# Loss of Fitness of Endurance Horses



## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

I have got my endurance horse in great shape, and has been doing pretty good on his first training rides.

My question is this for all the regular endurance riders out there. I just got a pretty good job where I work away 2 weeks, and then I am home 2 weeks. 

I was wondering how much fitness does everyone think my horse may lose on my 2 weeks away. Do I need to start from scratch again, or can I carry on with the endurance training.


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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

I think a lot of this has to do with how much base your horse had to start with. If the horse is already very fit, I don't think you will lose much of anything (assuming they get turnout.. I think locked in a stall is a whole diff ballgame).

If they had a moderate base, you may want to back off a bit the first ride back, but def not starting from scratch.


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

phantomhorse13 said:


> I think a lot of this has to do with how much base your horse had to start with. If the horse is already very fit, I don't think you will lose much of anything (assuming they get turnout.. I think locked in a stall is a whole diff ballgame).
> 
> If they had a moderate base, you may want to back off a bit the first ride back, but def not starting from scratch.


So far so good in relation to loss of fitness, although I am having someone ride him at least once a week when I am away.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

I know that for a horse with a good season or two of conditioning (that's about 9 months to a year) you can put them on vacation for up to three months, and bring them back to their previous condition in as little as five weeks (that's for a sound and healthy horse).

I also know that once you get your horse up to condition, even for just an LD, then you can use actual rides as your conditioning as well, and only do just LD rides every two weeks and maintain your horse.

So....I don't see why it wouldn't work! I mean, if you are just out riding to get a completion, chat with friends and take home a Tshirt, I'd say that once your horse is in condition, the two week on/off thing shouldn't be that big of a deal. Of course with two weeks on/off, getting UP to condition might take longer - but once you are there...you are good.


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

*urgggg...I need to vent!*



usdivers said:


> So far so good in relation to loss of fitness, although I am having someone ride him at least once a week when I am away.


urggggg!!!...am I the only person that can ride a green horse around here!!!...urggggg....sorry just venting. I am away at work, and just got a phone call from the girl I hired to do some work with my TWH while I am away....I knew she could ride because I had sold her a OTTH I had trained up, so I know her.

Today was the first day she went out to do some work, according to her he played up and went crazy!!!...urgggg.....he would not let her get on, and when she did she said he bolted and she fell off....hmmmmmm....me thinks she was not as experieinced as she told me, I even had her ride him once while I was present to explain his gaits to her, and she went fine...

I never heard of TWH being one person horses, I know he has really bonded to me, but I never thought I would have this problem....ohhh...let me finish the story, after he bolted she said he ran around the back paddock like a crazy horse, and then with one leap jumped the back paddock fence to be with my other horses. Thank God he did not decide to jump the roadside fence. She says he is alright, except for a very small cut on his leg...urgggg.

My house mate is going to check him over when she gets home from work .

Sorry fellow endurance riders, just had to vent....so much for exercise for my big guy when I am away for work.

Hopefully he is ok. I will update later


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

usdivers said:


> urggggg!!!...am I the only person that can ride a green horse around here!!!...urggggg....sorry just venting. I am away at work, and just got a phone call from the girl I hired to do some work with my TWH while I am away....I knew she could ride because I had sold her a OTTH I had trained up, so I know her.
> 
> Today was the first day she went out to do some work, according to her he played up and went crazy!!!...urgggg.....he would not let her get on, and when she did she said he bolted and she fell off....hmmmmmm....me thinks she was not as experieinced as she told me, I even had her ride him once while I was present to explain his gaits to her, and she went fine...
> 
> ...


Well it appears Comanche is no worse for wear, has a small lac on his right knee, no doubt when he jumped the fence. He really messed the metal railing fence up, will need to check his legs in the morning to make sure no swelling has come up.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

BLAH! THat is super annoying. I hope there isn't any swelling but you are right, what is up with her riding skills? Hmmm wish he could tell us his side of the story.

Hang in there - I still think you can keep building your conditioning even without the help of another rider in between. it will just take a bit longer, but think of how much stronger his tendons and ligaments will be conditioning at a slower pace? i can't see anything but GOOD come out of it....and it is the downtime between rides where he is building new muscles and making repairs internally to get ready for the next ride...

I think you can do it. Just keep going! But I would seriously reevaluate this other rider....put her through the paces while you sit and watch. Something must have set him off....


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

clippityclop said:


> BLAH! THat is super annoying. I hope there isn't any swelling but you are right, what is up with her riding skills? Hmmm wish he could tell us his side of the story.
> 
> Hang in there - I still think you can keep building your conditioning even without the help of another rider in between. it will just take a bit longer, but think of how much stronger his tendons and ligaments will be conditioning at a slower pace? i can't see anything but GOOD come out of it....and it is the downtime between rides where he is building new muscles and making repairs internally to get ready for the next ride...
> 
> I think you can do it. Just keep going! But I would seriously reevaluate this other rider....put her through the paces while you sit and watch. Something must have set him off....


