Twilight Eventing: Stadium and XC

With dressage behind us, my nerves in a remarkably settled place, and a smile on my face, Griffin and I entered the warm-up area for stadium jumping. I just walked him at first, settling us both into the new environment and reminding myself of the night's goals once again. Primary goal 1: Give Griffin show miles; primary goal 2: give Griffin the feeling of success in a new job; secondary goal: finish on a number not a letter.

Emma once again shared some strategy with me and I set off trotting and cantering the crossrail, then trotting and cantering the small vertical, then cantering each the big vertical and the oxer.

With each jump, Griffin seemed to wake up and come alive. Jumping is what he loves most and he seemed to be all too pleased with the realization that he now would now get to jump instead of flatting.

Emma called out multiple times, "He looks great!" "Good job!" "You all look awesome." To each, I grinned.

Happy pony. Also, need to put my stirrups up at least a hole! They've been long as I've nursed yet another ankle injury...

This horse truly loves jumping. And so, without much else to prove, we headed down to check in with the steward and await our turn.

Admittedly, in preparation for this event, I was more concerned about the jumping phases than dressage. Griffin is pretty proven with jumping at home, but new-to-him jumps can sometimes be a cause for pause. I really wasn't sure how he'd handle all of those stadium jumps since they were so much more substantial (fill, etc.) than anything we had at home. I merely hoped that with some verbal encouragement, leg, and the whip, we'd make it through.

When we were allowed to enter the ring, I trotted him in and around a few of what I thought may be "scarier" jumps to let him see them. In mere seconds, the bell was rung to signal us to begin. I knew I had a few more seconds to spare if I needed to let him see things in the ring, but he'd been pretty calm, so I turned him toward the first jump and we were off!

No 7b for our round (as noted in upper left corner)

Grif handily tackled the first few jumps with little issue. He gave them a healthy look-see, but mostly, he was obedient and forward. He knew his job and he went at it.

Around the 4th jump, I realized I needed to really sit up and ride more to help him out. I mean, I was riding before, but I was spending more time encouraging and praising - which wasn't a bad thing! - I just needed to, you know, be more present in the riding sense, too. (Admittedly, the whole experience was overwhelming in the most exciting of ways and my squirrel brain wasn't keeping up.)

And so I got with the program and gave him more leg to push him more forward over the jumps.

Hunt that jump, Grif!

I wondered how he'd take this fan jump...total nonevent! He was in the ZONE at this point.

He didn't like these colors. NO TOUCHY!

It was basically The Most Fun. And honestly, it was over a little too soon!

(Video thanks to Emma's friend Rachael who joined the entourage after her Novice round.)

The whole experience only widened the perma-grin on my face. This horse, you guys. <3

Amidst congratulatory words from Austen, Rachael, and Emma, we headed straight to the warm up for XC and I put Griffin over a few solid jumps.

He was totally game for these and even gave a small buck and squeal which garnered a giggle and, "He feels really good!" from Emma. Yes. Yes he does. Welcome to Griffin the Jumping Horse. He's a different animal, for sure.

Griffin in JUMP ALL THE THINGS mode

Twilight events host a fraction of the people that the same venue's starter trials do, which was a big draw for me. The second draw was knowing that the XC course would be setup so that each division's jump height was in a line at each obstacle. A rider could choose to school any height. As such, during our course walk I had picked a few higher option jumps. (Griffin is very confirmed over higher jumps at home, but the "question" of XC jumps were something I didn't want to push unless it was very friendly. See primary goal 2: Give the horse a feeling of success at his first show.)

Only two fences on XC gave me pause during our walk: a friendly log that had been hollowed out to allow for plants to be grown, and a painted jump with some very threadbare fake brush extending from the top. I had a feeling that the log with vegetation would end up being a nonevent by the time we got to it and had a feeling Griffin would give the janky brush jump a pretty hairy eyeball before considering going over. I didn't fret much in the moment though because I was committed to this being a schooling experience for time and miles. If we had trouble, we'd school it.

Two jumps I thought may give Grif pause. 

Knowing we were plenty warm and ready to go, I opted to head right on over to XC and get started.

Wearing my perma-grin with a healthy dose of Holy Shit I Can't Believe I'm Finally Doing This, we checked in with the steward who gave us the go ahead, and headed out on our first XC course.

The first two jumps were the most basic of basic. Griffin hesitated a titch, but was still forward and game.

