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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
 
Location: SW MO | Hey all. How many of you base your rides off of minutes? Miles? Neither?
I tend to do minutes. Does anyone know how many minutes walking takes for 1 mile? Trotting? Loping?
How many miles do you do on an ordinary conditioning day? |
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 Lived to tell about it and will never do it again
Posts: 5409
| To trot mine 3 miles took 20 minutes.
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | A human can run a mile in what? 7-8 minutes if they are athletes? 10 miles to a horse is zip in minutes. I guess I usually want mine to show I have been riding them at first. If they feel as fresh when you put them up as they did when you got them out, not long enough. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | If I ride in the creek I ride miles, if I ride on my trotting track around the top section of our property I ride minutes. When I had the trotting track over at the neighbors place we had it measured out so I kept track of miles there too. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I ride miles of turnrows for conditioning. I know where my 2 mile track is, 3 mile, 4 mile, etc. I know where the breakdowns are, so I can breeze a quarter, lope 3/4, or whatever. Sometimes we walk the entire way. Then I do barrel work or exercises in addition to that some days. It takes however long it takes. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1482
Location: on my horse | My vet and I have been talking about conditioning a lot lately since my mare has had so many health issues this year. We are taking the heart rate/recovery time route rather than minutes or miles. I know my usual conditioning loop (trail ride) is about 2 hours long and has some hills so I keep track of her heart rate until I get it where I want it, then track how long it takes her to return to normal rate and breathing then go from there. Some days I want her to the max threshold only once, sometimes more than that. I also do 2 days a week of super light work, bending, collection, soft feel, some gentle caveletti, etc. I'm on her back about 7 days a week, some days are just a stroll for a mental break but you get the point hopefully lol.
Once we get past this point, I'll continue with this type of workout plan but also change out some heart rate/recovery time days for actual pattern work and arena time that is more strenuous. He wants me to have her fit in all possible ways, from lungs to joints, to tendons and ligaments, to muscles, to specific parts needed to run barrels and I agree so here we are.
I'm also using hills to help built up her hind end, we stop while walking up them then start again, stop then start, stop then start. It's kind of like a horsey squat because she has to move her big butt off again and up hill. We have also recently started backing a few steps up gentler slopes for the same reason, as well as to help her top line.
Now for the totally crazy part: I've also started doing some of this on foot with her since I'm sinfully out of shape, I'm about dead by the time we reach the top of some hills and will also jog with her in flat spots.  
Sorry for the total book but I'm really excited about what we are doing now for her fitness, and also mine!
Edited by redmansmyman11 2016-10-05 12:42 AM
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 Zeal Queen
Posts: 3826
Location: TEXAS | Here's my 2 cents....I was a college track athlete. When we trained for a short distance we over trained that distance by 100, 200 meters at the most. So I view barrel racing the same way, it's a short quick sprint, I don't see the point in conditioning a horse with mileage...to me that just wears and tears on their joints more. Also, when you train long distance you lose your fast twitch muscles. Sprinters train with shorter quicker distances to keep their speed. So in my mind I want my horse to keep his fast twitch muscles firing as well. Now if we were cross country riders, then yes absolutely train with mileage.
Edited by slacy09 2016-10-05 8:10 AM
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I've been thinking a lot about this lately as I think my little horse will be very competitive next year, but due to size (14.1) and my size (5'9) we will both need to be at the top of our fitness game.
I think I will have the SO keep me a path around the pasture brush hogged down and then I will take our measuring wheel out so I know distance.
i see the point about distance vs sprints but I think some distance has value, especially when legging them up in the spring and keeping it mixed up. I thought I saw somewhere that Slick by Design (I think it was Slick, don't quote me) was jogged 4 miles/day. I suppose it comes down to what you think is distance for a horse.
Quick googling calls an average trot stride 9 to 17 feet and an average human jog about 4 feet. So it isn't hard to call a 4 mile jog for a horse equivalent to a 1 mile jog for a person, which really isn't a lot for an athlete, even a sprinter IMO, but I'm no runner.
Breezing work has a lot of value as well and will be factored in for sure. |
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Zeal Queen
Posts: 3826
Location: TEXAS | OhMax - 2016-10-05 8:37 AM I've been thinking a lot about this lately as I think my little horse will be very competitive next year, but due to size (14.1) and my size (5'9) we will both need to be at the top of our fitness game. I think I will have the SO keep me a path around the pasture brush hogged down and then I will take our measuring wheel out so I know distance. i see the point about distance vs sprints but I think some distance has value, especially when legging them up in the spring and keeping it mixed up. I thought I saw somewhere that Slick by Design (I think it was Slick, don't quote me) was jogged 4 miles/day. I suppose it comes down to what you think is distance for a horse. Quick googling calls an average trot stride 9 to 17 feet and an average human jog about 4 feet. So it isn't hard to call a 4 mile jog for a horse equivalent to a 1 mile jog for a person, which really isn't a lot for an athlete, even a sprinter IMO, but I'm no runner. Breezing work has a lot of value as well and will be factored in for sure.
