Info on beginning endurance riding?
I’m buying my first horse within the next few months from a friend who breeds Arabs and Anglos (were in Australia). I just want a pleasure/trail riding horse as I’m not interested in intense competition. However I have always been interested in endurance riding and competitive trail riding. What kind of things should I consider if i wanted to start this type of riding?
I’m resonably fit and I work at a trail riding centre and can be in the saddle for up to 6 hours a day and then work on the farm for the rest of the day. This would be my first horse however I do have a fair bit of experience with different types of horses and basic care.
Is it easy for novice riders/owners to get into this sort of sport or do you need an extensive level of knowledge to train your horse and pass vet checks? I don’t want to win, just to have fun with my horse in the environment.
Any info/advice would be appreciated.
Both are awesome sports. Sounds like your fitness is good, though once you start endurance, you’ll get fitter as you train your horse – wow, you’ll need it! lol!
Competetive trail riding does have the skill elements which you’ll need to polish to do well (riding through tyres,over tarps, gates bridges, backing through obstacles etc.
Check regional papers for clubs – I know of a couple oerating in SE QLD.
Endurance is the most vetinary regulated horse sport for some very ovious reasons…
Pop onto http://www.aera.asn.au/ – they have lists of rides in all states, contacts, vetting guidelines, info for beginners, etc.
Unless your horse is qualified, you should start on an intro ride – you should anyway as a newbie to the sport. These are usually about 25km. After successfully vetting in on an intro you can move to complete successfully in 40km rides, then onto 80km rides, then onto “open”, which can be 120km plus in a day *phew!*.
There is way too much info needed to type here, but there are magazines on Australian endurance riding fom the newsagent, and the AERA website will also get you started. From the AERA, find your state endurance association, from there you will be able to find members – probably even in your area, quite happy to help. If you leave your email addy I can email you anything else I remember… If you’re in Qld, I can send you some contacts who will be very happy to help you get going. If you’re another state I’ll find someone who knows someone… did that make sense? lol!
Good luck and have a ball! I know you will 
)
Oh yeah, until you find all the info on training, unless your new horse is already quite fit, I’d suggest just starting the horse at least 10 weeks before your first ride with 5km walks (not plodding – walk them out), after a week of this, move up to 10km walks, introduce spells of trotting only after the horse is moving out freely for the full 10 km without any stress. Learn to monitor temp, respiration and pulse, and keep a record of it. Coarse hay if not on good pasture where you are, and don’t get carried away with too many grains as these are nowadays regarded as too heating for an endurance horse – though I had an endurance pony years ago who thrived on it – every horse is different. You’ll learn to guage the feeds easily as you progress.
edit – forgot to mention, the endurance motto is : “to complete is to win” therefore, passing the vet check (within the allocated time for your category – definitely not faster for beginner/novice, but under the max time – don’t panic, you’ll be informed of this for each ride) is all in all a darn great ride!
ENJOY!
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