True! But since I can't really do those
things I have a choice, moan and grown about my lack of
transportation, free time, great spots to ride etc... or get
creative. I choose the later. Here's a few things that have worked
well for me. Maybe something will get you thinking about ways you can
put a little more thought and creativity into your conditioning
routine. I promise you the results are worth it.
Before we get too far into the creative
part lets talk briefly about the basics.
Putting in the miles. Hopefully
by now you've realized that there is no shortcut to a good
foundation. Each horse is different and there are a lot of variables
to consider, but the fact remains that you have to put in a certain
number of miles to have a horse fit to go the distance. But what
then...
The end of the summer of 2012 Bunny and
I had kind of plateaued. Bunny and I were riding on average about 30
+ miles a week at a good pace, honestly about the fastest pace that
I felt was safe given that most of our miles are ridden on the
shoulder of country roads. Now it was tempting to think of how nice
it would be to have a mountain out back of my house and while I'm
dreaming how about a great covered arena and flat track off to the
other side but since that's not going to happen any time soon... what
next.
Luckily I read Dennis Summers book 'The
Fourth Gear', Excellent book, and became inspired. If you feel like
you've got the basics pretty well covered but would like to progress
to the next level, that's where to go. I've read and re-read it and
have seen the results at work!
So I started by deciding on the kind of
rides I wanted to include in my conditioning plan and then got
creative on how and where to do them.
Depletion rides. If you only add
one new thing to your conditioning strategy I would suggest this one.
The basic concept is that if we do a ride that is harder than our
typical weekly ride, your horses body says “Sheesh, if that's what
she's going to do to me I better get a little tougher”. And it
does, the body makes changes to better handle the harder work load.
So you cleverly plan one of these ride
just far enough out form your next endurance ride so that your horse
has recovered from your depletion ride and is stronger from it just
in time to really ride! Following Dennis's suggestion of rides about
½ the length of your ride you are planning for and about 2-3 weeks
out. I ride my depletion rides a little faster than the pace you plan
to ride at the actual event. As you track this you'll learn more
about your horse and fine tune your plan to really fit your horse and
your goals.
First on my calendar I put the
endurance rides I plan to attend and then I put the depletion rides
and start planning how I will do them to fit my goals for my
endurance ride. If you always make a point to get these rides in, you
will see a difference!
As you think about your depletion rides
think about the miles you need to go, the kind of terrain you should
include (depending on the ride you are preparing for) and the speed
you plan to do it at. Planning a depletion ride this summer I ended
up doing three little loops including a pit stop at home and going
over my best stretch of hills three times. I was able to include more
hills and stay on roads where I could keep a better average speed.
Maybe not as exciting on the scenery as a nice 25 mile loop but it
suited my purposes and my mare was in top condition three weeks later
for a 5th place finish at Old Selam.
Intervals. I'm sure this isn't a
new concept to most of you. I remember in college taking a swimming
fitness class. The first couple weeks was easy, then we started doing
intervals. The basic idea is that you have a short period of time
(relatively) that you work at a pace that you can't sustain forever
(anaerobic) and then you recover at a slower pace and then do it
again. There's a million different ways to do this. The first couple
times I did intervals in the water I was sure I was going to drown,
but pretty soon I was a lot stronger and faster.
Start coming up with ways to push your
horse and then recover. Here's a couple things I have done with my
limited resources.
Hill intervals. Who says you
have to have a great trail with lots of hills? Find one good one or
just the best you have and use it, it's better than nothing. As I
ride I'm always on the lookout for a good hill. Warm up for a while
and then hit the hill with a good head of steam, turn back around and
trot or walk back down it at whatever pace you think works well for
your horse to recover a bit and then turn right back around and do it
again.
One winter I wanted to have my gelding
Quincy more fit for Home on the Range in March. I could really only
get in longer rides on the weekend with the limited daylight hours,
so one night a week we road up and down my driveway in the dark. My
driveway is 550 feet of hill. Not glamorous but it made a big
difference!
Speed intervals. Again I don't
have miles and miles of wonderful trail to use for speed work but I
have a mile here and a mile there. So I plan a ride where I ride to
one of those places, do some speed intervals and then ride back. You
don't have to go some crazy speed just fast a pace that puts them in
anaerobic work and then a break. I like to do longer intervals with
not quite so much speed. I'm not one for just careening around the
place.
Steady state rides. This is a
brilliant idea of Dennis's that my mare loves! Basically you work
your horse for a relatively short period of time ( I started with 20
minutes, plus warm up and cool down) keeping them at that point right
between aerobic an anaerobic exercise. It's the point where they can
sustain working at that speed but just barely, if they went a touch
faster they couldn't keep it up for a sustained period of time. My
horse loves this! I've used a heart rate monitor to help fine tune
and keep us right at that point. Again we don't have miles and miles
of great places to do this so we do laps or go back and forth in the
couple decent spots we have.
Don't overdo your 'taxing' rides (rides where you are pushing your horse above and beyond what he's used to). Be smart
about when you do them and make sure to give your horse rest before
and after a big effort.
When you can get rides to great
locations to condition think about how to best use that in your
schedule and make the most of it!
As you start to think about this season
set some goals for yourself and then think about the kind of
conditioning you need to include to get there. If your not a master
at figuring out a conditioning plan ask for some help.
I think it's a good idea to look for an
experienced rider who rides the way you ride, or want to ride. You
will get advice that's better suited for your style of riding. For
instance if you like taking it easy, asking for conditioning advice
from a hot rod isn't going to suit you well. Also keep in mind that
the same kind of rider won't always average the same kinds of speeds,
depending on the kind of horse they ride. For instance my last season
riding my gelding Quincy we rode two LD's at a fairly aggressively.
The next year I rode my mare Bunny on those same two LD's at a more
relaxed pace for her but her times were faster than Quincy's. She's
geared different. Learn to look past the overall time or placing and
look at how someone actually rides. Someone with a great track record
of riding the way you want to ride will most likely have some great
advice for you.
Make some plans! Even if they don't
work out perfectly or need to be revised it will most likely end up
serving you better than flying by the seat of your pants. Have fun
and ride safe.
Maybe I'll see you on the trail this
season!
Bunny and I last summer on a great conditioning ride.
A friend and I hauled out to a great spot with 6 miles of continual climbing,
well placed in our conditioning schedule it made a big difference!
Picture by Shana Bobbitt
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