34 / Sport and Trail Magazine
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Originally published in Endurance News, the monthly magazine of the nonprofit American Endurance Ride Conference, which sanctions rides of 25 to 100 miles throughout the U.S. and Canada. For membership information or to request an informational brochure, write to [email protected], or visit www.aerc.org.
E
ndurance riding is not for the faint of heart. It takes time and dedication to prepare your horse to ride a 25-mile ride, let alone a longer distance. As you get your horse used to rides of 25 or 50 miles, many endurance riders start to look ahead to even longer distances.
What are good strategies to focus on to achieve distances of 75 to 100 miles? I would say it’s more about the rider than the horse.
Of course, the horse has to be fit, including lots of exercise over time to strengthen those tendons. I will let others more versed in equine physiology explain the best ways to get a horse prepared for longer distances. I would like to focus my experiences as a rider getting myself prepared for those longer distances. I have not done a lot of them, but enough to know that I enjoy the challenge and enjoy the experience when I am prepared.
My horse, Lucero Reedo de Rioto, aka Pete, was ready for 100s before I was. There have been a couple of 100s that Pete could have finished, but I did not have the ability to finish, mentally. I just wasn’t ready.
When I first started riding 50s, Pete and I both loved them, too much as it turns out, but that’s another story. I had no interest whatsoever in doing distances longer than that. But then, I read an article in Endurance News about how to choose a good crew. My reaction to that article was, “A crew? A crew! Of course, I could do 100 miles, if I had a crew!” That’s when I started focusing on longer distances.
The main role of a crew is to take care of you and your horse after you get too tired to think for yourself. With me, that happens after about 60 miles. Your crew reminds you what to do at vet
alone a longer distance. As you get your horse used to rides of 25 or 50 miles, many endurance riders start to look ahead to even longer distances.
What are good strategies to focus on to achieve distances of 75 to 100 miles? I would say it’s more about the rider than the horse.
Of course, the horse has to be fit, including lots of exercise over time to strengthen those tendons. I will let others more versed in equine physiology explain the best ways to get a horse prepared for longer distances. I would like to focus my experiences as a rider getting myself prepared for those longer distances. I have not done a lot of them, but enough to know that I enjoy the challenge and enjoy the experience when I am prepared.
My horse, Lucero Reedo de Rioto, aka Pete, was ready for 100s before I was. There have been a couple of 100s that Pete could have finished, but I did not have the ability to finish, mentally. I just wasn’t ready.
When I first started riding 50s, Pete and I both loved them, too much as it turns out, but that’s another story. I had no interest whatsoever in doing distances longer than that. But then, I read an article in Endurance News about how to choose a good crew. My reaction to that article was, “A crew? A crew! Of course, I could do 100 miles, if I had a crew!” That’s when I started focusing on longer distances.
The main role of a crew is to take care of you and your horse after you get too tired to think for yourself. With me, that happens after about 60 miles. Your crew reminds you what to do at vet checks. They feed you. They make sure that your horse’s needs are met. They make sure that all of your lights are in order, and do whatever else needs doing that you forgot.
The main role of a crew is to take care of you and your horse after you get too tired to think for yourself.
With me, that happens after about 60 miles. Your crew reminds you what to do at vet checks. They feed you. They make sure that your horse’s needs are met. They make sure that all of your lights are in order, and do whatever else needs doing that you forgot.
I did not have a crew at my first 100. I did not have a good advisor either to tell me how to prepare for it. Pete’s shoes were four weeks old. Bad idea. He wore off both back shoes after 88 miles of sandy trail. I had no idea what was wrong, I just knew that he did not feel right. I did not have a crew to help me figure it out.
Besides, I did not have the mindset to go another 12 miles in the dark without proper preparation. I had just done that 12-mile loop with another rider in the dark. I did not feel like I could do it again by myself, with no lights and no experience. I just wasn’t prepared.
Over time, with enough nighttime training miles, I learned to love riding in the dark. There was one particularly memorable pitch-dark fast trot through the woods where I was following a friend. All I could see was the behind of her white Arabian. It was so dark I could not even see the black horse I was riding. It was like Space Mountain® in Disneyland® Park (back when it was totally dark), but better, more fun.
In general, I had to learn to trust my horse. My horse’s attitude is that he is in the “here and now” and doing this now and forever. I had to get into that same zone as my horse.
It helps to have a compatible riding partner. That’s not easy for a hundred miles. The odds of two people completing with horses having the same pace is low. Although, if two horses do not have the same pace, but do have similar overall times, they can often team up when the sun goes down, when the pace will naturally slow down. I have managed that, but it’s never a sure thing that it will work.
It helps to have a compatible riding partner. That’s not easy for a hundred miles. The odds of two people completing with horses having the same pace is low. Although, if two horses do not have the same pace, but do have similar overall times, they can often team up when the sun goes down, when the pace will naturally slow down. I have managed that, but it’s never a sure thing that it will work.
Being a fit rider sounds obvious, but it is trickier and more important than one might think. If you are not balanced in your seat, it will affect your horse over long distances. I tend to lean on my left stirrup when I get tired. I have to watch out for that and be fit enough to not get that tired.
If you are injured, even slightly (e.g., you tweak your knee getting on or off), it can affect the horse over the course of the ride. A friend’s horse went metabolic after 50 miles at Tevis recently. In reality, the problem was the rider. She had fallen off at the beginning of the ride and was hurt. That affected the horse over those tough 50 miles.
Some people are natural “all-nighters.” I am not, so I have to develop strategies to stay awake and stay focused on what I am doing, instead of focusing on the finish line. More than once I have had to explain to myself that I paid good money to be doing this, so I had better stop focusing on getting to the finish line and instead focus on enjoying the ride.
I have found that singing helps. I have to sing old standards, because after a lot of miles I can’t remember verses of anything else. If you have someone with you, telling ghost stories is fun in the dark. Just do anything to engage your mind as you go down the trail. We all develop different tricks to accomplish that. You have to find yours.
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