Lately I have had no motivation to ride. I think I'm really burned out on ring work. I made myself go out to the barn last night, and just took Kota for a hack which I really enjoyed. Years ago (middle and early high school, I'm a 5th year college student), I did endurance and would really like to get back into it. But it's been so long since I have done it, I don't know where to start. I also had an instructor back then and was riding horses already conditioned for the work.
Kota has done endurance before. Here's his records:
Ride History
2005 Season
| Sand Hills Stampede I | rider: Roach, Elizabeth | ||||
| 04/23/2005 | 55 miles | 34th place | time: 08:43:00 | ||
| Ride points: | div:77 ov:55 |
Season points: | div:77 ov:55 |
Season miles: | 55 |
| Sand Hills Moonlite | rider: Roach, Elizabeth | ||||
| 07/23/2005 | 60 miles | 17th place | time: 10:38:00 | ||
| Ride points: | div:108 ov:60 |
Season points: | div:185 ov:115 |
Season miles: | 115 |
| Biltmore/Mountin' Hopes Fall Fling | rider: Roach, Elizabeth | ||||
| 09/24/2005 | 55 miles | 29th place | time: 08:25:00 | ||
| Ride points: | div:110 ov:55 |
Season points: | div:295 ov:170 |
Season miles: | 170 |
| Hallelujah Benefit | rider: Roach, Elizabeth | ||||
| 10/22/2005 | 50 miles | 26th place | time: 06:22:00 | ||
| Ride points: | div:90 ov:50 |
Season points: | div:385 ov:220 |
Season miles: | 220 |
2006 Season
| Sand Hills Stampede II | rider: Roach, Elizabeth | ||||
| 03/19/2006 | 55 miles | 10th place | time: 06:44:00 | ||
| Ride points: | div:110 ov:60.5 |
Season points: | div:110 ov:60 |
Season miles: | 55 |
| Leatherwood Mountain Extreme Challenge | rider: Roach, Elizabeth | ||||
| 04/01/2006 | 50 miles | 24th place | time: 07:40:00 | ||
| Ride points: | div:110 ov:50 |
Season points: | div:220 ov:110 |
Season miles: | 105 |
| Biltmore Challenge | rider: Roach, Elizabeth | ||||
| 05/20/2006 | 50 miles | pulled:RO - Metabolic | |||
| Ride points: | div:0 ov:0 |
Season points: | div:220 ov:110 |
Season miles: | 105 |
The facilities I have to condition on are 40 acres that has a large back, very flat field. The rest of it is nice and hilly (steep hills!), great for conditioning. We don't really have many wooded trails. When I trained for endurance before, it was way out in the country, and we would ride down the road to a state park and ride their trails 3 times a week and just play around the other 3 days we rode. I would really like to continue our dressage training while doing this if possible. This is the article I found regarding starting a conditioning program for a completely out of shape horse. Does it sound good?
http://www.seraonline.org/Conditioning.pdf
I would really love any advice. I think this would be a great mental break for the both of us and is something we have both done in the past. Any tips?
