Mental Attitude

["Budler, Cindy" <natcon@afrox.boc.com>]

Hi all,

I need to pick some brains. I have a very confusing situation with my
endurance mare. Some background - she is 6 years old and has only been
ridden for a year(by me) . Our training programme is light - 60 km a
week training with 2 lunging sessions of 20 minutes and a one hour
intensive dressage schooling session. She is not a fast horse , no real
power trot  but extremely comfortable. She is slightly built (pure
Eqyptian) but quite tall 15 hh with 7" cannon bones. She does not seem
to be competitive , but very happy to be out on her own. We do most of
our training on our own - concentrating on lots of trotting , and some
cantering(speed about 14 km/hour at trot) Now for the problem.....

We did a very tough 80 km endurance ride this weekend(her 2nd) - started
out fast , but hit a very steep hill - 300 m up over 1 km. She started
sweating , breathing hard and trembling - so I rested her and carried on
leading up the hill on my own. We got left behind and did the rest of
the ride on our own. I could not get her to canter or move out faster. I
was almost ready to give up after 50 km in tears - so much hard work -
crop , legs , legs , legs.She just wanted to eat!!!.  When someoe passed
us I wanted to hook on - she was not interested at all - quite happy to
be on her own.  She obviously did not like the hills at all. The gamut
of emotions I went thro  was endurance for me - near too tears , worried
, frustrated , angry etc. I was worried I was not reading her correctly
, or was not being firm enough!!!. Her pulses were 36 , 38 and 42  -
very well hydrated , gut sounds etc - all top range. No stiffness etc .
So she flew through it . It was a very slow time but well within the
time limit.  How do I handle her from now on - is she lazy , slow ,
bored ,? How can I get her to be a bit more competitive? Can I improve
her speed? Am i not doing enough training - or too much? Does she have
the ability? Help  - I 'm confused ...
Regards

Cindy Budler
National Contracts Department
Fabrication Division
Afrox
South Africa
Tel :27 011 871-1000
e-mail: natcon@afrox.boc.com