# Distance Riding



## michickenwrangler (Apr 7, 2010)

After some interest on another thread, I thought I'd start this up.

Any other distance riders out there?

Types:

Endurance: a race. The fastest horse in good condition is the winner. There is usually a separate Best Condition award which takes into account pulse recovery, weight carried, time finished, soundness, dehydration and other factors. Awards are usually given in weight divisions. Endurance rides are sanctioned by an international organization the American Endurance Ride Conference which governs rules in USA, Canada and Mexico. Rules are the same no matter where you compete. AERC also has its own national championships. The Arabian Horse Association and Appaloosa Horse Club also have their own internal awards and do their own championships. Distances range from 25-100 miles in one day or multi-day rides up to 300 miles in 6 days.

Competitive Trail: a timed event. Horses travel the trail at a set pace and riders all finish in more or less the same time. Too fast or too slow results in penalty points. Winner is determined by condition of horse: pulse, respiration, muscle soreness, attitude, soundness. Distances range from 12-50 miles in one day and up to 250 in multi-day rides. There is no national sanctioning organization, different regions have different rules. The closest thing to a "championship" is the Arabian Horse Association National Championship

Ride & Tie: Most popular on west coast. Two people, one horse in a relay. Person 1 runs, person 2 rides and passes person 1. Person 2 dismounts and ties horse. Person 1 catches up, mounts horse and passes person 2. Dismounts, ties horse, runs. Person 2 comes to horse, unties, rides past person 1 and on and on for 10-50 miles. I'm not as familiar with this so anyone???

Competitive Mounted Orienteering or CMO: Can be done individually or teams. Given map, compass and must pass through checkpoints in any order. All competitions are sanctioned by the NaCMO-National Competitive Mounted Orienteering Org.

Any specific questions anyone?


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## patandchickens (Apr 7, 2010)

I don't do endurance riding -- though I greatly admire those who do, and have pit-crewed several times. 

But for whatever it's worth, I've done a ride and tie. Back in grad school I rode eventers for a professor who, with his wife, used to do the Levi's Ride and Tie every year, and one year they decided they wanted to get more people involved in the area, so they ran a 25 mile ride-and-tie. I am SO not a runner. I did spend several months trying to get into shape. Not only did it not work, my partner got blisters and ended up riding most of the way so I did more than my share of running. OMG, I almost died  

I think you have to REEEAALLLLY like punishment to do that  LOL (Especially seeing the huge raw knee rubs that the couple would come home from the Levi's with!) 

Competetive trail riding always sounded kind of interesting to me but I lack a trailer, also currently lack a fully rideable horse.

Pat


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## michickenwrangler (Apr 7, 2010)

Yes, I found that out the hard way too. Don't wear jeans on a distance ride 

I had huge blue-black welts on my thighs for weeks from the seams. A woman I know from the U.P. said on her first distance ride she wore jeans too and it rubbed all the skin off from the inside of her knees.


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## patandchickens (Apr 7, 2010)

This couple did all their endurance riding and ride and ties wearing pantyhose with lycra shorts over them. Older bearded guys with hairy legs look *really weird* wearing conspicuous pantyhose   But apparently it does work. Uh, up to a point anyhow <g>

Pat


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## ducks4you (Apr 7, 2010)

Does anybody wear chaps, or are they too bulky, too hot?


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## Horsiezz (Apr 7, 2010)

Hunter Pace is also a distance riding competetion. They are really fun,and the ones that I will be going to you can ride english or western,have a choice of jumping,and you ride in a group of 2 or 3 but  you have to wear boots and a helmet. This varies on your location,and where you are competing. 
Here is some more information I copied and pasted from Wikipedia. 

hunter pace is a form of competition involving horses and riders. In a hunter pace a trail is marked for horse and rider to follow. On the day of the competition, early in the morning, the hosts of the event send an experienced horse and rider to ride the trail as fast as it is safely possible to do so. This morning ride is called "the dead body run", and it establishes two things:

1. that the trail is clear and safe for the competitors
2. The "pace time"
The pace time is the ideal time to safely but quickly ride the set trail. When the competitors arrive they send out teams of three or four to ride the trail. Checkpoints set along the ride ensure that the riders are staying on course and are not overworking their horses. Each group of riders is timed. Riders are penalized for either riding too fast and beating the pace time, or too slow and taking longer than the pace time. The group to come closest to the pace time wins the competition, whether over or under the "pace" time.


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## michickenwrangler (Apr 7, 2010)

ducks4you said:
			
		

> Does anybody wear chaps, or are they too bulky, too hot?


Yes. Also many riders try to travel light and leather chaps are fairly heavy.

Most men I've seen wear VERY tight riding tights or spandex and long t-shirts (except for that one guy that flirted with my friend who wore his t-shirt tucked in :/ )


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## michickenwrangler (Apr 7, 2010)

COMPETITIVE TRAIL SANCTIONING ORGANIZATIONS

UMECRA: Upper Midwest Endurance and Competitive Rides Association. Sanctions rides in MI, IN, IL, WI, MN & ND
www.umecra.com 

NATRC: North American Trail Ride Conference. Sanctions rides throughout US, Canada & Mexico but mainly in the West, South & Central US like IA, MO, OK
www.natrc.org

ECTRA: Eastern Competitive Trail Ride Assoc. Sanctions rides in eastern US into the upper South (KY, NC, VA). Overlaps with NATRC and SEDRA
www.ectra.org

SEDRA: Southeast Distance Riding Assoc. Sanctions rides in FL and rest of SE. Overlaps with NATRC and ECTRA.
www.DistanceRiding.org

OCTRA: Ontario Competitive Trail Riding Assoc. Ontario and surrounding provinces.
www.octra.on.ca

OAATS: Ohio Arabian & All-Breed Trail System. Sanctions rides in OH but also in MI and IN
www.oaats.org

MoTDRA: Middle of the Trail Distance Riding Assoc. Central Great Plains States, TX, OK, KS, MO. Overlaps with NATRC

There are many, many more local and state organizations. There is a list on the Arabian Horse Assoc. website http://www.arabianhorses.org/competitions/distance/dist_orgs.asp

Enjoy!