As we cleared the second, we had a bit of downhill dip before a very mild uphill approach to the third. No stranger to working on a grass or in a field or on varied terrain, Griffin powered forward into a strong canter on the downhill and I let him carry it toward the third jump.

In this moment between jumps, cantering on this horse that I've trained from the ground up I couldn't help but tear up a little as I smiled at the realization we were out here doing the very thing I'd dreamed of doing since I was a child. I felt a lot of feels in those few seconds before reining myself in to focus on the task at hand.

The third jumps were all stained a near-black. The elementary jump was a simple log and the others were all coops of appropriate height for their division. As much as I wanted to opt for a bigger height here, I was worried Grif would find the dark color surprising, so decided we would stick with the low option so he didn't have to process more than necessary.

In anticipation of him needing a bit more processing, I slowed his canter a notch approaching the dark jumps. He did indeed take an extra moment to process the jump but decided quickly that it was okay and powered us over it amidst copious praise from me.

We accelerated our canter up the slight hill as we headed to the next jump and the subsequent "jump", a quick up-down hummock that Griffin slayed. #endurancecrosstrainingFTW

The next several jumps were easy breezy and the only notable thing between them was that Grif accelerated into a nice hand gallop that had me giggling all the while.

Jump 7 was a hanging log that had been hollowed out in the middle to allow for the installation of flowers. I wondered if this would bother Grif at all to only be proven that nope, he didn't give a flying damn about it. Over and onward we went to, eventually approaching our first water complex where he absolutely took pause to ask, "Um, I'm thirsty, can I drink this?" No, buddy, you can't drink right now, I'm sorry, but MOVE forward. C'mon!

From the water, we headed to jump 10, the one I thought may bring Grif the most pause of any jump on course because it wasn't a natural color (it was lavender) and it had the jankiest "brush" fingers extending from the top of it.

Sure enough, son gave it healthy stank eye and balked a bit as we jumped it. But we were over and off and that's all that mattered!

Between 10 and 11, Grif felt more downhill than he had the whole course. In review of the video, this was because he was taking a dump! Well, I'll take that! Any horse that can take a crap at speed is okay with me.

Jump 11 was a complex of very inviting logs, so I opted for the BN option here and Griffin jumped it the same as he'd jumped the majority of jumps on the course. He was rollin' at this point and it was no big thang.

#creepstar3000 #helicoptermom

From 11 to 12, I needed to take a wide approach to hit my line. I, uh, forgot this until the last minute and whipped out and around to make up for it. In the process of taking this wide and laughing at my near folly not doing so, I looked up to see Austen and Rachael and the orange side-by-side/Gator/ORV that had seemed to maybe be following me during the course - a fact I'd dismissed in my focus on Griffin. In these few seconds of reconnecting with the world outside the one of me riding my horse though, I recognized a particular fluorescent pink/orange in the side-by-side... Emma?!, my head questioned, but I quickly dismissed the thought and focused on the upcoming jump...

Jump 12 was similar to the janky lavender finger brush jump at 10, so I wasn't too concerned about a refusal from Grif. I clucked and added lots of leg and over we went!

We were through another water complex for 13 with less hesitation than we'd had at 9, picking up a powerful canter as we exited and headed for the final jump where I ended with the BN option once more.

From the landing of the final jump to the finish, I congratulated and praised Griffin, my smile bigger than it had been all day. That. Was. AWESOME.

What a freaking thrill! I am honestly not sure who had more fun, the horse or me. Remember how I noted that Griffin came alive during the stadium warm-up? That "aliveness" only grew in an exponential fashion as we proceeded from the stadium warmup through the stadium phase into the XC warmup and finally through the XC course. I had an inkling of an idea before we'd ever tried our hand at this sport that Griffin would be one of those horses that lives for XC, and I feel pretty confirmed in that hunch now that we've tackled our first event.

Ohmygoodnessgracious. Seriously. SO much fun.

Austen, Rachael, and Emma (IN THE SIDE BY SIDE) quickly met up with me at the finish, everyone smiling and congratulating Griffin and I. We all laughed at the fact that Emma had been stalking me the whole ride in the gator like a #creepstar3000 #helicoptermom

So let's review my goals for this outing: give Griffin some show miles, ✓ ; confirm his confidence in this sport, ✓  We tackled each - with ease! And then we went on to go double-clear and finish on our [sub-40] dressage score to boot! All of this resulted in us finishing SECOND of NINETEEN competitors in the elementary division.

