Re: How much training is too much?

[Wendy Milner <wendy@wendy.cnd.hp.com>]

Sarah McIntosh asked:

>This is my third
>year with the same horse (17 year old Appy mare (Tiki)who loves to go).
>Tiki did not have the winter off, i rode once a week for a
>few hours on the mountain.  The past two months we have usually been
>doing 2 mountain rides and one flat ride per week.  Mountain rides are
>usually 2-3 hours, flat ride only about 1.5 hours but at a much higher
>speed (mostly trot and canter).  Her recoveries are very good, and her
>legs and back are always fine.
>Tiki has been doing what we are doing for two years now, and we
>haven't had any problems so far.   Would it be wrong for Tiki to be more
>fit than she needs to be for 25 milers? 

There is no such thing as being too fit.  You can over train, which
means you actually loose fitness, but on the schedule you describe,
you are doing fine.  To determine if you are over training, take a
critical look at your horse.  Is she under weight?  Or is she loosing
weight? Does she refuse or have a bad attitude about going out?  Is she 
sore?  Are her legs swelling?  If the answers are no, then you are doing 
just fine.

When a horse gets really fit, you can slack off on some of the training.
Your endurance rides become part of the training program, and the
horse needs time off between the rides.  For the beginning endurance
rider, you should be out there 3 or 4 times a week and the schedule
you have set up, looks good.  After the ride, you may want to give
your horse a week off.  Just go out for a short, easy ride mid-week
or later.

When you get to that 25 mile ride, you may find you have more horse
than many of the riders on course.  Stick to your plan.  Listen to
your horse, but not to the excitement the horse feels at the time.
Ride your own ride, not the ride that other say you can do.

>Tiki refused to drink the whole ride and
>hadn't drank the night before, so we cut the ride short, got back to
>trailer and after i was off her, noticed that she had a mild case of
>thumps.  This was the first time this had ever happened, but she was
>also dehydrated which wasn't normal.  (i didn't even know what thumps
>looked like before this).  Got her drinking and eating, gave her shot of
>electrolytes and within the hour she was good to trailer home.  Gave her
>a week off, and she was fine after that.  Got pads put on and i have a
>new horse :)

If the horse refuses to drink, give her time, lots of time, at each
water stop.  Since you are doing this ride for a completion, you
can just get off and sit there at the water tank, till Tiki decides
to drink.  I have seen riders do this and win BC.  They waited till
their horse drank, while other riders just blew past.  It helps
the horse a lot to understand that they must drink, and you'll give them
the time to do so.  

Make sure that the horse is drinking before you give electrolytes.
Some times giving the electrolytes first will cause a horse to
not want to drink.

And remember to have fun:-)

--
Wendy

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 Wendy Milner                     HPDesk:   wendy_milner@hp4000
 Hewlett-Packard Company          e-mail:   wendy@fc.hp.com
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