Legging Up

This past weekend, I was sitting at my husband's dressage lesson hoping and praying nothing bad would happen to him. (Long story short, Wayne has been having some behavioral problems with his mare on and off that likely result from a combination of factors, one of which is his "green-iousity"--lack of confident cues and horse-handling suave. That is to say, however, that nothing bad has happened at all and he does VERY WELL for his beginner-level self. But he has taken the initiative to improve himself and work with his horse and we all applaud him and are impressed with his fortitude. But I digress.)

My dear friend Amanda was there with me as we planned on going for a ride the second the lesson was over. As I was sitting there watching and video-recording his lesson, my motives were two-fold. The first is that he had been very nervous about his first lesson with Ernie-the-Swedish-Dressage-Instructor and his own mare, Obsidian--for the past 6 weeks he has been using "Fred" the school horse. The second is that I constantly wish I had someone to attend my lessons to record them so I could re-watch them in the comfort of my own home and secretly cringe at the sound of my own voice. There may have been a third, less popular, reason, which may or may not have been that I wanted to see just how bad his mare would act in front of skilled company, but I keep this reason to myself.

During his lesson, Ernie was instructing Wayne to speed up and slow down Obsidian's trot. It quickly became apparent that she had a "sweet spot" where her trot was calm, collected, and appeared as easy as breathing. In short, it was a trot she could comfortably sustain for distances of 50 miles or more without any undue wear and tear on her joints, ligaments, etc, and both Amanda and I approximated it at about 8 miles an hour. As soon as Obsidian would speed up or slow down, her trot went to hell in a handbasket. Suddenly, Ernie said, "So can you feel how she falls apart when she goes faster? You need to find that trot which is most comfortable for her and work with it until she is strong enough at that speed and rhythm to do it for long distances. At that point you can begin to increase or decrease her speed as necessary."

Holy crap.

I have never heard the concept of "legging up" a horse put so simply, so succintly, and so very easy for anyone to understand. It totally blew my mind. In short, Ernie was able to cram all the information, theories, opinions, therapies, "tricks" and horsemanship involved in taking a fresh new horse from zero to the first ride in a couple of sentences. And it really drove home that when one sits down and really thinks about it, bringing a horse into endurance (or jumping or dressage or whatever) is really just plain old common sense. And if someone like Ernie can hit the nail so squarely on the head, why is it we continuously have problems with horses breaking down early in this sport?

Oh, yeah, that's right--ego. Human ego.

To simplify even further, these are the basic tenets of taking a horse from zero to the first ride. Common thought is that it takes between 1.5 and 3 years to fully bring a horse to its potential in this sport, providing there are no mishaps and no major problems along the way. These steps assume that you have a horse who is at least four years old when you begin conditioning, is a horse you enjoy spending time with, a horse who enjoys the sport, and is a horse who is structurally and conformationally sound enough to undergo the conditioning necessary, blah blah blah.

1. Prior to beginning any conditioning at all, your horse needs to understand at a minimum the following;
• Walk, Trot, Canter and appropriate transitions (in both directions, if beginning in the arena)
• Whoa, no matter what
• Side-passing and leg yields from both directions
• Giving to the bit (hackamore, etc)

2. Spend several months going out on the trail at a walk. Get him used to trailering and seeing new sights. Go with an older buddy horse who is unfazed by boring stuff like stealth deer, angry moose (mooses? meese?) and ninja flocks of quail. Cross water, walk across bridges, see cows, trees, bushes, broken-down cars, mylar balloons tied to shrubs and different colored rocks. Take your time!

3. Using the Sweet Spot Trot, start incorporating it into trail rides at greater frequency. Remember, the Sweet Spot Trot (SST) is NOT the speed your horse chooses, since THAT speed is usually faster. It's fast enough your horse isn't falling over and slow enough you shouldn't feel wind blowing past your ears as you go. Depending on the horse, this is usually between 6 and 8 mph, and you SHOULD have an idea how fast it is based on prior arena work. This step is the basis of your Low, Slow Distance, which is the foundation of everything to come. Step 3 should take at least a year. At least. Preferably even longer than a year. During this time you may spend short intervals going faster or slower, and even mix in a small sprinkle of cantering. Eventually, you should be spending 90% of your conditioning rides at your SST. For longer conditioning rides, spend more time walking. If you are going for shorter conditioning rides, you can mix in a teeny weeny bit of faster trot (or even cantering!).

4. After an appropriate period of time LSD SST conditioning, your horse may be ready to do a 25 or 50. But you may not go faster than your SST. A good rule of thumb is to calculate your previously-determined ideal trot speed using a GPS. Take that value and multiply it by 0.85 (to factor for walking-breaks and water stops and sightseeing) and then factor in the time needed for vet checks and that should be your ride time goal*. (Step 4 does NOT have to happen after step 3. In fact, it is probably better if it happens at some time during step 3. But you must factor in your horse's fitness level for your particular distance before attempting it. I really hope that this is clear and is common sense for most.)

To simplify these steps even further:

1. Horse needs to learn basic cues and gaits.

2. Expose horse to stuff while walking.

3. Expose horse to stuff while trotting. Don't trot fast. Take breaks.

4. Don't ride your horse fast at a ride. Better to ride slower and have horse for a looong time. No top ten.



*If my horse's SST is 8mph and I wanted to do an easy** 25 mile ride with one 30 minute hold, the calculation would look like this: (25 miles/(8 mph x 0.85)) + 0.5 hours = 4.18 hours, which roughly equals 4 hours and 11 minutes***, which is a TOTALLY reasonable easy 25 miler pace

**By easy, I mean a ride with terrain similar to what you have been training on. For some that is flat, others it may be gently rolling hills. Please use common sense.

***I'm pretty sure I just blew my mind with that math equation. Suck on that, 7th grade algebra teacher, Mr. Pearson.