Um, WOW. Completely and totally unexpected, but I'll take it. Griffin doesn't know or care where he finished; he only knows I'm PSYCHED with him right now for doing something he really enjoyed. Damn, do I love this horse.

We've got our next even lined up in the very near future, so look for another recap soon. I am, once again, only shooting to give Grif a positive experience, so cross your fingers he has as much fun as he did this time.

Twilight Eventing: Prologue and Dressage

Making Your Own Reality

It isn't easy to dive into a new discipline. There's a big learning curve that comes from multiple directions no matter how you look at it. Add in the fact that you may not live anywhere near professional resources or an established community within the new discipline and the difficulty level ratchets up a few degrees.

Training Griffin from the ground up (my first experience doing this with a horse) was both eye-opening and confidence-building. Through the process, I learned a lot about the resources I did and didn't have available in my area. I also realized that if I wanted certain things to happen in my equestrian life (eventing, jumping, or dressage), I would need to create my own reality.

This horse has turned into quite the handsome devil

And so I spent the past few years delving deeper into distance-resources (e.g., books, internet, blogs) to build my knowledge-base on jumping and dressage. To practice things I learned about, I purchased and built my own jumps at home to practice with, delineated a dressage court in the field to practice in, and asked copious questions to friends and acquaintances that were involved with the eventing and dressage communities.

As my skill - and Griffin's - advanced, I moved us into the next steps: we had a lesson with Stephen Birchall, we schooled XC, and we competed in a dressage schooling show. Nothing happened quickly, it was hard to do what I did with a 3-4 hour one-way drive, but the important thing is that I got us out there and we experienced the experiences.

Like a true endurance professional, he dove right into the grass

All of these things were pursued with the eventual goal of competing in eventing. This goal that was finally realized Wednesday night at Loch Moy's Twilight Eventing.

Getting There

Twilight events are always held on Wednesday evenings which meant I'd asked for the time off from work at the beginning of summer. Originally, I was going to attend two Twilight events, one in July and one in August; unfortunately, my work life has been beyond crazy since March and the July event just couldn't happen. Instead, I threw my eggs into one basket and planned to definitely make it to the August 30 event, enetered at the elementary division.

Grif overnighted at my house as he'd done in July to help take an hour off our trip the next day. He handled his overnight with much less stress than last time and walked right on the trailer the next morning like a professional.

Calmly perusing his surroundings - and view of stadium and XC!

Fortunately, we didn't have any trailer tire snafus on our eastward journey and we made great time. I rendezvoused with Austen at her barn. We had a late lunch and visited a bit before we headed to nearby Loch Moy where the event was held - and where Emma would be meeting us!

Once on site, I set to organizing the mess of things in my trailer while Austen checked me in. Things were well underway and I knew time would move fast, so Austen and I struck out to walk the XC course and check out the stadium jumps before getting Griffin ready for everything to come.

I'm convinced everyone who rides at Loch Moy needs a photo with this view

Dressage

Due to the expedited format of Twilight events, most competitors ride dressage in their jumping tack. Despite not practicing this much at home (only 2 rides), we went along with the crowd.

Active?

I'd originally hoped to warm up for ~40 minutes. Due to my complete lack of organization at the trailer, that time dwindled down to a mere 15 minutes by the time I reached the warm-up area! Fortunately, it was totally okay.

Emma giving us all the beta

My nerves that had been such a bother at the schooling show weeks before were completely and totally nonexistent. I was more flummoxed from my lack of organization back at the trailer than I was with the actual act of riding my horse in front of people. After a few minutes of aimlessly riding my saintly horse around, I organized my mind enough to start focusing on the present moment and the task at hand. I reminded myself of my primary goals: give Griffin show miles & help him find success and enjoyment in this job; the secondary goal was to finish on a number and not a letter! The primary goals were more than achievable, which further settled my mind.

Emma discussed various strategy with me as I warmed up. Primarily, she pointed out that warm-up was a time to polish the things that would make us stand out to the judge. I nodded along with her, understanding and agreeing with that logic.

Soakin' up the learnin'

Griffin was his typical away-from-home sluggish self. While it's great that he isn't a basketcase, his chill demeanor doesn't bode well for dressage at all! To get him more round on the contact with any consistency, I need him to be much more "up" in mentally and physically. It's hard to get a horse consistently round in the contact without impulsion.

Knowing this show was more about time and miles spent Doing the Thing, I decided strategized that I wouldn't pick a fight with Grif about contact at all. We'd do the bare minimum and focus on being consistent within that bare minimum with the idea that consistency would benefit us more than inconsistency.

