Introduction to Endurance Riding

1. Introduction to Endurance Riding Courtesy of Laura Strausberg September 2011

2. What is Endurance Riding?

3. What does an endurance ride look/feel like? Linda Parish(timer) Shana Thoms (vet), Bo Parish (P&R Volunter), Carter Hounsel (Head vet Melinda (Timer), Linda Parrish (Timer), Bo Parish (P&R Volunter) Ride about to start Happy riders, having a good time (most of the time)

4. There are lots of opinion on how to condition your horse…. there is not one right way. This is a topic you should probably do some research on you own. Here are a few thoughts Conditioning your horse You should also recognize that each horse is an individual, and will react to stress (conditioning, competition, and so forth) in his own way. You really must know your horse!

5. What to Bring for your horse • Saddle(s) • Bridle(s) • Breast plates or crupper if used. • Girth or cinch • Sweat scraper • Bug spray • A pommel or cantle bag or pack • Vetwrap • Braiding bands • Rump rug • Heartrate monitor/GPS • Stethoscope • Wrist watch • Cooler • Boots (if your horse does not have shoes) • Replacement shoe like an Easy Boot if possible. • Liniment—to be used only after competition is over. • Your horse’s coggins • Haynet or Hay bag • Some people like to feed saturated beat pulp for energy and moisture • Picket ropes or portable corrals if camping over. * You should practice with this a head of time, if possible • 3 buckets—one for horse watering and two for washing and sponging. • Water (if possible)—horses may be more likely to drink water from home. • Apples and carrots to encourage horses to get their nose into feed or water. • Electrolytes, if using. • Large syringe to administer electrolyte mixture. • Sponges—one that fastens to your saddle. • You can also make scoops from old jugs to get water on your horse. • What experienced riders want you to know: • “Bring water for horses OR figure out where the water supply is and park near it. We parked ALL the way across camp with no water and no way of transporting water. We were walking back and forth across camp with buckets sloshing everywhere to get our horses water.” Laura Strausberg • “I wish I had known all the things to put into my cantle bag.” Maureen Davidson • “using reins that give you blisters or stay wet like cotton, or get slippery and slide thru your fingers.” Jeramie Judd

6. What to bring for yourself • Vet card pouch • Chapstick • Cell phone holder with phone • Sunglasses or helmet visor • Riding gloves • Bandana or scarf • Sunscreen • Clothing – be prepared for extremes in weather. Layers are a good idea • Basic first aid kit • Water bottles for saddle • Energy snack for rider • Fanny pack to carry electrolytes and bottles. • Comfortable riding pant (tights) HIGHLY recommend not wearing jeans • Safe riding boots or shoes • Helmet • Experience riders want you to know: • “ Wearing lotion or sun screen on your face that drips down into your eyes when you sweat and burns like hell!”    Wearing socks too think or too thin”-Jeramie Judd • “if it bothers you a little when you ride in practice, it will KILL you in an endurance ride".  (a water bottle in a pouch in front of you that you occasionally bump into, English stirrup leathers without padding, metal stirrups, Ariat half chaps for paddock boots worn with sneakers, (they slide down the back on your heel, really big blisters before the first vet check) pants that grip the saddle (you slide, not the pants, chaffing to the MAX)-Harriet Merritt • “I wished I would have known not to wear blue jeans..I was rubbed raw by the inseam! “-Cindy Kovalchuk, • “Wear a good sports bra without under wire. Irritating and rubbed me raw when sweating.  ”-Chancy Horn

7. What to Bring For Camping • Camping • Make sure you have somewhere comfortable to sleep. Waking up stiff and sore from sleeping on a thin pad might not be the best way to start the day of a long ride. • Tent if there is no sleeping quarters in your trailer. • Food and Drink • Take along food that requires minimum cooking for suppers around the camp. • Others enjoy producing gourmet meals on a portable grill. (Dinner will be served on Saturday, all other meals are on your own) • Decide how much energy you think you’ll have for cooking and plan accordingly. • For vet stops where time is short an energy bar and cubed melons or sliced fruit are easy to grab and eat while walking with your horse. • Sandwiches tend to fall apart if you have one hand on the reins while you try to eat. • It is just as important for the rider to drink as the horse. Water or sports drinks are great. What experience riders want you to know: “Make sure you have something really comfortable to sleep on. Sheesh I grabbed a tiny blow up pool mattress to sleep on at the last minute. Set up my tiny non water proof tent in the pouring rain and was completely soaked all weekend and slept on a flat deflated pool floaty. 6 years later and I'm still here, didn't scare me away but I sure wish I had planned for a more comfortable night sleep! :)-”Ann Dypwick

