# Amount of conditioning before the first ride



## jillybean19 (Dec 23, 2011)

In other words, most everyone looking to do endurance can more than likely have their horse race-ready in time to compete this season. I purchased my Arab almost exactly a year ago. Before I purchased him, he spent most of his time in a stall and was put on a hot walker for exercise. He needed a tune-up in addition to regular riding, but we were on the trails doing conditioning rides by March/April and successfully competed in our LD at the end of May. September, we'd completed three more LD's (totaling 105 miles) and a fifty, for a total season of 155 miles. We could have done more, but finances and a poorly fitting saddle cut our season short. When you're getting your horse ready, make sure you have a mentor and volunteer at a ride or two to see what this is all about as well as talk to experienced riders to find out how they condition and how to know when your horse is ready for the rides in your area.


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## prairiewindlady (Sep 20, 2011)

I know that they are physically capable of doing an endurance ride after a few months of conditioning, but I have also read that it takes 3 years to make a real endurance horse (as it apparently takes that long to build bone density and ligament strength?) It's just slightly discouraging as my Appendix would be 21 by that time, and probably close to retirement. :?

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## prairiewindlady (Sep 20, 2011)

Also I have a question about days off. I am reading that you should probably be giving your horse every other day off (or every a day off for every 10 miles). If this is the case, I was probably pushing my pony a bit too hard? After a little over 3 weeks of "conditioning" (he was getting ridden about 2-3 days a week before then), I had progressed to taking him about 2-5 miles a day at least 4-5 days a week...about 3/4ths was walking and the rest trotting.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

Yes, the long haul - successful 100 milers and such need that time - the people who like to consistently finish top ten or BC. JillyBean is talking more about how to get any horse ready to ride if you have a sound horse and the time to commit to it and it's an easy ride not a fast cantering the whole way trying to get BC on a 50. 

For me, it takes a minimum of 3 months if not 6 (depending on how much life gets in the way) just to be able to condition for an LD with a 3.5hr finish time (I don't like being in the saddle longer than that) so I take a little longer with my conditioning so they can go a bit faster AND I can only squeeze in maybe three rides a week so while conditioning, so I'm limited on my hours in the saddle. 

But JB is right - you can condition for an LD in three months. Won't be a fast one with the front runners, but if you are careful and your horse is in decent shape to begin with, you can get a decent completion and placing for sure.


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

prairiewindlady said:


> Also I have a question about days off. I am reading that you should probably be giving your horse every other day off (or every a day off for every 10 miles). If this is the case, I was probably pushing my pony a bit too hard? After a little over 3 weeks of "conditioning" (he was getting ridden about 2-3 days a week before then), I had progressed to taking him about 2-5 miles a day at least 4-5 days a week...about 3/4ths was walking and the rest trotting.


I don't think it hurts to do 2-5 miles almost every day at a walk/trot - but at some point your horse will become fit to that routine and then you need to advance. You can start giving him every other day off and increasing the mileage to where you are doing 10 miles every other day or two days and then once in a great while, throw in a longer 20 on a weekend with friends or something at a reasonable pace. My horses do just fine in LD getting 30-40 miles a week and that keeps them fit enough that even on a lazy ride day we still make the top 20.


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## jillybean19 (Dec 23, 2011)

I second almost everything that CC said above.

Distance, speed, and the time it takes to develop each are separate, so I'm going to address them separately.

It takes 3 years to develop a 100-mile horse. The lungs, muscling, etc. can condition quickly and are only a matter of working your horse out and getting them used to the distance. For the shorter distances, such as LD's and even 50's, that's all you need and so it takes only a few months to get them ready. Many riders I know condition their horses and successfully ride them in 25's and 50's quite a bit their first year, but don't over-enter them in rides and give them adequate time off as well as ride them at a medium pace that the horse is comfortable with and not pushing for placing. For instance, I did do one multi-day ride where I rode my horse in a 25, had a day off, and then did a 50. Then, the second year, they start doing rides more often and start doing back-to-back rides, still taking it slow (but not TOO slow, as that can sometimes lead to more issues as well!). Finally, in the third year, they start adding more distance, like 75's and 80's, and maybe even testing their luck in an elevator ride for a 100, but I probably wouldn't do a 1-day 100 until the fourth year. This would be a rough plan for a rider who really wants to progress as safely, but most riders I know take their time knowing they and their horses are in no rush.

