention prior to one hour after
the race, that disqualifies the horse too. It seemed wise to have a vet
look at Big Boy before the hour was up, which we did. (A well horse is far
more important than a completion.) Big Boy was exhausted from carrying my
son at that pace, but he had no lasting effects from that ride. He was his
happy self running around the pasture in a couple of days. 

The most recent ride Big Boy has done was done right by his rider. My wife,
Terry Ann, decided she wanted to do more than just sight-seeing trail rides
and wanted to try an LD endurance ride. She started training Big Boy with
me when I worked Tzadik. We spend the summer getting ready to ride the
Dameron Valley (now Gunlock) ride near St. George at the end of October. I
know a horses conformation can't really change, but Big Boy's muscle
structure seemed to undergo a SIGNIFICANT change during this training. He
went from the stocky-quarter-horse-cow-pony look to a much leaner,
long-muscled look. He was keeping right up with Tzadik in training and test
recoveries.

At the beginning of the ride, two people (father and daughter) took off a
lot faster than the rest of the pack. Both our horses wanted very much to
keep up, so we let them canter and stayed with the other two riders. My
heart monitor was not working (long hair?) so we relied on the one we had
on Big Boy. His heart rate was up, but on dangerously so. After a couple
miles cantering the steady up-slope of a dirt road in the hills, the other
two riders settled down to a fairly easy trot right at the place were the
road leveled out. (I said to Terry Ann, I would have chosen to trot up the
slope, but here I know our horses go best at a canter!) So, we cantered on
down the road. Soon we were by ourselves. We continued in the lead of the
ride clear to the vet check. Our horses were going and a good, but loose
and happy pace. We got to the vet check 0and our horses recovered within 3
minutes (Big Boy recovered 30 seconds before Tzadik). After the hold, we
traveled the return leg in brisk fashion, but all by ourselves. Again at
the end of the ride, Big Boy and Tzadik both recovered within 3 minutes,
but this time Tzadik recovered 30 seconds before Big Boy!

We have not tried Big Boy on a 50 miler yet, but we will this summer to see
how he does. He is still fairly heavily muscled, but he seems to have
adapted to this sport far better than many would expect. I believe that
while Arabs have been bred to the kinds of conditions and work that
endurance requires, it is the individual athlete that is the determining
factor, not the breed.

I don't know if these stories help, but thank you for your patience in
reading this long-winded story.

Byron Harward and Tzadik; Terry Ann and Big Boy.