Well I have only myself to blame, that will be the first and last time I will hire someone to work my horses while I am away. Waiting on my housemate to let me know in the morning how his legs are doing. Hopefully there will be no swelling. My housemate had a word to her, and she thinks she knows what happened. At our farm we regularly train and sell green horses, but we train western style, proper mouthing, one rein stops etc. This girl is primarily an english rider, so when a horse starts playing up, or starts getting too hot, not listening, etc etc....her first instinct is to jump off, or fall off in this case, and not use her one rein stop. I have taught Comanche to flex when he is mounted, and to one rein stop as well. This girl knew this, but since her background is not western/endurance her previous experience failed her.

I will just go back to the 2 weeks on 2 weeks off training and see how I go . I have a 40km training ride picked out for him at the end of setember, so we will see how he goes.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

Well i forgot to ask, but I hope she is okay too. Sorry it didn't work out too well....

Well I KNOW YOUR FRUSTRATION regarding not being able to ride as much as you need to - I am at home being a mommy to a 2 yr old right now with a hubby who works pretty much 12 hr days so my time to condition a horse it pretty much ZERO. I've been trying to figure out a way to condition slowly (with only spontaneous riding) for a slow limited distance ride and can't even figure out how to do that yet...of course I can't leave the house on a 2 hr ride and leave a 2 yrold at home...so I know how you feel.

I once conditioned a horse riding weekends only, for a competitive trail ride. It ended up taking us a year and a half and believe it or not, we won first place in our novice division. I think it was luck, and a good horse..not any particular strategy. LOL! I guess it is true that if you keep at it, you'll get there. Well, for what it's worth, I'm rooting for you!


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

clippityclop said:


> Well i forgot to ask, but I hope she is okay too. Sorry it didn't work out too well....
> 
> Well I KNOW YOUR FRUSTRATION regarding not being able to ride as much as you need to - I am at home being a mommy to a 2 yr old right now with a hubby who works pretty much 12 hr days so my time to condition a horse it pretty much ZERO. I've been trying to figure out a way to condition slowly (with only spontaneous riding) for a slow limited distance ride and can't even figure out how to do that yet...of course I can't leave the house on a 2 hr ride and leave a 2 yrold at home...so I know how you feel.
> 
> I once conditioned a horse riding weekends only, for a competitive trail ride. It ended up taking us a year and a half and believe it or not, we won first place in our novice division. I think it was luck, and a good horse..not any particular strategy. LOL! I guess it is true that if you keep at it, you'll get there. Well, for what it's worth, I'm rooting for you!


I know someone that was in your position, a couple times a week she set up a hot walk in the round yard and made the horse do that for 2 hours. Not my sort of fun, nor for the horse, but it got the job done.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

LOL! I guess that's determination....

I have a one mile cardio trail here in my woods that I built. It is not a fast paced trail because it is very very technical - I guess it could be faster as long as you wore some sort of shin protection - but it has major ups and downs, ravine climbs and slides, water crossings, log crossing and ziggy zagging...right now it is a bit grown over but I've got to get the chain saw back there to some of it. The drought here has caused a bunch of the trees to drop their lower limbs, and some paths are impassable. But even on my own two feet, it is a calorie burner!

RIding a one mile trail over and over can be mind-numbing like the hot walker, but the terrain really builds the rear and the weaving in and out helps keep the horse soft with leg-yields and such so it does have benefits. There is one large perimeter trail, and some switch backs inbetween so you can vary it up just a bit so they don't anticipate where they are going all of the time.....but that's about all I've got right now to work with for my conditioning without leaving the property.

Making the loop five times every day gets pretty boring, that's for sure but it has to be better than a hot walker by far! Right now, it is in the triple digits here and just too hot! What are your temps there? Do you have much humidity that you have to deal with? Or is your area pretty dry?


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

clippityclop said:


> LOL! I guess that's determination....
> 
> I have a one mile cardio trail here in my woods that I built. It is not a fast paced trail because it is very very technical - I guess it could be faster as long as you wore some sort of shin protection - but it has major ups and downs, ravine climbs and slides, water crossings, log crossing and ziggy zagging...right now it is a bit grown over but I've got to get the chain saw back there to some of it. The drought here has caused a bunch of the trees to drop their lower limbs, and some paths are impassable. But even on my own two feet, it is a calorie burner!
> 
> ...


May be short and boring, but sounds like excellent gymnastic course for your horse.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

It's a great course for humans, too. I took a boy scout troup through it once and the parents that came along were about ready to hang me from the tallest tree after we were done....:wink:


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

Looks like the 2 weeks off is doing Comanche some good. His resting heart rates have been between 32 and 36 for all our training rides since I have been home.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

Nice!! Sounds like it might work!


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## usdivers (Jun 27, 2012)

clippityclop said:


> Nice!! Sounds like it might work!


Yep he is going good. Did his longest LSD the other day of 30KM, and he came in with a hr of 44.


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