I was pretty excited about this clinic, as I've been slowly reading up on endurance/CTR, as I've always thought it was something I could do. At the beginner levels, you don't need a special horse or special tack. You can work at home building up mileage and conditioning on your horse and then compete or do training rides if you are interested.
The two ladies gave a great presentation with a lot of really useful information. They gave us an overview on basic conditioning and what to expect during a ride, including vet checks and holds. I won't go into the details here - it is easy to Google endurance riding and you will find lots to read up on. It turns out that they are going to hold a "hands-on" clinic at my barn sometime in June. It would involve trotting the horses out in-hand and learning the procedures of the vet checks and holds, followed by a 6-12 mile ride! I'm really excited about that and hope that it actually happens!
Rusty really isn't the greatest horse for serious endurance riding, as he is older - 18 (give or take a year or two) - and has large muscles in his back end. Heavy muscling in the back end makes it harder to cool the horse out during holds and vet checks. Not a big deal, but I can't see myself doing more than 25 miles with Rusty.
There is also one other major problem with being interested in endurance riding:
Horse transportation. Or lack thereof.
That is my big roadblock. There are 3 rides throughout the summer within a 2-3 hour drive from my house. I don't have a trailer and don't really know anyone that could trailer me - that is alot to ask of a friend/acquanitance... I could hire someone to trailer us, but I just know the costs would be extremely high. For example, it cost me $120 to have my old barn owner trailer Rusty to our current barn and it was only about 40kms (25 miles) round trip. She didn't charge me a set-up fee either.
I think my plan for now is to just work on conditioning Rusty and see what kind of distance we can do at home. If I really enjoy the riding and training, I will have to decide what I want to do longer-term. It may require another horse and purchasing a second hand trailer. I'm in no rush, but we'll see where this takes me. I've just been thinking over the winter that trying to learn to show dressage or hunters or something just doesn't interest me anymore (it used to) and showing western pleasure seems a bit boring. (and I don't like how the higher level horses move - yuck!) So, endurance/CTR fits nicely with where I want to go with my riding (I think, lol!!) - you can compete (or just go out and finish and have fun) but you don't have to be a pro or have a huge budget...
So, we'll see where we end up at the end of summer... I don't suspect Rusty knows what he is in for! :-D
9 comments:
It does sound like a lot of fun. Rusty may surprise you once you get him in shape. He seems safe and he might like going for trips. Anyway, as you say you'll just have to see how it goes but I'm thinking it would be loads of fun.
I think it's a great idea! I can't wait to see how it all goes!
Another option... competitive trail!
I did not realize that about horses with big booties! Good to know! I had considered doing some endurance with Casey in the past, but I'll scratch that now. I am thinking about getting a TW later on. Maybe if we buy our horse property since they're all over and quite common here.
Perhaps you'll meet someone at this clinic that wants to do endurance riding and has a trailer too? So you can get a lift from them for you and Rusty?
I went to an endurance/CTR clinic one time. It was very interesting. If I didn't need to show horses to get them sold, I think I'd like to try it.
Hopefully they will do that thing at your bard. That sounds like fun and you might get to meet some more interested people. Seems like there have got to be rides out there for you somewhere.
How exciting!
I've often thought about Endurance riding, too. But Apache's just not built for that and isn't interested in trotting or cantering for long distances. She's most happy to mosy on down the trail, which is why we enjoy the Competitive Trail Rides so much. There is no hurry to finish, no stops to cool down and get vet checks, and the rides are never longer than 10 miles.
The obstacles just make it more interesting and fun.
Good luck!
That last photo of Rusty makes me smile :)
~Lisa
Oh CDN is right - is there any of that in your area? All the excitement - less work for Rusty??
Isn't all of that Endurance stuff interesting though? I love learning about it - never really had the desire to try it, but it's exceedingly fascinating.
Hey there - I've had a few of those upper level WP horses and I can tell you that all of my horses were true lopers, not crab hoppers....
Steph - you are right - not all WP horses have that weird "lope" and I probably couldn't afford an upper level horse anyway!
Cdn/Steph - we don't have the competitive trail rides with obstacles here - I've done some searching and they don't pop up.
Our competitive trail is a 25 mile ride that is scored based on the vet checks - no obstacles...
Sounds like fun! I hear you on the transportation thing though (or lack of it). It severely limits your options when looking for ways to enjoy your horse....
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