HI
What can we say about our endurance training.


Arturo

Argentine

there's alot said in this forum,

my thoughts are wait til they are 4 or 5, do lots of long slow distance...

starting in CTRs things like NATRC gives them a brain.

Ok maz
i`m new in this site.
i`m reading the olds items in this forum, it`s veryintresting for me.

Arturo
From argentine

cool, there's alot of top FEI endurance riders from your area, there's lots of great information in this area.

i don't see alot of distance riders on the boards, i think they ride alot. another place you may go to study more is www.endurance.net/ridecamp

Hi Arturo-

A basic run down of my training is - youngsters get started sometime after 3 yrs of age, depending on their maturity level. I use dressage basics to get them started in the arena, and go back to dressage work throughout their riding careers. Once I think they are fairly knowledgeable of the aids, then we start doing short trail rides. Those are gradually lengthened so that we are doing long slow distance rides, then start adding in limited distance or endurance rides- still done at the slow steady pace. After a year or more of that we start speeding things up a little. I generally just ride for completions though, so rarely speed up to a 'fast' ride.

Hope that is what you were looking for!

Jen

Mystic Rose - how do handle a young spooky horse on the trail? Are you near national forest land, or do you ride down roads? I really want to get into endurance riding with my 5 (soon to be 6) yr old, but he is just so spooky I'm afraid to take him down the road. We've ridden out on large acreage and he does ok for the most part at a walk. But near traffic he is unsafe. What do you do to combat that?

I also have horse I will need to send off to get trained in the next year or two. She is only two. She is a half arab and is very athletic and STRONG. I am buying her for endurance purposes. I will be looking for a trainer soon.

best thing for a young, or new to trail horse is a very solid Sr training partner. join a local club, find a distance rider around you. nothing is better for a year or so.

Good advice Maz. I know there are folks in NM who trail ride/do endurance, but I've found it difficult to get hold of them. I belong to AHA of NM, and they dropped their officer position for distance riding due to lack of interest. I'll just keep looking for someone who's interested in trail rides.

Hello-
First off- how trained is your horse in a contained area? The first steps are to make sure he has an excellent whoa, and moves off your leg, seat and rein aids well before you take him somewhere 'spooky'. If he is fine with those things in a contained area, then take him out intot he field and work on them out there. Once he is steady at the walk and trot in the field, then you can start exploring farther away. Maz is definitely right- a trail buddy that has an experienced horse makes it much simpler, but sometimes that just isn't available, so you just have to take baby steps to each new phase. Another thing you can do is to set up scary things in your enclosed area - tarps, garbage cans, empty bags or water bottles, just stuff that is floating around out there to proved distractions for you to work him past- that way he knows he can trust you , and you have an idea of what his spooks feel like and how to get him past them.

The way my property is set up, my horses hang out near the road side of the property a lot, so they are naturally desensitzed to a lot of traffic, bikes etc... which gives me some advantage, but it all is still 'scary' again when you add the rider to the equation! I just make sure I have good control in the arena, move from there to a bigger area, then down a short piece of road to some short pieces of trail near me, then we will road ride some on the quieter stretches of road during the non busy road times, then we eventually start trailering to parks to ride hard. Would be soooooo wonderful to have real land to ride on out my back door, but no such luck!!

Also - if cars themselves are the issue- get someone to work with you in a car , in a driveway or quiet piece of road. First work him in hand around the car make sure he is ignoring it, then ride him back and forth past/around the car, then have them drive the car away, with you following, then have them drive behind you a little, next to you, etc.. make take many days, but he should figure out that the car itself isn't going to eat him.

hope that helps!