Now, for speed. Here's the best quote I've ever heard about adding speed, so I'm just going to copy and paste it. I've posted it in another forum, but it's just so good and lends a lot of perspective to how and why you should add speed:


> I believe in the "2 years or 1,000 miles of competition before going fast" theory. I stuck to that with Shayne and again on the horse I'm bringing along now and it seems to work well for my horses and me. When I started endurance riding I heard that phrase (2 years or 1000 miles) allot and many people were pretty religious about it when bringing up a new horse. It has really stuck with me even though I don't hear it much anymore. I need/want/like my horses to last a long time and I believe that this is one way of stacking the cards in my favor to make that happen. I don't creep along the trail by any means, and I do spend a great deal of time conditioning my horses for the rides. But, I try to be conservative/middle of the pack"ish", for the first 2 years or approximately 1000 miles. I have also learned to be focused but flexible; that competition is not only about coming in first, and that nothing lasts forever.
> Don't let your competitiveness carry you away. Put the horse's well being before your own. If you think your horse is off...he is. And, realize that at this time next year (or possibly even next month) no one is likely to remember, or care, where you placed at this ride or any other ride. So, take advantage of opportunities as they come but don't spend your time worrying over placings at a ride or push too hard to try to make something happen. The things that people will remember are how you treat others and how you treat your horse. Suzanne Pindar


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## jillybean19 (Dec 23, 2011)

prairiewindlady said:


> Also I have a question about days off. I am reading that you should probably be giving your horse every other day off (or every a day off for every 10 miles). If this is the case, I was probably pushing my pony a bit too hard? After a little over 3 weeks of "conditioning" (he was getting ridden about 2-3 days a week before then), I had progressed to taking him about 2-5 miles a day at least 4-5 days a week...about 3/4ths was walking and the rest trotting.


2-5 miles isn't a lot. When we're talking conditioning, it's more like 5-15 miles. You need to be conditioning against fatigue at a steady trot. Short rides and slow rides all contribute, but to really have the kind of conditioning you need for endurance we're talking about sustained speed over longer distances. Since these rides should be a good workout for your horse (but still energetic and alert when you're done), you will need to give your horse a few days off. I mentioned above that you want to be somewhere in the range of 20-30 miles per week - even with the numbers you gave, you're getting 8-25 miles per week, and mostly at a walk, which means you're not overdoing it. Most horses can be ridden daily for a few miles at a decent pace, but they don't need the days off because they're not getting pushed hard like we're talking about for endurance.

If your horse is comfortable with what you're doing, you'll need to step up his conditioning program to being longer distances at a faster pace. In your pace, I'd get him to mostly trotting the distances you're already going, and then adding distance little by little. Once they're capable of sustaining a working trot, I don't push any faster because you can really start to do some damage when asking for speed (see previous post). Of course, you can also do damage by asking for too much distance too soon, so you just have to check that your horse is ready for it before you add more to your conditioning program.


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

I took 5 months on mine newest walker. She hadnt been ridden at all prior and not an ideal breed. What concerned me was the studies that show cardio gets in shape much faster than ligaments and connecting tissue. Plus we have alot of sand. If you can move at 6mph plus for 15 miles or so and pulse down to 60 in under 15 minutes, I dont see any reason you couldnt turtle an LD....
hahah Endurospeak jargon,:
Turtle, come in last but still finish in time.
LD, limited distance,, IE 25-35 miles.


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## TheOtherHorse (Aug 5, 2012)

*tendon/ligament strength*

I'm pretty new to endurance, so definitely not an expert, but from an eventing background and working in the veterinary field, I am much more concerned about tendon/ligament strength than I am with cardio fitness. My horse will tell me loud and clear if I am working her harder than she can handle from a cardio perspective, however, I have no way of knowing for sure that her legs are fit and strong enough to handle the stress of the workload... therefore, I condition more slowly and conservatively, just in case ... 

I've been through a suspensory ligament rehab with a previous horse... not something I ever want to have happen again. 

Better safe than sorry, IMO. I don't mind taking longer to get there if it means my horse has a better chance of staying sound longer.


