How far do you go on a daily drive?

[happy appy]

I have just starting fitting up my 2 driving minis and was wondering today what a normal drive is like. How much of the way is trotting? I am driving on the country roadway right now because the bugs are so bad in the wood trails. We have small hills and lots of up and down traveling on the road. I have been driving about 3.5 miles in an outing.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

That's fantastic!

On the uphill part, I've been told to do that at a walk. The horse actually works harder walking, and pulling uphill is good for building up muscle.

I have a 2 miles route, and mine usually trots the whole way, except for about 1/8 mile that is a good incline. He would rather trot up that hill, but I make him walk. I used to have a nice 3 mile route, but the road got graveled so it's no fun any more. My other route is 4 miles; I don't do it often because of the time limitation. Maybe when the weather cools off a little we will do it more. Or, I can do my 2 mile route twice...

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

my common route includes a long hill (up) and runs 3 miles. I can pretty much sit on the reins the whole time with Apps, he knows where to walk (big dips) and where to stop (street crossings) and waits for verbal cues. OTOH, I am *NOT* allowed to text while driving - even if I'm holding the reins with one hand... he'll make random 90-degree turns if I'm messing with my phone! <grin>

 

[susanne]

Appy's a smart boy, and he knows when your attention has slipped away from where it should be -- on him!

 

[CZP1]

I got about 2 miles for the quick trip. When he is fit and weather is cooler we got about 3.5 max. I let him set his own pace when we are just driving around. He knows when to trot, canter (his favorite thing) on the straight aways and when he sees a cone.

 

[Lloydyne]

how much of this is on dirt, gravel, trail, cement,????????? What about their poor lil feet? I am going to start some trail riding soon. I have lots of trails to ride on but also streets. I don't know which is best.

 

[happy appy]

I have boots on when I drive. Some sections are gravel and some paved road. The farrier was just out on the 16th and said their feet look great! We are doing more walking then trotting but I'm working on getting them fit and didn't want to do too much for them.

 

[Flying minis]

We go about 3 miles, primarily trotting. We extend trot uphill and collect down. We walk as needed for a break. Ours is all gravel roads.

I work in the arena about half the time and on the road half the time - arena work is anywhere from 15-45 minutes, and depends primarily on how they are doing, and how hard I'm asking them to work.

 

[Knottymare]

I'm really curious about their feet as well. We grow rocks where I live so they are on rocky ground and their feet are doing fine but I worry about how much they'll wear down with regular driving. We have asphalt roads, then some gravel roads, some grass. I ordered the easy boots with gators since I have had such GREAT success with them on my large horse. Not sure how well they'll fit so I have my fingers crossed.

 

[paintponylvr]

3.5 miles is great, to me!

I have a 2.3 mile loop that I do (that's measured on the road - but part of it is into drives that then go into fields on the other side of the ditch (s) from the road - so maybe about 2.5 - 2.8 miles total?). It's a nice mix of some actual paved driving, in the grass between pavement and ditch & field driving on other side of ditch with some nice grades up and down hill and can practice going thru a couple of ditches that aren't too deep. Sometimes have water in the one area that allows to practice that - but not the last couple of years since I have actually been driving with cart/wagon

.

We can add distance by going back and forth in the field (we call it "the waves" as it has 3 nice little hills) - I think it's about 3/4's of a mile section one way. I also add distance when we turn into another field that we have permission to do so, but then I have no clue how far we've actually gone as can't get a vehicle in there to measure actual distance. Adds quite a bit of time, though! We have the ability to work all of that at a walk, various types of trot and a canter or gallop. I've done this drive with singles and with pairs to the wagon and forecart.

I think the "best" time I've done that loop in with a single that was in good shape and ready to move along was 35 minutes and the slowest that included stopping for several rest breaks and visiting with one of the families kids along the way was a little over an hour. I'm not sure how that measures up in conditioning for a CDE...

When we haul out to trails - we generally cover a set amount of ground - up and down hill, thru mud and water, in anywhere from an hour to an hour and 1/2 but don't know the actual distances covered in those times. Would love to start looking at some type of measuring device - but have no clue what to look for.

ADD - some of this has some gravel. Our ponies aren't shod or booted, but we are careful on the gravel and one mare does "sorefoot" it as soon as she SEES the gravel ahead before it even gets underfoot, LOL. I've stopped to check her several times (she knows the routine,

) bu t have never found a piece of gravel in her hoof yet, nor has she developed any stone bruises!

