Dear Greenbean
| October 22, 2018 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
Hey you, trying to get your horse up to a trail ride of double digits for the first time. Yes, you in the corner who did a long ride last weekend in the stunning time of…3 mph. Do you feel an eternity away from the miles and pace of an endurance ride?
I am 90…85% sure that I’m riding ML in this picture.
I’m here to reassure you that you are on the right track. I’m writing this to remind myself that *I’m* on the right track too.
This post is now available in “Go Ride Far.”
“Go Ride Far” is a collection of revised and updated posts, as well as new content that focuses on what I wish I had known prior to my first endurance ride. (original release details here)
For the price of the fru-fru coffee ($3.99) the ebook covers:
- How to easily and intuitively back a trailer
- Take control of your conditioning and training
- Recognize and fix a “bonk”
- The never before told story of Dr. Mel’s first endurance ride
…and more from the running, riding, writing veterinarian and Singletrack Press!
Paperback versions ($9.99) are available from Amazon, or if you are in the US and want a signed copy directly from me ($10+$2 shipping) contact me at [email protected].
If you REALLY want a copy of this post and you are McDonald’s coffee broke (seriously, any size for a $1?) and fru-fru coffee is not in the budget, contact me at [email protected] with the title of this post and I’ll send you a pdf copy of the post/chapter. Please consider putting a dollar in my PayPal ([email protected]) or Venmo account, or donating through facebook messenger (facebook.com/drmelnewton) to help cover the cost of this site.
Thanks!
PS. Here’s some photos and an ending note from the original post that did not make their way into the book. Enjoy!
This is my green horse spooking at her own pee river that was flowing downhill as she peed on the trail LOL!
***BTW. Starting Farley in endurance was prior to this blog, but I had significant concerns whether this was the sport for her since she was so pokey and boring on our conditioning rides. We trained and conditioned and entered our first LD. Which she won. It was completely by accident. She flew through it with a fire I did not know existed in that little brown mare. I had no idea we were in the front and was opening gates and letting people ride on ahead since the ride was all about training and having fun. In retrospect my training had prepared us very well for that ride and that day. But in the moment of the every day training it was hard to see how far we had progressed. It took going to a ride to see how my hard work and small steps had added up to something bigger. It was a good lesson.
I love, love, love this post. I’m saving it and printing it because I need to hear this.
I’m excited to read your PS. Found a home for my awesome retired LD horse, starting up a 7 yo Morgan gelding. He is SOOOO laid back it’s scaring me. Only his 2nd trail ride from home, he never spooked, he walked, trotted, even galloped on command. But with no “fire in his belly”. Why is it that I WANT a horse to misbehave a little bit, to try to rip my arms out?? Am I an idiot? I’m worried I have a nice pleasure trail horse. Not what I wanted….
Oh yeah I was totally there with Farley. Lol! You really don’t know until they have 2-3 endurance rides under their belt (girth?). Keep going and don’t despair yet!
Karen, I have a happy laid back gelding who just trucks along at around 6.4ish…on average. He’s never in a hurry really and will even happily plod at 5.6ish LOL. I have been on LD’s for a year…and he had the whole summer off recently when I moved, so really, he had last fall/spring season of 25’s and then running on a new 32 acre place (from a 4 acre place) with his 5 other pals. I took him out in late August for a few little 8-10ish mile rides a few weekends in a row and then up to TN (I lived in flattish LA) and entered the 25 at Skymont- think hills and hills and hills LOL- so not our normal training grounds. But he moved along steady all day and completed looking great. 2 weeks later my friends convinced me to just go ahead and try a 50 at a ride closer to home and similar terrain that we train on- that he had it in him to finish. He isn’t fast -I have a fast one already 😉 – but he is steady. Well, he did have it in him and we finished right near 8 hrs with a vet card that had all A’s all day 🙂 . But all that said- I actually like to be out on trail as short as possible some days LOL
After 2500 endurance miles, we still go out and have a great time at 3mph! I think hours in the saddle pay off in the long run as well as any other training miles, especially in the hills. I rarely do “high speed” training miles and though we are turtles, we never have any trouble on 50s. Our conditioning program is long slow miles on the trails with non-endurance friends along with some arena work.
Glad you are back in the saddle and enjoy the ride! Robin
Thank you! And yes I completely agree on training for time, not miles. I think it is THE KEY. That three hours was excellent and fun. It just made it apparent just how far we have to go lol. She was trotting up hills long and steady which was amazing!!!!! But also bonking and needing a grazing break 30 min in (poor starving horsey….). She also was having to use WAY more brain power than idea to pick her lines of footing through the technical stuff. The 3mph didn’t really bother me, it was just a handy number to represent where we are. For an easy ride for an experienced endurance horse that loop is probably a 4.5mph loop.
Thanks for pointing it out. I make a big deal about time and not miles so some might have wondered after reading this! Nope, just a handy short hand for “we are so not Endurance ride ready” (but based on a lot more than a simple mph number).
Excellent post, which I will forward all over the place!
Thanks! :). There’s a remarkable lack of the bad idea fairy presence in this post! How unusual for me….lol.