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## jillybean19 (Dec 23, 2011)

TheOtherHorse said:


> I'm pretty new to endurance, so definitely not an expert, but from an eventing background and working in the veterinary field, I am much more concerned about tendon/ligament strength than I am with cardio fitness. My horse will tell me loud and clear if I am working her harder than she can handle from a cardio perspective, however, I have no way of knowing for sure that her legs are fit and strong enough to handle the stress of the workload... therefore, I condition more slowly and conservatively, just in case ...
> 
> I've been through a suspensory ligament rehab with a previous horse... not something I ever want to have happen again.
> 
> Better safe than sorry, IMO. I don't mind taking longer to get there if it means my horse has a better chance of staying sound longer.


Excellent point. The ligaments and bone take a lot longer to develop - in endurance, we say that it takes 3 years to develop a full endurance horse. However, you can still do rides during that time - just take it conservatively. Don't try to race, and don't enter every single ride. I'm starting a new endurance horse this year and hoping to do about 4 to 6 50's on her, no more than one per month.

My second-year horse I plan to do about twice as much with. If all goes well, we're really going to hit the endurance trail next year and load the miles on!

However, most people just looking to get into "endurance" can do so within a few months if they take it easy and enter LD's (or even 50's), give the horse enough time off and space out their rides, and don't turn it into a race.

The background plays a huge role as well - Just as endurance horses conditioned in the past come back to being race-ready more quickly than new horses, I would think it would be a much shorter "conditioning" period for an eventer!


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## clippityclop (Jul 12, 2012)

And when you get your horse conditioned up to 50's and are going to at least 2 rides a month (1 every two weeks), you can almost just count the actual rides as conditioning as well with only a little conditioning here and there in between, if at all. There is nothing wrong with coasting along for a year at that pace and finishing in the middle of the pack - it is what a lot of folks do once they get the cardio built up - then they coast for a year and just let the ligs and tendons catch up. Then they are ready to progress the following year with longer rides or multi-days.


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## jillybean19 (Dec 23, 2011)

clippityclop said:


> And when you get your horse conditioned up to 50's and are going to at least 2 rides a month (1 every two weeks), you can almost just count the actual rides as conditioning as well with only a little conditioning here and there in between, if at all. There is nothing wrong with coasting along for a year at that pace and finishing in the middle of the pack - it is what a lot of folks do once they get the cardio built up - then they coast for a year and just let the ligs and tendons catch up. Then they are ready to progress the following year with longer rides or multi-days.


I would actually say the same about doing a ride every 3-4 weeks, especially if you're doing multi-days. I try to give my horses a week off for ever 25 miles within one ride (so I'd give one week off for an LD, two weeks off for a 50, but the rides wouldn't necessarily add up - it'd still be two weeks off if I did two 50's) and then I go pretty light the week before the ride. If I was doing a 50 every 3 weeks, that'd mean I really didn't condition in between, but rather just when for a light trail ride or two.


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## Animallover707 (Jan 23, 2013)

Im new to endurance and wanting to get into it. I chose my 14.2 hand appy qh mare (You can view her under horse comformation critique 'comformation? endurance prospect?' and tell me what you think) We started conditioning today and im weondering if i can do arena work(a half hour usually) in the morning and a long ride about 3 miles in the evening(will begin to increase later). This is what we did often last year, because its to muddy from frost in the morning to ride on my hill and by evening its usually dried out. 
Also i was wondering how you know how many miles you have done. I can estimate 3 pretty good because thats how many miles i walk my 5 dogs every day.


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

most use a gps to calculate speed and distance.. But ummmm 3 miles isnt even a warm up. 
Nothing wrong with round pen and arena work to improve the mental game, should be one of your weekly training sessions. The other 2 need to be steady moving for a couple hours. If your horse can only walk just walk for two hours, then add a bit of trotting, working up to holding a trot for two hours.


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

FInd the book Endurance 101, really good book written in a lighthearted manner, can get it at Amazon or on kindle or Barnes and nobel


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## 2SCHorses (Jun 18, 2011)

Animallover707 said:


> Im new to endurance and wanting to get into it. I chose my 14.2 hand appy qh mare (You can view her under horse comformation critique 'comformation? endurance prospect?' and tell me what you think) We started conditioning today and im weondering if i can do arena work(a half hour usually) in the morning and a long ride about 3 miles in the evening(will begin to increase later). This is what we did often last year, because its to muddy from frost in the morning to ride on my hill and by evening its usually dried out.
> Also i was wondering how you know how many miles you have done. I can estimate 3 pretty good because thats how many miles i walk my 5 dogs every day.


