Does anybody know anything about Endurance?

I'm just kinda wondering... I've been told by a few people, that have been around Lacey, that I should try endurance with her since she's just like "that". It sounds like it might be fun and Lacey loves new trails so if it would be easy to get into, I don't really see why we shouldn't give it a try, at least... However, I have no idea what that would entail at all.

Lacey is 25, but she's reasonably fit and really very healthy for a horse of her age. We go on about 2-3, aprox 2.5 miles over varying terrain, rides a week and she thinks nothing of that distance, even at her current relatively low level of fitness (for her). We generally mostly walk on these rides because Lacey loves to GO a little too much. But, she is really fine going at faster speeds for quite a while. She could probably trot all day if I let her, but her cantering is really not up to par. She'll be breathing really hard for quite a while after just a minute or two of cantering. However, I really haven't spent the time to get her canter fitness up so I'm sure if I took the time, she'd do just great.

Anyway, how do I get into endurance? I know nothing, tell me everything you know! :)

Im going to take a punt by your name that your Aussie? Either way. I have friends who do Endurance and trust me its a lot tougher than it looks. The tales they could tell......anyways. Heres the website
Welcome to the AERA

For the Australian Endurance peeps. Theres links to other websites too and you might find a trail riding club in you area

I wanna get into endurance as well, or at least give it ago.
If you think Lacey is capable then go for it, it should be fun. Just rock up at the next meet thing and do the shortest one if possible, that's what I am planning on doing

Haha No, I'm not from Australia, Wallaby is just my camp name at my camp and I have a birthmark that's shaped exactly like Australia... :P Sadly, those are my only connections to Aus.

I've tried doing an internet search for endurance club things in my area but I've never found anything that's not 4 hours away... Maybe I'm just not looking correctly? If someone happens to want to look, I'm in Gresham OR 97080.

I just read up about it, and it sounds really fun!
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Hey, I was just talking about this tonight with someone! Lol. I want to do it with my guy this spring/summer. I don't think its tough in this area. There really aren't any trails that are too bad and I don't think you would canter unless it was a good flat spot. I'm not sure how it would be in your area though. But around here its not intense like the professional endurance people its more about having fun and going on a trail ride. I would actually care less if I won any ways. I just would like to meet other horse people and go for a nice trail ride with them.

There are a few other threads about endurance and competitive trail rides (CTRs) so you could search those on here as well :) aerc.org has some good information under the "education" section.

Anyway, in my opinion, nobody should do endurance until they have competed in CTRs and done well. The reason for this is that in endurance they have a lot less going on as far as vet checks and making sure the horse is okay. By the time you get to endurance it's mostly YOUR responsibility to know your horse is ready or to deal with the consequences. Endurance is judged by who gets there first, from the top 10 they DO pick "most fit" so then the other stuff does come in...but I feel that it's coming in too late. With a CTR it is judged 100% on condition, meaning how conditioned/fit your horse is. They look for rubs from the tack, sores, interference, dehydration, lameness, etc. It's really quite fascinating to get into. I scribed for a vet at one and learned a TON! There are a lot of tricks of the trade and it will take a while to figure it all out but it's definitely fun!

I say with your horse being 25, and not having done this before, go for a CTR and try to enlist the help of someone you can ride with who has done one before. At some CTRs they even have a division for people just starting out (usually something small like 10 miles just to see if you like it or not). If you know you can get her in shape safely you can start competing at 25 miles. I've gone to CTRs with 25m, 30m, 50m, 60m, 75m, 80m, and 100m as options(usually not all those options at one CTR though). Usually at a CTR you stay at about a 5mph pace (mostly trotting, some walking and some cantering for most people). There are water stops...hydration is very important. You would need to be doing more than 2 or 3 mile training rides if you were interested in doing this though. It's harder than some people may think, though I do love the sport. And if this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then just do fun trail rides!! Haha....any specific questions?? I don't want to overload the thread.

Endurance is pretty serious business. It's tough on your horse... Some of them just flop down where they stand from exhaustion, dehydration, colic... Some just flat out flop to the ground and die. If you finish the run, you are considered successful. To heck with winning.

It takes about six months of conditioning 5 or six days a week to be really prepared for a 25 mile step-up run. We won't even get into 50 and 100 mile races.

At Lacey's "advanced age", I don't think endurance would be good for her. It would be too stressful on her system, IMO. CTR, however, would be fine. Actually, I think it would be a great thing for you and Lacey to try out. It's mostly walking and trotting, with frequently vet checks. It's pretty hard to get a sick horse through. Conditioning will take about 4-6 months, and most runs are 15-20 miles a day if you're running novice or competitive pleasure. Opened riders can go 25+ miles a day. You can choose to either ride one day of 15 or so miles or two days, coming up with a two day total of around 30 miles.

In CT, horse and rider are judged separately. Your horse is judged on condition and you are judged on your horsemanship. Both you and your horse start out with scores of 100 and it goes down from there. The highest score of your division at the end of the day wins.

Horsemanship means how well you ride (going up and down hills without hindering your horse, negotiating obstacles) and how well you take care of your horse (stabling, well fitting tack, etc.).


Where are you located? CTR is divided into five division based on geographic location. I'm in division five. Ha ha, maybe we could ride together!

Drama! Horses flopping down? Not something I've ever seen/heard of here!

It might be different where you are, but here we have 20k social rides and 40k training rides. You can take a reasonably fit horse into either without too much preparation. Heck, as you know, I did a 20k on my barely broken unfit Latte! I think Lacey would knock down a 20k or 40k with no worries.

We don't have CTR where I am, but it sounds great, and do agree that it would be a good starting point!
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Stupid question what is ctr