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## adoptedbyachicken (Apr 7, 2010)

Did CTR for years.  Loved it, have a few total distance awards and won a few events.  Always went for the Vet award rather than the win, shows the work you did leading up the event was right rather than just the ride that day went well for you, IMO.  

Did one Endurance, really don't like the pack start or the corwding on the trail.  I think those rides would be way more popular if they arranged it in a staggared start like CTR.  The pack start is sometimes dangerous, and just plane bad horse training as can be the passing and racing on the trail.  I do not recommend Endurance to anyone that is not really experienced and has a great horse.  Even then I'd stay back and not leave for 5 or 10 minutes after the start, which effectily puts you out of the running but I'd rather be safe and enjoy the ride.

For Endurance I Vet check or crew now, not my cup of tea but the people that do are a great crowd to spend the weekend with.  They are trying here to get the start changed, or at least broken into divisions so not everyone goes at the same time.

Ride and Tie is just starting out here, no way I'll try that!  I don't run, I shuffle.

If they would let GPS into the Orienteering hubby would be there in a second!  He takes his GPS out on rides even around home.


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## LauraM (Apr 8, 2010)

Horsiezz said:
			
		

> Hunter Pace is also a distance riding competetion. They are really fun,and the ones that I will be going to you can ride english or western,have a choice of jumping,and you ride in a group of 2 or 3 but  you have to wear boots and a helmet. This varies on your location,and where you are competing.
> Here is some more information I copied and pasted from Wikipedia.
> 
> hunter pace is a form of competition involving horses and riders. In a hunter pace a trail is marked for horse and rider to follow. On the day of the competition, early in the morning, the hosts of the event send an experienced horse and rider to ride the trail as fast as it is safely possible to do so. This morning ride is called "the dead body run", and it establishes two things:
> ...


These aren't really "distance rides," though, as they are only about 5-7 miles long, generally.  

I used to do CTR when I was younger.  Great fun.  Nowadays we still do long rides with the group of friends I ride with.  Our typical rides are 5-6 hours long with some rides up to 9-10 hours and occasionally 13 hours.  And we do camping trips of two to four days camping in the mountains and riding out each day.  But of course, none of that is an organized, public ride, just us having fun.


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## michickenwrangler (May 8, 2010)

Just getting psyched for my first competition in '10, the Grand Island Ride in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I think I'm just going to do the 25 mile comp on Sunday, that way I can avoid holiday traffic.

I just hope it's warmer than when I went in 2008, only 45 degrees for the high!

I've done this trail 4 times before, it's one of my favorites

http://www.umecra.com/Ride Flyers/09_2010_Grand_Island_ride_flyer.pdf


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## michickenwrangler (May 30, 2010)

Well, we're back.

We won!!!

Got Izzie out front and she just chugged right along. Her pulse/resp. scores were a little high due to heat and humidity, but she did well. Got to see another whooping crane. Some other riders saw a black bear, but I only saw the tracks.

No Bigfoot hunters this time around either


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## michickenwrangler (Mar 12, 2011)

Bump since it looks like we have a new distance rider here.


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## adoptedbyachicken (Mar 12, 2011)

Well today the shedding began and I'm horrified at how fat my black guy has gotten this winter.  He is always worse than the bay but WOW this year he really packed it on.  I admit less attention to details with me working full time and being a part time student, and the change to full on round bale feeding he clearly took advantage of.  He is now out of that.

I did notice he was packing it on but I guess I needed to run the rake over him to really get it into perspective.  With 4 feet of snow still here I have the time to make this right, but I might start saddling him early and doing some low slow road rides with boots to hasten the matter.  He always comes back nice, so I'm hopeful this will not be a big deal.

MCW I missed your win last spring!  Very belated congratulations!


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## Blue Dog Farms (Apr 21, 2011)

Congrats on your win! I live in Fl and was training to do a ride with my sister this month but with 4 kids each we got off schedule and it just didnt happen  We do the hunters paces occasionally and I love those. I did a competative trail when I was a kid I love getting out in the woods with just my sister me and our horses its so beautiful. My mare loves to jump so and trail with a few logs down is heaven for us. Hopefully next season we will get a few rides in its just too hot here already to do much distance anymore unless its a slow ride. Good Luck on future rides!


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## michickenwrangler (Apr 23, 2011)

Izzie's getting back in shape, giving her good workouts 4x a week. Our first competition is Grand Island in May.


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## michickenwrangler (May 27, 2011)

Leaving for Grand Island tomorrow!

Wish us luck!


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## michickenwrangler (May 30, 2011)

We won!

And Izzie has eough points for her Legion of Honor now!


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## Dreaming Of Goats (Sep 30, 2011)

JUst starting riding lessons now, CTR sounds like fun! Are there any rides in New England?


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