Final words before we head to the ring

Due to his relaxed mood, Grif was also having trouble picking up the correct lead. This wasn't a huge surprise to me either given his mood and lack of impulsion. Intro C doesn't give much opportunity for correcting a wrong lead though! I discussed with Emma my options for if we botched it during the test and resolved to try to correct it one time if it went awry.  If one correction wouldn't resolve it, then so be it! I'd move on to the rest of my test.

I looked over at the ring after making my decisions about strategy to see the rider in front of me finishing up her test. It was now or never and I found myself wishing I cared a little more than I did in that moment - I was SO MELLOW.

I walked and trotted Griffin around the dressage court, smiling and greeting the judge as I did so. After my second pass by the judge, she rang the bell and we headed in!

Intro C

A: Enter working trot, rising. X: Halt through medium walk. Salute - Proceed working trot rising.
Score: 6.5
Judge's remarks: Salute with hand that doesn't hold whip

Perma-grin, already in effect

Yeah, yeah, salute without the whip hand. I swear I'll practice! 

C: Track right, working trot rising
Score: 7.0
Judge's remarks: Correct bend

I was smiling, the judge was smiling, Grif, are you smiling?

B: Circle right 20 meters.
Score:7.5
Judge's remarks: Nice energy

Good boy listening to me

A: Circle right 20 meters developing working canter in first quarter of the circle, right lead. Before A: Working trot rising.
Score:7.0
Judge's remarks: Slightly on forehand

One of our better canter pictures...ever!

Transition in and out of canter
Score: 7.5
Judge's remarks: Obedient

K-X-M: Change rein, working trot rising.
Score:8.0
Judge's remarks: Straight! Active.

Grif loves the diagonal trot work, though he looks worried here, haha

E: Circle left 20 meters.
Score: 8.0
Judge's remarks: Nice activity

Still smiling...

A: Circle left 20 meters developing working canter in first quarter of the circle, left lead. Before A: Working trot rising.
Score: 7.5
Judge's remarks: Correct size

I can't believe I got a good note on my geometry...admittedly it's something I worry about a lot!

Transition in and out of canter.
Score:7.5
Judge's remarks: Obedient.

Between F & B: Medium walk.
Score: 7.5
Judge's remarks: Fluid.

B-H: Free walk. H: Medium walk.
Score: 6.0
Judge's remarks: Nice march, needs more stretch

I felt like his walk was a bit better than early July

Between C & M: Working trot rising to A.
Score: 6.5
Judge's remarks: Slight abrupt bending left before M

re: left bend, yeah, he wiggled a bit about something he saw and I told him to get back over

A: Down centerline. G: Halt through medium walk. Salute.
Score: 6.5
Judge's remarks: Hindquarters slightly left.

Ugh, these crooked halts! If he'd been straight we'd have scored even higher! We have been and will continue to practice...

Collective Marks
Gaits: 7.0
Impulsion: 7.5
Submission: 7.0
Rider's position: 7.5
Riders effectiveness of aids: 6.5 (correct bend is circled)
Geometry and accuracy: 7.0
Further Remarks: Nice job, good energy. Keep reins shorter in canter work to keep balance off forehand.

For those of you who didn't have your calculators out as you went through the above, our efforts earned us a [shocking] 28.8! This was NOT anywhere what I was expecting. In my head, behind my primary goals of giving Griffin show miles and making sure he felt confident in this job and my secondary goal of finishing on a number and not a letter, I hoped that my dressage score would be sub-40. That was it. Never in my wildest dreams would I have dreamed we'd be sub-30!

Fortunately, I didn't get to be surprised and shocked by my dressage score until I was about to leave. All I knew finishing dressage was that we'd remembered our test and it felt better than the schooling show had in July because I'd been much more mentally present. That was more than enough for me in that moment!

Walking by stadium on our way to warm up!

I had a perma-grin through most of the dressage test and it didn't diminish at all as I headed to warm-up for stadium.

Stay tuned for details on the jumping phases soon!

Twilight Eventing: Preview

Well, our debut as eventers is under our belts.

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

Griffin had a freaking BLAST and I did, too. I cannot wait to get back out there. 

#helicoptermom

I LOVE this horse.

The Return of Q!

Q is officially "back in work"; I've been riding her 2-3 times a week for the past month and she's been doing wonderfully in soundness of body and mind.

