12

Oct

Tips for How to Train for Endurance Racing

Endurance riders and their horses have their work cut out for them, what with the rigorous nature of the type of work a horse has to do in an endurance race. That’s why it’s essential to have an endurance horse fitness program that prepares both horse and rider for the challenges involved.

What Is Endurance Racing?

Endurance riding is an equestrian sport that involves the horse and rider taking a long-distance ride at a set speed. It’s a highly competitive sport that requires:

• Speed
• Stamina
• Strength

All three main ingredients require an extensive and rigorous conditioning regimen to help both horse and rider prepare for the challenges involved. As can be expected, endurance racing requires you to push your horse beyond the normal limits of horse riding. That’s why, for you to emerge victorious in an endurance race, you must design an endurance horse fitness program.

How to Design an Effective Endurance Horse Fitness Program

To successfully train your horse for endurance racing, you must have an effective endurance horse fitness program. Here are some critical elements you can include in yours:

Ensure Your Horse Is Fit and Healthy

One of the most important aspects of an endurance horse fitness program is that your horse must be fit and healthy.  Ensuring your horse is physically fit is the foundation upon which you can build your endurance training program. Essential aspects here include:

• Have your vet assess your horse’s condition to ensure he’s ready for training.
• Ensure your horse’s hooves are in excellent condition, are trimmed, and have proper shoes.
• Check that your horse can easily manage a 1-2 hour trot without much of a struggle.
• Make sure your horse can easily go up and down hills without getting tired easily.

If your horse’s condition is satisfactory, he’s ready to start his endurance training.

Develop an Endurance Training Regimen

You can’t just jump into endurance racing, even if your horse is in tip-top condition. You’ll need several months of training and conditioning. Few crucial elements that should be part of your endurance training program are:

• Long-distance training. This is essential to help your horse develop the stamina needed to cover a lot of ground in races.
• Hill work. This will help your horse build up strong muscles.
• Cantering serves a dual purpose, helping the heart and lungs develop and teaching the horse to maintain a constant speed.
• This is a slow rhythmic trot on a long line that will help your horse improve its suppleness and power. It’s also great for teaching obedience.
• Walking and trotting. These are great anaerobic exercises that will help your horse’s enzyme system work better at building energy and produce more energy.

As you put your horse through rigorous training, always make sure to make time for cooling down. You should also include a rest day after hard workouts. These help your horse to recover well.

Design an Endurance Horse Fitness Program Diet for Your Horse

Like all athletes, your horse’s performance is strongly linked to what they eat. That’s why part of your training program must include a diet designed to help your horse perform at its best. Examples of what to include in the diet include:

• High-quality forage like hay, pasture, or a combination of grass and legumes.
• Oil supplements in the form of corn or vegetable oil.
• Supplements of vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes.
• Fresh, clean unfrozen water available throughout the day.

A proper diet will ensure your horse develops its muscles efficiently and is healthy all around.

Products to Use in an Endurance Horse Fitness Program

Preparing your horse for an endurance race is a lot of work, but it can be made much easier by using the right tools. Our top picks of the best equipment to aid your endurance horse fitness program include:

Hot Walkers

Hot walking is a critical part of warming up and cooling down a horse. This will help him perform better and recover faster and in a healthier way after a workout. Traditionally, hot walking was done manually by a human hot walker. However, you can get a mechanical hot walker from Vitafloor that you can use to hot-walk your horse as well as other kinds of exercise.

Tendon Boots

Tendon boots are a special type of equipment designed to protect your horse’s front legs from a tendon injury. Tendon injury usually occurs as a result of strikes on the front legs by the hind legs or when an object hits the horse’s leg. As you can expect, these are high possibilities in an endurance race.

In most cases, tendon boots are designed to feature a hard molded plastic outer shell and a soft inner lining to reduce friction. Our tendon boots, however, deviate from traditional tendon boots. That’s because they feature an ergonomic design and can be easily made to custom-fit your horse. They also use a special breathable thermoplastic that keeps your horse’s tendons noticeably cooler.

Saddle Pads

Saddle pads play a huge role in your horse’s welfare—especially when it comes to endurance riding. That’s because saddle pads offer both horse and rider a comfortable experience. They also have the added advantages of:

• Improving performance
• Protecting your horse’s back
• Protecting your horse’s skin

So, make sure to get the right saddle pad for your horse. It’s definitely one piece of equipment many riders overlook, but its importance can never be overstated.

Safety Walls

Having a horse arena is essential if you’re to be consistent in conditioning your horse for endurance racing. It allows you to exercise your horse in all weather conditions, ensuring he’s always at his optimum fitness levels.

One integral part of the arena you should prioritize is a safety wall. Safety walls are designed to protect your horse’s hooves from being injured when it strikes out or tries to kick the wall. Safety walls also protect the rider’s legs when the horse tries to brush against the wall.

In short, safety walls are a great product that ensures safety as you train your horse for its task as an endurance horse racer.

Preparing Your Horse for Endurance Racing – It Starts Now

The sooner you start preparing your horse for endurance racing, the better. From the training regimen to the equipment you’ll need to use, you have to put everything in place as soon as possible. Speaking of equipment, go ahead and check out our shop for the training equipment you’ll need for your endurance horse fitness program.