I read that too about Slick. I agree 1 mile is not too much for a sprinter to run, it just has no value to one. In the very beginning of the season we would run very little milage. As we got closer to the season, we were training with all out sprints at a short distance. That's why I really like to breeze them often. You use different muscles to run distance vs. sprints. I'll tell you it was always h@ll switching from mileage to sprints just because we hadn't used those muscles yet. 
ETA: if I could afford to swim one all the time, that is definitely the way I would go, we did swimming too!
Edited by slacy09 2016-10-05 9:17 AM
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | The value of miles depends on how you use them. If it was all long and slow, you would have a point. I work sprints in, so those fast twitch muscles are worked, and the wear and tear as you call helps strengthen bones and soft tissue and lungs. They also do strengthening stuff either after the cardio or on an alternate day. I absolutely can't create a fit horse in the arena. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| I have always been told the long and slow is to strengthen ligaments and tendons. Once that is accomplished you start concentrating on lungs and muscle and event specific needs. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
Location: SW MO | The reason I created this pole is simply because I have been considering this a lot as well, I'm legging a horse up now after about a year off.
In all the years I have been riding I have always done minutes because no matter where I ride, I always use time to gauge if we are improving and doing more. That is just my personal preference. Recently I have become more interested in how minutes contrasts to miles. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
Location: SW MO | GLP - 2016-10-05 10:25 AM
I have always been told the long and slow is to strengthen ligaments and tendons. Once that is accomplished you start concentrating on lungs and muscle and event specific needs.
This is what I have been doing for the past 2 months. Slowly working up, later I will add sprints. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
Location: SW MO | Three 4 Luck - 2016-10-04 8:50 PM
I ride miles of turnrows for conditioning. I know where my 2 mile track is, 3 mile, 4 mile, etc. I know where the breakdowns are, so I can breeze a quarter, lope 3/4, or whatever. Sometimes we walk the entire way. Then I do barrel work or exercises in addition to that some days. It takes however long it takes.
I probably could've clarified, I don't mean ride a certain amount of miles or minutes then stop. Just how you gauge your ride per say. I stay on however long it takes when I am doing something specific like getting soft in the ribcage or whatever it is. But when I am conditioning I like to use minutes so I don't push them too far, if that makes sense. |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | redmansmyman11 - 2016-10-04 10:39 PM My vet and I have been talking about conditioning a lot lately since my mare has had so many health issues this year. We are taking the heart rate/recovery time route rather than minutes or miles. I know my usual conditioning loop (trail ride ) is about 2 hours long and has some hills so I keep track of her heart rate until I get it where I want it, then track how long it takes her to return to normal rate and breathing then go from there. Some days I want her to the max threshold only once, sometimes more than that. I also do 2 days a week of super light work, bending, collection, soft feel, some gentle caveletti, etc. I'm on her back about 7 days a week, some days are just a stroll for a mental break but you get the point hopefully lol. Once we get past this point, I'll continue with this type of workout plan but also change out some heart rate/recovery time days for actual pattern work and arena time that is more strenuous. He wants me to have her fit in all possible ways, from lungs to joints, to tendons and ligaments, to muscles, to specific parts needed to run barrels and I agree so here we are. I'm also using hills to help built up her hind end, we stop while walking up them then start again, stop then start, stop then start. It's kind of like a horsey squat because she has to move her big butt off again and up hill. We have also recently started backing a few steps up gentler slopes for the same reason, as well as to help her top line. Now for the totally crazy part: I've also started doing some of this on foot with her since I'm sinfully out of shape, I'm about dead by the time we reach the top of some hills and will also jog with her in flat spots. Sorry for the total book but I'm really excited about what we are doing now for her fitness, and also mine!
This is what I particularly pay attention to is how long it takes to recover before starting sprinting. I pay attention to recovery after sprinting. It tells me how in shape the horse is for that work. Not all horses require the same work to get in shape or to stay in shape. I use feel for how hard one is breathing after work. |
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 Brains Behind the Operation...
Posts: 4543
Location: Arizona | There are a couple books I tend to recommend over & over again when conditioning topics come up: The Fit Racehorse II by Tom Ivers and Equine Exercise Physiology by David Marlin & Kathryn J. Nankervis. Both are excellent reads. I tend to condition primarily by distance, and then pay attention to the time it takes to cover the distance. It's important to understand that your distance work supports your sprint work. You can be successful doing one or the other, but you will be more successful if you combine both a speed & stamina program into your workouts. Horses can easily gallop anywhere from 2 to 6 miles a day as base mileage (a slow, steady gallop). This is mileage that keeps them legged up, mentally fresh, & keeps their recovery times short when you do sprint work & make barrel runs. Find what distance your horse does best at. A lot of your true sprint horses might struggle beyond 2 miles; there is no point in pushing them farther if they aren't eager for more ground. It will just make them resent a workout they should look forward to. Then sometimes you'll get one that will gobble up as many miles as you can put in front of them. Let the horse roll & decide what distance it likes best. In The Fit Racehorse II, the author recommends gradually working your horse up to a 4 mile gallop, and then deciding from there whether to add more or take away miles based on how the horse is responding. It can be hard to find spots to ride several consecutive miles depending where you live, but if you can find a way to do this 3-4 days a week it really does benefit your horse and your runs. When I do workouts based only on time, I usually reserve it for a single breeze. The time I use may vary depending on the pattern sizes I'm expecting to run. Small patterns, I'll do a 15 second sprint. Standard, 20 seconds. |
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Expert
Posts: 1477
Location: In the land of peanuts and cotton | Ok so by reading these posts... Am I doing nothing by long trotting a mile to a mile and half around the pasture? I know sprints are the best thing but I don't have a safe place with enough distance to sprint and I'm not going to risk my safety or theirs. I will let them lope a couple laps around the pasture and up the hills but other than that I trot. The pasture I use is small so it takes 10 laps to get a mile. I have another one that's a lot bigger that would be perfect for sprinting but it has a creek running through the middle and our hay field is full of holes
Edited by TessBelle 2016-10-05 4:06 PM
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 Go Your Own Way
Posts: 4947
Location: SE KS | following - this is a great post -
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Brains Behind the Operation...