"If I close my eyes, the human will leave me alone and go away."
-Q, probably

Quick Backstory

Q was out of work for close to a year due to persistent "offness" in August 2016. September 19 will mark one year since the diagnosis of lesions to her left hind suspensory ligament. (Delay on diagnosis because last summer was a Very Bad Year for abscesses and she did indeed blow one or two after I noticed she was off; unfortunately, she was still NQR after the abscesses blew.)

Other than routine ultrasounds to check the healing progress (markedly improved each time!), I did nothing special to help Q heal. The biggest thing I did was to give her time; soft tissue takes a long time to heal, so it seemed prudent to provide that time. I simply turned her out with her herd mates on their 28 acre pasture. Stalling wasn't really an option as she fusses and frets in a stall and would have done more damage to herself. In the field, she was docile and my BO (who watches the herd from her house) noted that Q didn't even play/trot/run with the herd for several weeks.

From accounts of other endurance riders who have dealt with this injury on their own horses, the time-off-with-a-year-of-turnout approach seemed the best bet for a successful return to work/competition. In fact, one of the other local endurance riders had a horse who dealt with this injury twice (more severe than Q's). She gave him a year off each time before bringing him back into work slowly, and he just finished 3rd at the AERC National Championship 50 and earned Best Condition. I'm hopeful Q will return to former work levels with time.

Current Plan

We're focusing on easy walk-trot "trail" rides and walk-trot dressage work for now (trail is limited to the field, road, and ¼-mile connecting trail between them because we don't have our trail access anymore) . These easy, slow and steady rides are helping her brain to build back the confidence she once had under saddle. Fortunately, this approach is also just what her body needs, too, if not a little more conservative - which isn't a bad thing at all.

I'm really loving the pink on her dark coat

As we have re-entered our riding, I've made the decision to pursue a significant tack change away from my treeless Ansur. A change to a treed saddle was necessary so Q and I couldn't communicate as intimately moving forward. The close contact from my Ansur, while wonderful, was also detrimental for us. This mare and I feed off of each other's energy and I needed to put a block on that while also lending myself some added security for when she will inevitably spook.

Right now, we're bumming around in an old western Abetta saddle that's been hanging out in the tack room forever. It's working well so far, and the higher pommel and cantle help keep me more secure through her shenanigans. Bonus? I haven't yet gutted myself on the horn - a valid concern as I've definitely been tossed about and been "gut punched" before.

She ground ties like a boss, at least

It's hard to remember when faced with more recent negative memories of this mare spooking like a total shithead, but she really didn't spook badly the first couple years I had her. Sure, she's a hot horse that is more likely to spook than a horse like Stan or Griffin, but her spooking wasn't extreme until 2015-2016.

Her downward spiral with the spooking behavior is absolutely due to my own behaviors, and I don't discount that for a minute. I slowly unloaded my own baggage on her in 2014 and it wasn't fair or right, but it's in the past. The best thing now is to do my due diligence and put in the work to help her return to her former "normal" and then, with luck, surpass it.

Mini "trail" outing with friends!

For better or worse, I have concluded that a lot of this horse's spooking the past few years is to get out of work. It wasn't originally, but boy-o has it evolved to be such. Since reaching this conclusion, it's been kind of entertaining for me to see when she spooks. She definitely tends to do it more as we're beginning work - especially if we are leaving the barn yard - or when she doesn't get "her way". Both indications of a horse who isn't so much scared as she is lazy!

Q's only given me a "true spook" twice during the past month. Both times, I was only set off balance in the tiniest way. Through keeping my balance and not reciprocating any kind of response to her spooking or wiggling, Q is realizing her "game" is less fun to play. She isn't getting out of a damn thing and I'm not giving her any reason to react further. I'm such a party pooper! As a result, she isn't resorting to spooking like she used to and her general wiggling evasions are lessening; it's no fun when you're not winning!

RELAXED. Which was a wonderful thing.

Whether we are in the barnyard focusing on dressage or we're on the "trail", all of our rides are walk-trot with a lot of halting. In the beginning, any time Q tensed up about The World, I would stop her, face the offending "monster" (usually something right in front of her), praise her for standing still, and give her a peppermint from the saddle to alter her focus. As time went on and Q wasn't so fussy, the peppermints went away (3-4 rides later). Now when I halt her for a moment because she's tense, we just stand a couple seconds until she relaxes and then strike off forward once more. The tense moments are definitely fewer than they were a few weeks ago and she calms much more quickly after our halts.