8. Camping for you horse

9. Pre-ride Examination

10. The Day of the Ride Start: • Check in with Out Timer 15 minutes prior to ride start. • You don’t have to be mounted. • Don’t have to leave at the start but must check in prior to start. Ride card: • Have ride card out for Arrival Timer when coming into vet check. • Zip lock bag will keep the card dry – take it out of the bag for the timer. • Keep the ride card with you throughout the ride. Holds: • No more than 30 minutes after checking in with the Arrival Timer, the heart rate must be down to pulse criteria. • Gate into a hold procedure: Hold time starts after the heart rate is officially down to criteria in the pulse box. • • You may not go back on trail until the Hold Time has elapsed, but you may stay longer if you need more time. • • Check with the Out Timer before going back on trail Finish – endurance vs. limited distance: • Endurance: Finish line. Horse must then reach criteria and pass the vet exam within one hour. • Limited distance: 60 beat per minute pulse required. Your finish time is the time at which you meet criteria, NOT when you cross the finish line. Your horse must reach 60 bpm within 30 minutes of crossing the finish line and the horse must pass the final vet exam for completion. Taking Care of Your Horse • Traditional methods of cooling horses (e.g., muscles make heat, sweat cools and humidity prevents sweat from doing its job well. In a hot horse the pulse goes up and digestive processes slow down. Cool/cold water helps, etc.) • If something seems wrong with horse (including Peeing, Pooping, Eating or Drinking), stop and analyze. • On trail, send word with passing rider. Make sure the messenger has your horse number/letter to give to ride management. Stay put if help has been sent for. • Use of electrolytes (more important in heat and humidity).

11. "to finish is to win"

12. The ride • Each distance starts with all competitors leaving at the same time, usually at a trot. • Your normally calm, gentle horse may suddenly become this wild animal you never knew before. So consider checking in with the timer prior to the start, but leaving your horse tacked but secured behind your trailer where he can't see the start. Once everyone, or most everyone, has left, mount up and ease down the trail. • One of the hardest things to do is not to get caught up in someone else's ride plan. You must ride your horse as you have ridden in training and conditioning. Just because your horse thinks he can race with the front-runners doesn't mean it is in his best interest to do so. Veteran riders call it "big brain, little brain." You have the big brain to make the right decisions for your horse that has the little brain and doesn't realize this ride is 25 or 30 or 50 miles long. • Once out on course, enjoy the scenery! Endurance rides take you through some beautiful parts of our country. Follow the ribbons. Don't feel obliged to keep the pace that everyone else is doing - ride your own ride. If you feel your horse needs to walk, then do so. If you are on your own, you can buddy up with someone else who seems to be keeping a similar pace, especially if your horse is the type who will waste a lot of energy worrying about where the other horses are. • Try to pace yourself by keeping an eye on the time • No matter what rate you are pacing at, the horse's heart rate should drop quickly (within 10 minutes) to 64 beats per minute after a workout, otherwise you are over-riding him. Rapid breathing and heart rate suggest pain, if the horse doesn't recover as described above. • Experience riders want you to know: • “PLEASE be respectful to other riders, call out when you pass, wait at water, etc.”-Eron Howell • “What the trail markers meant.  ribbons? what ribbons 3 on the turn side” Karren Beason • “I liked the concept of having newbies wear the green ribbon as I was a newbie, and it saved a lot of dirty looks.” -Carrier Merson • “Choose a well established, well run ride as your first ride.  They will have the course down pat, the ride manager will have all of the details in orders, everything around you will run smoothly so that you are the only "wild card" in your relationship with the trail. ”-Carolyn Burgess

13. The ride (cont) • Offer your horse water whenever there is an opportunity. • . • When you reach a checkpoint, you will need to call out your number to the spotter or give them a token and wait until they have confirmed it before proceeding. • Don't be afraid to dismount and walk next to your horse occasionally, especially up or down steep slopes. • If you run into a problem (eg your horse treads on a stone or loses a shoe or becomes distressed), dismount and walk your horse to a numbered gate . If this is not possible, then stop and send another passing rider with a message for help. The ride manager will send some one to pick you up Experience riders want you to know: RIDE YOUR RIDE/DO NOT RACE • “That I had to make decisions for the horse about the pace we would ride at. Read that, slow them down. Most horses don't have any concept of conserving energy and pacing themselves. They're herd animals and for a variety of reasons they will exceed their abilities, sometimes leading to devastating results.”-Mike Jaffe • “To ride my own ride.   And they should be asked to think about that long and hard--what does that mean?  Elaborating:  ride so that I would never have to apologize to my horse for placing ANYTHING above his wellbeing.  And that 10 years later I would still be riding the same horse, regardless of whether it could handle the the considerable emotional and mental demands of riding in a large-herd dynamic of speed and chaos.” • “Never EVER race. Ride your own ride. It's too easy for newbies to want to stick to someone - who goes faster and has a more conditioned or faster horse than you. Take care of YOU and your own HORSE primarily and completely.”-Lin Sutherland • I'd only ad that you please stress to NOT race. Many first time riders do it for the thrill and get hook on that and forget how it effects their horse over the long run.   Many horses can race once to top ten, but few stay sound. “- Erin Howell