Posts: 4543
Location: Arizona | TessBelle - 2016-10-06 3:02 PM
Ok so by reading these posts... Am I doing nothing by long trotting a mile to a mile and half around the pasture? I know sprints are the best thing but I don't have a safe place with enough distance to sprint and I'm not going to risk my safety or theirs. I will let them lope a couple laps around the pasture and up the hills but other than that I trot. The pasture I use is small so it takes 10 laps to get a mile. I have another one that's a lot bigger that would be perfect for sprinting but it has a creek running through the middle and our hay field is full of holes
I wouldn't say you're doing nothing, I think you're doing well utilizing what you have. Unless you are blessed enough to have a nearby training track or miles of pasture or trails with good footing, we all have to make concessions and work with what we have access to. As for minimum mileage, I try to not go less than 2 miles. Just my personal preference; that's where I feel I start to see a real benefit to my horses. I also don't do a whole lot of trotting unless it's a young horse with excess energy I'm trying to wear down. Between 1/4 & 1 mile. I used to do more, but after developing workouts for some older horses I gradually decreased my trot time to reduce concussion & SI stress. You know your workout area & horse best, and you are absolutely right to do what you can at a speed that doesn't jeopardize your safety. A mile to 1.5 miles is still more than most people do for their horses, and is certainly better than doing no distance work at all. |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | It is different muscles when galloping. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| long trottingis great, but need to gallop or canter some . maybe alternate |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
Location: SW MO | Whinny19 - 2016-10-05 6:13 PM
TessBelle - 2016-10-06 3:02 PM
Ok so by reading these posts... Am I doing nothing by long trotting a mile to a mile and half around the pasture? I know sprints are the best thing but I don't have a safe place with enough distance to sprint and I'm not going to risk my safety or theirs. I will let them lope a couple laps around the pasture and up the hills but other than that I trot. The pasture I use is small so it takes 10 laps to get a mile. I have another one that's a lot bigger that would be perfect for sprinting but it has a creek running through the middle and our hay field is full of holes
I wouldn't say you're doing nothing, I think you're doing well utilizing what you have. Unless you are blessed enough to have a nearby training track or miles of pasture or trails with good footing, we all have to make concessions and work with what we have access to. As for minimum mileage, I try to not go less than 2 miles. Just my personal preference; that's where I feel I start to see a real benefit to my horses. I also don't do a whole lot of trotting unless it's a young horse with excess energy I'm trying to wear down. Between 1/4 & 1 mile. I used to do more, but after developing workouts for some older horses I gradually decreased my trot time to reduce concussion & SI stress. You know your workout area & horse best, and you are absolutely right to do what you can at a speed that doesn't jeopardize your safety. A mile to 1.5 miles is still more than most people do for their horses, and is certainly better than doing no distance work at all.
No less than 2 miles of what gait?
And a mile to 1.5 of a gallop or? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 595
Location: North Dakota | I have always been a 'miles' person. Thre reason I think this way is because here in eastern ND we have gravel and dirt roads that go in straight lines and there is an interestcion with another road every mile. It is easy to track miles that way. I go down 2 or 3 miles and then come back, easy to know it has been 4-6 miles. We walk, trot, long trot, lope and breeze depending on the day. Some days it will just be a walk and long trot day. I don't have an arena do work in unless I haul somewhere. Now that the fields are being harvested I can work in those till it freezes. When working in the fields I will just work until I feel the job is done. I don't like putting a time limit on things. I think we all know when our horses have had a good workout without keeping time? |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | I go by miles and breathing/recovery.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 509
| I started using an app to track, I've been doing five miles walking and trotting the past couple days my pen is too wet. It takes me an hour or a little more. I have fire roads i can ride on I live by a park there is no gravel on these roads.
Edited by tin can 2016-10-07 8:04 PM
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3314
Location: Jersey Girl | When I round pen I do minutes. When I ride I use miles. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 509
| How many minutes in a round pen and what is the diameter? |
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Poll: Minutes or Miles