After a month of riding, I have observed that Q is the wiggliest horse ever. Straight is not a term she abides by the majority of the time. She's the Queen of Counterbend when we do our dressage work and she wiggles all about on the trail. The wiggling isn't extreme, but compared to Stan or Grif, she's quite loose. As a result, my biggest goal at the moment is achieving more moments of solid straightness from her. That's a really easy goal to pair with the walk-trot-halting we've been doing!

This week has afforded the least counterbend so far in our dressage ride and the straightest, least wiggling ride so far in the field. Q really seems to be settling and we're having more moments of focus and relaxation than moments of tense and fussy. The fact that I can feel and notice a difference is huge!

Western dressage? I do like this setup for us...

Fortunately, while we have issues to work out under saddle still, Q's trust and the mutual understanding between the two of us has grown leaps and bounds over the last year on the ground. As a result, I can read her a lot better and know when to ignore, praise, or reprimand accordingly and can do so appropriately. This knowledge is facilitating the under saddle work, too, and I really think we are on a good path forward.

While it really sucks that she suffered the setback of this injury, I can be grateful that it has allowed this mare and I to finally come to a better understanding of each other. I am really optimistic for our future and hope to be back on the endurance trail next year with a horse that is stronger of both body and mind than she was before.

More of this in the future, please!

I try to find positive things in negative times - silver linings if you will. Has your horse ever suffered an injury setback that had a silver lining to it in the end? Or maybe an injury that resulted in a stronger bond between you and the horse after the rehab period was up?

Conditioning/Competing a Quarter Horse for Endurance

Alternate titles for this post:

• How to Condition for Your First LD with the Bare Minimum of Effort
• My QH is a Badass
• Praise the Weather Gods
• Luckier Than a 3-Legged Dog Playing Frogger on a 6-Lane Interstate

ARABIAN AND NON-ARABIAN BREEDS IN ENDURANCE

I want to state up front that I am in no way advocating for one breed over any other in the sport of endurance riding. I do not intend any kind of negative words/thoughts/energy toward any breed through this post. These are simply my thoughts and opinions based on my personal experience with a non-Arab in the world of AERC limited distance endurance riding (where n=1, which is not a significant statistic, folks, and I totally get that).

The same river crossing we still use today pictured here in 2007

Competing a non-Arab breed in endurance (LDs or otherwise) isn't a remarkable feat. People do it all of the the time with great success. Many people prefer a non-Arab over an Arab for endurance for various reasons. It's awesome that so many breeds have found success at the sport.

But I will say, from my observations over the years, Arabians and Arabian crossbreeds (henceforth referred to as "Arabs" as a group) do have a significant advantage the majority of the time. (There are freakazoid individuals in any breed that can rival them, but these individuals are often few and far between.)

Arabs have metabolics that lend themselves very easily to the sport of endurance. They often pulse down to criteria (commonly 64 bpm or 60 bpm) quicker and more easily that non-Arabs. Additionally, Arabs often hold their conditioning fitness more easily (and often longer) than non-Arabs. As I commonly told my non-horse friends who didn't understand why conditioning Stan was different from conditioning Q, "Q is genetically superior. She's like the elite athletes from a family of other elite athletes you see that consistently kill it in a marathon year after year. Stan is your average run-of-the-mill blue collar worker who likes to watch TV more than exercise. One is infinitely easier to condition than the other." I'm sure you could come up with various analogies to get to the same point.

Not an Arab. This mare is a Percheron/QH who was a pretty common sight at east coast LDs. Her owner now has a Belgian. 

None of this means that non-Arabs are sub-par or lesser within this sport! Oh, no. It just means that their human partners often work a little more "outside of the box" so far as managing them for success. And that's awesome. Those people are often better horsemen due to it. There is a lot to be said for knowing multiple ways to manage certain conditions instead of just sticking to one method.

CONDITIONING STAN: PAST and PRESENT TIME & MILES

When I conditioned Stan for RBTR it's first year in 2007, I didn't know what the HELL I was getting into. Sonya (his owner then) knew that the club was putting on the ride in August and that it was basically a long trail ride. She looked on the internet and found an endurance conditioning article beginners, printed it off, and gave it to me one evening at the barn. I don't remember what that article said other than recommending riding for at least an hour a day, 5 days a week. I'm pretty sure they assumed people would be conditioning in an arena for the majority of these hours.

Well, I didn't have an arena; I had trails at my disposal. I had many trails over mountains, and on what we originally hoped would be the RBTR course. It wasn't easy terrain by any breadth of the imagination. So, I applied that article in my own way and I rode Stan a minimum of 5 days a week for an hour to three hours each time on the trails at a trot and canter. He was in killer shape. I can't tell you how his pulsing was, but I know it had to have been better than it was this year!