14. What experience riders want you to know about the ride: HORSES GET ANXIOUS AT THE BEGINNING OF A RIDE • “The horse you know and love, who you have ridden 100s of conditioning miles, will disappear around 5 or 6am on ride day and reappear after about 20 miles more or less depending on how good of condition she is in...  after 70 miles at Ft Stanton my horse was still a freak - more mileage next time!”-Jean Brandau • “I wish that I had known the effect of riding with 40 other horses for the first time would do to my little paint. I should definitely have started at the back of the group rather than in the middle. When he saw the lead horses turn the corner and disappear through a gate, he cut the corner and ran he through the brush, eventually knocking me off. He returned to the camp, I walked into camp, got back on his lousy @$$ and we went out and completed his first 25. WEAR A HELMET!!!”-Scott Godwin • “I wish I had known my horse would become so nervous and anxious at the ride” Maureen Davidson • “I wish we could mandate that every first-time rider start at the back, 10 minutes after the start.  Both they and their horses would stand a better chance of having a safe start and a decent ride”-Beth Leggieri TAKE CARE OF YOUR HORSE • “Start electolyting at least 1 day prior to ride. Don't trailer more than 8 hours the day before the ride.”-Victoria Roden • “Not to give bute too soon after a race.”-Carrier Merson • “I wish I had known about all the supplements and electrolytes needed for my horse (my trainer took care of all of those things during the ride so it took a lot of asking questions for me to learn).” Maureen Davidson

15. What experience riders want you to know about the ride (cont): ASK QUESTIONS & HAVE A PLAN Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions. The endurance. comm. is more than willing to help. have a basic plan for your pace, etc. for the day.”-victoria roden “That it is okay to ask questions.  We were all new to endurance at one time.  Most endurance riders are very willing to help new folks.”-Dianne Campbell • ENDURANCE RIDING IS SO FUN! • “Wish I had known how much fun endurance could be, years and years ago!” -Maureen Davidson • “One thing I wish I knew was how much I would love the sport. I would have started sooner. So many people think endurance is all about racing. I've heard so many people who won't sign up because they don't want to race. I don't race. It isn't worth a lame horse to win any top 10 prize. Its not a race for me at all. Just a great time with my horse and friends. I say give it a try, you will be happy you did, says the girl who likes to turtle. I mean, I pay for 12 hours, why not get my $$'s worth? “-Jen Master

16. Vet Check The purpose of the hold is to allow time to assess the horse’s “fitness to continue” and to enforce a compulsory rest time. Pulse & Respiration (P&R) • After the horse and rider cross the line at the end of the loop, they have 30 minutes to present to the P&R staff with a heart rate (HR) at or below the pre-determined criteria (often 64 or below ) • The riding time does not stop until the point when the rider calls ‘time’ and presents to P&R. • If the HR is over criteria, the rider and horse leave the P & R area and the ride time continues. • Once the HR is taken and is at criteria or below, the horse goes to the vet area Vet Check The vet will take the horses HR and then have the horse trot 125 feet out and 125 feet back. • Cardiac Recover Index • A second HR for the cardiac recovery Index (CRI) is taken 60 seconds after the start of the trot. • The second HR (cardiac recovery Index) can be an indicator of lack of recovery or of pain. • In a recovering horse the second count will usually be the same as the first or within 8 beats (+ or -) in a 1 minute period. • An increase of 8 beats per minute or more from first HR to second HR is an indicator that something else may be amiss. What experience riders want you to know: “I wish I had known the things I needed to do coming into the first vet check to help my horse pulse down, like loosen his girth, remove his bit.  I learned that as I was coming into my first vet check!!”-Maureen Davidson

19. Parameters (vets will measure these and give each a score of A, B, C, D

20. Other terms & things to know

21. Resources and more information • Endurance Riders Handbook http://www.aerc.org/AERC_Rider_Handbook.pdf • Go the Distance: The Complete Resource for Endurance Horses [Hardcover] by Nancy S. Loving • AERC which is the national governing body for endurance. http://www.aerc.org/ •  TERA (Texas Endurance Riders Association) is the State group.   http://texasenduranceriders.org/.