I'm hoping with the LSD base that I've put on Phebes that it should be safe to start some cardio building with her. We have one more upcoming ride at Clark set for Saturday if the weather cooperates. This leaves us only two weeks left between then and the Chicken Chase. I don't feel I'll have the opportunity to further stretch her distance at this point, which I feel is a deficit. But don't want to cram too many miles in between now and then either as she'll go into the ride thin, again.
So for those last two weeks, since this is a monster hill ride, I thought that I'd work on repeated trotting hill intervals, and cantering intervals just to build up her stamina. We galloped up our big hill tonight, did a ten minute walking cool down, then we trotted up it, cooled down again, trotted up again, cooled down, and then pleasure rode for two miles, came back to the hill and galloped up again. Then we walked home. I didn't bother with the HRM on board tonight as I specifically intended to challenge her heart rate, and to purposely use active rest to bring it down. But I did check her 3 minutes post ride and she had pulsed to 44 bpm, so even though she was a sweaty horse, I felt her recovery was fine. I did give a minimal dose of electrolytes tonight which she happily sucked down (this horse LOVES Gatorade), but her water drinking was minimal on trail. Wish I had four more weeks....instead of two and a half! ~E.G.
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