First is the conditioning process for the horse. The author sees 25 mile (LD) rides as "a worthless waste of time" chickies, so you have to shove your big girl panties on and train for a 50.
Month 1: 7 miles a day 3 days a week.
Month 2: 9 miles a day 3 days a week.
Month 3: 15 miles a day 3 days a week.
Month 4: 25 miles, 15 miles, 10 mile days, longeing for 20 minutes on non-working days. This is also competition month.
The author stresses the importance of hill training. Oh to find myself a 7 mile 15 degree sloping gravel road! Riding up it at a good clip, and hand walking down to save the joints (the horse's joints). Doing repeats of these based on pulse recovery.
Hollander quotes that I thought were useful:
"Your main opponent is the course-your goal is to cover it as quickly as your horse is able."
"You don't race the competition until the end is near."
"It is pure foolishness to begin racing at the start."
"If you got the best performance you could manage, you've won in a way many never do." (I especially liked this quote, it resonates with the foundation principle of what endurance riding is supposed to be) (or in my case LD). Lew Hollander, Endurance Riding.
Now to force myself to struggle on in the other one...
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