A healthy rider, a sound horse and an open trail is the recipe for a good endurance ride – and the Ontario season is just around the corner.
Arthur resident Vivianne Macdonald has been participating for over 50 years in the discipline, which is based on controlled long-distance races.
“It’s for any age, any person, any breed,” she said. “It’s not a fashion thing, you don’t have to wear your hair up in a bun, you don’t have to have the best cowboy hat.
“I think it’s just that … you’re caring for the horse … in a different way.”
The key aspect to any endurance ride is the horse’s ability to cool down, Macdonald explained. She added she never goes to a competitive ride without her stethoscope and stopwatch for just that reason.
The vet measures the horse’s baseline heart rate and other medical indicators before the ride starts and again at various check points along the way. The horse and rider are not permitted to continue on the ride or stop the clock at the end of the day until the vet has given them the all clear.
“An average horse goes from anywhere from 36 to 42 (heart) beats when it’s at rest per minute and when you finish a ride, the vet who’s in charge of the condition of the ride will decide where the horse should be,” Macdonald explained.
“If it’s a really tough ride or it’s a cold day or a hot day they might vary it but usually it’s around anywhere from 56 to 60 (heart) beats, and as soon as your horse comes down to that criteria then you can say, ‘I’m in’ and they will … check the horse and see.”
So when looking for the ideal equine partner, size and speed are not the only criteria – the time it takes for the horse to cool down is also considered.
“Last year … I had been riding a horse and my horse got lame … so I switched and started riding … a half Welsh pony that I raised out of an endurance horse and she has such fantastic, quick recoveries; she beats all the horses,” Macdonald said.
However, she said there isn’t any one factor that indicates a horse will excel in endurance competitions.
“You’ve got to have a horse that will relax, drink well,” she said. “Eating, drinking, peeing and pooping. You have to do all of those things well.”
While the horse and rider require conditioning to have the strength and stamina to compete in an endurance ride, Macdonald said she doesn’t work her horses over the winter, instead starting training in the spring when the mud is gone.
“Just get out and ride,” she said. “Long, slow distance they call it and you’ve just got to put the miles on.“
Rides can range from 40km (25 miles) to 160km (100 miles).
The first endurance ride Macdonald participates in each year is the Queen’s Bush Training Ride taking place in Chatsworth on May 8. She goes as a clinician.
“They have lectures in the morning and then they bring a horse in and explain how they (measure) and then in the afternoon they have a six mile,” she explained.
Macdonald said sometimes at endurance competitions riders learn about health issues they didn’t know their horse had.
“We have a grey mare that I took to a ride in Michigan. We drove nine hours; got there, let her rest overnight. The next morning I went for the vet check and the vet said ‘no she can’t go, she’s not sound,’” Macdonald explained.
“I brought her home and I took her to a specialist here and she has a degeneration of a little bone in her foot so she doesn’t get ridden anymore.”
Macdonald said another aspect of endurance riding that sets it apart from other equine disciplines is the camaraderie between the competitors.
The horse of Macdonald’s daughter Diana once lost a shoe at the beginning of a ride and another participant gave her an easy boot to temporarily replace the shoe. Another time, Macdonald gave a bandage to another rider whose horse was bleeding from a cut.
She said the riders support each other, whereas in ring events the atmosphere is more competitive.
Endurance riding also allows the rider to see the countryside and areas they haven’t been before. Macdonald does a number of rides in the U.S and said the views are a highlight.
Last year Macdonald and her daughter completed in just two endurance rides, but this year their goal is to double that figure.
To learn more about endurance riding in Ontario visit www.octra.on.ca.