A very fit Stan in 2007, damn he looked good!

In contrast to 2007, my conditioning for RBTR 2017 looked like this:

• January - 8 total rides of which 2 were trail rides recording 14.3 trail miles.
• February - 4 total rides of which 3 were trail rides recording 10.4 trail miles.
• March - 2 total rides of which both were trail rides recording 7.1 trail miles.
• April - 4 total rides of which 3 were trail rides recording 9.1 trail miles.
• May - 7 total rides of which 5 were trail rides recording 30.6 trail miles
• June - 5 total rides of which all were trail rides recording 47 trail miles.
• July - 7 total rides of which 6 were trail rides recording 60.45 trail miles.

In total, from January through July, Stan completed 178.95 miles over the course of 26 trail rides.

That's like...nothing. Especially considering what we'd done in the past and what I've done with Q in 2012-2014 when I was originally legging her up for the various endurance distances LD through 50. When legging Q and Griffin up in more recent years, we'd rack up ~180 miles in 3½ months not 7!

Probably my favorite conditioning ride this year

Regardless, while I knew Stan and I didn't have the quantity of miles I wanted to have under our belts from conditioning, I didn't question his ability to complete 30 miles. Hell, we'd had one ride of 23 miles in each June and July that he handled beautifully over terrain similar to - possibly harder than - RBTR terrain. But completing miles is only half the battle with endurance. The other half is pulsing to criteria intermittently throughout the completion of those miles (keeping metabolics at good levels). And pulsing to criteria during hot, humid summer days isn't easy.

CONDITIONING STAN: HR RECOVERIES

See, I'd also been monitoring Stan's recoveries during several of our July workouts. And frankly, his recoveries sucked. After one particular hill sprint workout on a sunny 81ºF day (above normal for us this summer; it's been in the mid-70s a lot) with relative-high humidity and little to no breeze, he was around 100 bpm 15 minutes after work, at 76 bpm after an additional 30 minutes in which I actively cooled him with a cold hose and scraping, and at 66 bpm after yet another additional 34 minutes where he stood quietly and calmly with a buddy in the shady barn. That's downright horrible. And that was on July 27, 9 days before the race. Yeah...

So the fact that I was a bit erm, spazzy? about our chances of completing RBTR this year from a meeting-pulse-criteria standpoint wasn't too ludicrous. We didn't have the level of conditioning we should have had. At. All.

Second favorite conditioning ride this year

Now, let's take into consideration that he'd just done 11 hill sprints at full-bore effort and he'd never be expected to do that during a ride. His HR should have no reason to be nearly that high at any point in the race. Period. But STILL. That his recovery was that piss poor 1 hour and 19 minutes after max exertion was of great concern to me. (Thankfully there was nothing going on behind the scenes to contribute to his poor HR recovery. He's just a QH dealing with stupid humid weather with no movement of air. His human (hai!) with her pale skin and red hair who acclimates better to cold than heat was also pissy and hot and having trouble keeping her own HR low due to the weather, too.)

So, following that ride I sent texts to my endurance mentor and another endurance rider who has successfully competed a non-Arab over many miles with mostly top 10 completions asking for help. Through conversations with them, the next time I rode Stan on July 29 (13 flat miles on the rail trail at only a trot), I electrolyted him immediately before and after the ride and gave him 40cc of calcium gluconate afterwards, too. I also made a point to walk him the final ¾-mile to the barn so he could have a chance to get his HR down.

When I hopped off at the barn, I administered the electrolytes and calcium gluconate and checked his HR. 54 bpm! Boom.

A common view during our regular conditioning loop

The weather for this 13-mile ride was a cool 64ºF with a slight breeze and overcast skies. I'd be a complete dumbass if I didn't note how huge bigly a factor that was in helping his HR. Other beneficial factors were: the electrolytes, calcium gluconate, flat workout with no climbing, walking in for ¾-mile, and sticking to a trot and only a trot. Excepting the weather and the climbing, I could replicate every other factor for RBTR.

RACE DAY SUCCESSES

The 13-mile ride left me feeling a lot more optimistic about RBTR than I had days prior. Still, I knew the weather was going to play a HUGE FREAKING ROLE in how hard or easy success would come to us re: meeting pulse criteria. Fortunately, as of July 29, a cold front was predicted to hit the night before the ride; the weather on ride day would be overcast with a high of 64ºF.

