Huge Mileage, was 4 oz GL

[Farafix@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/8/00 4:01:45 PM Eastern Standard Time, Tivers@aol.com 
writes:

<< All of his preparation, conditioning wise, was provided by the same French 
 trainer. Over four years, huge mileage and big workouts. >>

Tom,

Can you elaborate on "huge mileage"?  Nancy Loving in her book, Go the 
Distance, recommends that by the third season of conditioning, to "Limit your 
horse to no more than 90-100 miles of work every two weeks to protect against 
musculoskeletal wear and tear.  In difficult terrain you may want to limit 
your mileage to less than 60 miles in a two week period." (p. 100)  She 
doesn't give a specific heartrate to work with in the 3rd yr, other than to 
say that the 3rd season workouts should be similar to the 2nd season, where 
she advises to work at heart-rates of 120-150 with some work up to 170-180 
(not really specified as to how much work at the higher rate).  Her heartrate 
parameters sound similar to your recommendation, so I was curious as to what 
distance you advise riding, say in a 2 week period  --- on a horse that 
already has a solid base of 2-3 yrs of conditioning.
Years ago a very kind and generous endurance rider took the time at the Old 
Dominion 2nd vet check (at 50 miles) to answer the questions of a wannabe 
distance rider (who had no idea at the time how rude it was to interrupt his 
rest time!!!!). He'd advised me to ride in a week the distance I wanted to 
compete.  That's worked pretty well up to 50 miles.  Now I'm considering 
trying a 75.  By Loving's recommendation, I'm probably riding enough --- & I 
surely don't want to break my horse down.
What's your 2 cents worth on training distances?

Thanks!
Nancy & Tempo (50 a week is quite enough, esp on the same old trails, 
Bor-ing!)
MD