You can and should do some arena work, but the trail work should probably go longer, so you can do the trail twice to three times if that is the only trail you have. A great way to know how far you are going is the app "Map My Walk" or "Map My Ride" available on a smart phone. It will tell you length, elevation gain and speed (pending that you have good reception and get a signal the whole way around). You really want to do long, slow walks for the first 2 months or so, like 10-15 miles. When I am conditioning I try to ride 3X a week (and sometimes it doesn't work out for me because children are like that!). Then move up to walk/trot, then trot, and hopefully you will have found some more trails by then and it won't be so boring for you and your horse. Horses get bored, too! We have a very hilly trail near our house and my mare and I do it often, but she knows every single part, so I try to make it interesting by asking her to perform tasks or do things wonky so she isn't super bored.


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## Animallover707 (Jan 23, 2013)

Joe4d said:


> FInd the book Endurance 101, really good book written in a lighthearted manner, can get it at Amazon or on kindle or Barnes and nobel


 Ok! Ya ill start riding at 3 then and finish when the sun goes down (Around 5-5:30 here) Then and ill slowly build up. I try to do a half hour of arena work 3-4 times a week with my horses, with all different sorts of thinks from small jumping polls to doing different figures and doing leg work(Reining off legs) I like to keep my horses very sharp and responding well for when we do trail riding.


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## jillybean19 (Dec 23, 2011)

Arena work and other cross-training activities are excellent for conditioning if you keep a sustained trot at least for an hour or so. Many of the endurance ladies I know actually do drill team together and once tracked 8 miles during one practice. Their horses are in excellent shape for all this practice. Long walks can actually be very difficult on your horse's back not to mention tiring for you. I wouldn't really ever do a 10-15 mile walk unless I was doing a back-country day ride. I haven't ever done one for endurance. Rather, I brought my horse up to speed from being a stalled horse exercised on a hot walker by riding him in the arena and working on fundamentals, often at a good trot or lope (approx. 2 months). When I started conditioning, I started at 5 miles of a working trot (8-9mph) and then steadily added distance when he was ready (after 2 months of this, he was ready for his first LD).


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## pmaehj (Jan 10, 2013)

This is great info! I am currently trying to get my Haflinger to do LD's, but am worried about the conditioning! Just going to take our time and see where we can get!


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## 2SCHorses (Jun 18, 2011)

pmaehj said:


> This is great info! I am currently trying to get my Haflinger to do LD's, but am worried about the conditioning! Just going to take our time and see where we can get!


Yes! You have 6 hours to complete the LD, which, in reality, is a lot of time for a reasonably conditioned horse. We had our buckskin QH complete, and he's the laziest horse ever - he would go backwards if he could. It really IS important to do long, working walks. If your horse doesn't have any glaring conformation issues, his back should be fine if your saddle fits well and you are not a completely unbalanced rider - if he does get a sore back, check the saddle fit unless you know he has a long back or back issues, and then you should consider another mount for endurance. The long walks teach metal fitness as well as physical strength, which is really important to prevent the horse's mind from 'turning off' (also, these are 'working walks', not riding on the buckle spacing out - ask your horse to pay attention). While it is more fun to trot shorter distances, the walk teaches real endurance, the mental kind. Definitely read Endurance 101 and take your time when conditioning. Ideally, it is good to build up the mental fortitude over a month and then go into trotting, especially if your horse and YOU aren't used to long hours (remember, YOU will be in the saddle for hours and hours, too, and it takes patience, and maybe some Advil). The walking will build a base of strength and a good mind, and the trotting/cantering will build on that. There is a nice, concise PDF put out by SERA that talks about conditioning: http://www.seraonline.org/Conditioning.pdf
It has some basic information and good suggestions for workouts if you are wondering what to do.


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## pmaehj (Jan 10, 2013)

Thank you for the information! Will be really helpful when I move him in 1 week! Just bought a nice treeless can't wait to spend some time in it! Yea there will be plenty of walk at first. In order to get him back in shape for light riding I am going to work him in my pessoa atleast 2 times a week just at the walk first, just to help with balance, and being over weight. Can't wait to get started! Will be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, and I will learn alot!


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