This kind of weather report can and will change, but I was grateful and very fortunate it held through this year. The prediction for weather on race day Friday morning before the ride was partly cloudy with a high of 71ºF. The actual weather ended up being in the upper 50s and low 60s with overcast skies until around noon when the clouds broke up and the sun broke through to bring things to the predicted high of 71ºF. There was a steady 5-10 mph breeze from morning to night.

Race day trails

Knowing what I know, doing my homework, and planning to control all I could from the italicized factors above, I found success on race day due to:

• THE WEATHER. Race day was 60-68ºF with low humidity and 5-10 mph breezes. Cloud cover dominated for 75% of our ride with patchy sunshine for the final quarter.
• KNOWLEDGE OF TRAIL. I know the RBTR trails very, very well and knew where I could afford to move out and where I should save a little.
• CONDITIONED TO CLIMB. While deficient in time and miles, our training included copious gains in elevation. While Stan lived in Canaan, (yeah, still no good situation in Canaan so all horses are once again a 50 minute drive from me) our rides included a minimum of 1,000' elevation gain each. Stan and I only did 9 conditioning trail rides between June 3 and July 21. A conservative estimate is that Stan climbed 9,000 feet. When you go through my GPS statistics and actually calculate the total elevation gain from all 9 rides you discover that we climbed at least 11,880 feet over 90.15 miles. That certainly doesn't suck! I'm very fortunate to have access to terrain like this for conditioning.
• HISTORY. My history with Stan facilitated our training and movement down the trail in both conditioning and competition. Our relationship spans 10+ years with a solid few years of nothing in the middle. Fortunately, Stan is such that he picks up right where he left off after any length of time. He was fatter and less in shape for his 5 years as a pasture puff when he entered my life again on July 31, 2016, but his mind was just as wonderful as it's always been.
• ELECTROLYTES. I dosed Stan 2x on Friday with a 50/50 mix Perform 'N Win & Enduramax mixed with apple juice and molasses. I dosed him again before the ride on Saturday morning and at the hold with the same. At the finish when he had issues with cramping in his hind end, I dosed him with the calcium gluconate. He drank beautifully all day long, increasingly so as the day wore on. Shy of the weather, I firmly believe the horse had another loop in him and could have completed 50 miles.

Really, the way I look at it, what it all boils down to is the weather. I got luckier than shit with the weather forecast. If the weather had been its typical humid, muggy, hot, no-breeze, temperatures in the 80s, we would have had a MUCH different day. That day would have been infinitely slower in average pace (5 mph vs. the 7 mph we achieved) and I would have spent a lot longer on my own two feet than in the saddle heading back into the hold and finish (1 mile instead of ½-¾-mile).

CONCLUSION

So, what's the point of this post? Well, mostly I wanted to document all of this for my future self while it's fresh in my mind. But also, I want to put out there to the world that you CAN condition a non-Arab for this sport and find success without riding 15+ miles per week for 5+ months. I've told people for years that any [sound, healthy] horse can go out and complete an LD within the time criteria. And now I've lent more support to that statement from my own experiences this summer.

I've also said that with continued management of fitness following a successful LD, any [sound, healthy] horse can go out and complete a 50(+) mile endurance ride, provided you have some checks and balances in place for managing your metabolics. Metabolics make things trickier though and require more initiative on the part of the rider, so this statement is one I've only stated cautiously to specific audiences.

I could go for a different brand of beer, but c'mon, how fun does this look?

Certainly, a variety of factors, especially the weather and terrain that you condition and compete over, play into the game of success for this sport. But the conditioning side of things really isn't as daunting as it seems. In a 7 month training period, I never rode Stan more than 60 miles in a month. I never worked Stan more than 8 times in a month in any fashion. You can break these numbers down by the days in a month in various ways to visualize how little effort this is over the course of time one has available. It's SO possible.

So, what do you think? Have you ever wondered about giving this sport a try whether for cross-conditioning for another discipline or just to see if you could go the distance? Maybe you've never considered it, but you've got a pretty fit horse that's been participating in HTs, dressage, or hunter paces and now the wheels are turning in your head about the possibility of pursuing an LD? Whether to simply cross it off the list of "Things Tried" or to cross-condition for another sport or even to give you a little more drive and impetus to get out and ride your horse with a goal-driven purpose, I encourage you to give it a go if you're interested. It's pretty fun to spend the time and miles with horses and friends traveling across beautiful countryside.