Endurance

Not sure if this should go in English or Trail Riding?

Anyway...I've decided to train for a 25 mile limited distance endurance ride. Its only 20 minutes from my home so I figure why not! It is in September so I have plenty of time to condition. I've never conditioned for long distance though...any tips from people who have done endurance? I figure I need a 6 to 14 minute mile. Thanks!

I did a twenty five mile a few years ago. I rode 5 days a week for about 2 hours a day. If I wasn't able to ride, I lunged for about an hour (30 minutes each direction). Obviously, make sure you start out slow and work your way up. We started out just walking with a bit of jogging. Towards the end we were trotting for the majority of the time with walk breaks and short sprints.
I like to train on differant terrain. Hills, sand, packed dirt, etc. Also, we had to go through fairly deep water (about hock high) on our run so I would make sure your horse is okay with water.

Make sure he is getting the nutrition he needs and gets proper warming up and cooling down. It needs to be done at a pretty forward trot. Ours took about 4 hours (with a check point) give or take.

Do you have a riding buddy? Most of them send you out in groups of two. My group was me and the girl I had trained with. It made it easier because our horses knew each other and it was just more fun :)

I'm not an endurace rider, but I am conditioning for eventing this year! What I would do is do trot sets. That is 10 minutes of trot, 5 of walk in between. Once that becomes a no problem for you and your horse, bump the times up. You can also do hill work, this helps streanghtan your horses hind end. You can also do long gallops that help build lung capacity! Hope that helps!