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Below is only my opinion so take it for what it is worth. A horse only has
so many miles in it's legs. I don't want to use up those miles in
training. In my opinion it is not the number of miles of training it is
the quality of the miles used to train. My longest training ride is on the
order 25 to 30 miles. That was independent of the distance (50 or 100) I
am getting ready to do. I do one of these long rides a week and another
shorter ride of mostly trotting and easy galloping a week. My total
training milage per week is on the order of 35 miles. But I do train using
varying speeds on varied terrian, e.g. hills, deep sand etc. and I
regularly run the heart rate up into the 175 to 200 range for spurts (1/2
to one mile). Sandy hills are great for this.
I use the heart rate and recovery as an indicator of condition, rather than
the ability to trot for some number of miles. For example if my horse can
maintain a heart rate of 120 to 130, with some speed burst thrown in, for
an hour - with a recovery of 64 in 10 to 15 minutes, then I feel he is
ready to start doing 50's. If he is able to maintain a 140 for an hour and
recover in 10 minutes then I feel he is ready for a 100.
One of the biggest differences in moving up in distance (again my opinion)
is that what you take out early cannot be put back. It takes a horse about
10 miles to get really warmed up and get all systems working at peak
capacity. Too much speed too eary burns a lot more energy than the same
amount of speed would later on in the ride. This can easily be seen by
noticing that the heart rate for a given speed tends to be higher at the
start of a ride than in the middle of the ride.
This is not too much a factor in 25 miles. But in the longer distances,
what is taken out of the tank early is very difficult to get back into the
tank for the later parts of a ride. This is true when going from 25 to 50
miles and from 50 to 100 miles. In the longer rides good warm up is
essential. This warm up can be achieved in one of two ways. One is get up
an hour earlier and warm up the horse or take the first 5 to 10 miles at a
more conservative pace.
Finally in a longer ride there is a much greater chance for such things as
electrolyte loss and dehydration to become a factor. So the management of
the horse becomes more important than in shorter rides.
Truman
Truman Prevatt
Mystic "The Horse form Hell" Storm with a lille hellion on the way
The Rockman, a.k.a Misty Jr.
Jordy - Finaly getting his shot
Sarasota, FL
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