I base speed on their condition. I haven't driven any of mine since May 20th and if I took them out tomorrow we'd do more walking and maybe some slow jogging than extensive trotting or cantering... This heat today is oppresive (rather the humidity which now stands at 90%). Going out now to top off water tanks and hose some of the beasties off. No grooming or driving right now

 

[Katiean]

Why should a mini only be able to go 2-3 miles? I have a mare, that when she is fit, can go forever at a trot. I would never push a horse that is not fit. infact, when I get my horses home again, I am going to start hand walking to get them fit again. The walking helps me too.

 

[TMR]

I train for CDE's and its not uncommon for a full CDE marathon to be anywhere from 11 to 15 kilometers which translates to 6.5-9 miles with a 1k walk in the middle. Now if you are going to compete, you have to be able to go at least that amount. You figure 6 minute miles for 5 miles is only a half hour of work. I usually work my horse on average an hour 3 days a week and 1.5 hours once a week. I know my horses work harder when we are working on proper dressage movements for 30 minutes than they do trotting 5 miles.

 

[Roxane Martin]

Interesting information as I have a combination of lawns as my arenas, and then gravel driveways (hilly) and dirt farm roads in fields. These are not very large and I try to do a combination for about 30 minutes. The weather and the day's activities determines how often I get out--sometimes only once a week.

That said, our club sometimes has trail drives that are 10-12 miles. I don't have that much options other than do the same thing a million times to get that sort of distance. Suggestions for how to get my boy fitter for those longer drives?

One thing I do when I don't want to drive is work him in my 40 foot round pen--free lunging at command for different gaits and sometimes throwing in some low jumps and cavaletti. Sometimes I just don't want to take the time to harness/unharness.

Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[TMR]

Roxane- You can do interval work to build them up without having to do the long miles. I use interval work to train for the CDE marathon to help build lung capacity. My rountine for doing interval work is a 5-10 minute walk warmup, then 10 minutes working trot then a break for a 3 minute walk. Then I start the intervals- 3 minutes on, 3 minutes off. meaning 3 minutes strong trot and 3 minutes walk, I want my pony breathing hard after the 3 minutes trot so you are going to have to push them then let them walk for the 3 minutes to catch their breath and recover and start again. You start with 2 minute intervals if your pony is not use to it and only do it 2 times then work up to 3 times at 2 minutes then extend the times. If you do a search on interval work for eventing horses you will find lots of info on it. You wouldn't need to go crazy doing 4 or 5 intervals for just a trail drive but it will help with their strength and breathing for long drives.

Since I train for CDE's, right now I am doing 5 rotations, first 2 at the trot, second 2 at the gallop and the last one at the trot. 3 on 3 off. It is ideal if you can take respiration and pulse to see where you are at, but that is a whole subject by itself.

Hope that makes sense and helps.

 

[studiowvw]

Thanks for all the good info. Last spring Lacey was too fat and I didn't like to ask too much of her as it didn't take much to get her breathing heavily. We didn't get into a regular schedule of driving then.

Over the summer I've been putting her in the barn pen all day with only one small feed in the afternoon; then letting her out with the horses to travel and graze all night. She lost a lot of belly fat, although still is packing a lot on her shoulders and back.

Today I drove her for the first time since the spring (too hot and buggy) - yay! I did several sessions in round pen and other play, plus some trail walks leading up to it. Wasn't sure how our first drive in 3 months would go, but she was perfect.

She was also fitter due to the feed restriction. Very little panting and seemed to be able to trot for a while.

I admit my boredom factor allows for about 10-15 mins in the ring! I hope to do a few of these and then start going out on trails.

I haven't been sure how much hill work I can ask of an unfit horse, but we have a set of small rolling fields up in the back and I could mark out a trail that would be more interesting than only ringwork and help transition into more fitness.

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

I don't just work 3 miles because it's 3 miles - that's just a convenient loop of the streets here. I live in Norco, CA - a city that calls itself "Horsetown USA" - we have groomed decomposed granite trails along most of the streets in town. Most of our work is done at various speeds of the trot - except for big dips!

We trot across streets, but only after stopping before we cross to look both ways.

I'd go more (and sometimes do) but this is just my preferred route. With the big uphill (probably at least 1/2 mile) I figure its a pretty good workout.

BTW - I had a "Big Name Trainer" tell me that 3 miles was "too far"... I just

:rofl

 

[Cricket8]

We do anywhere from 2 1/2 miles to 5 with my one mare as she is completely fit. There are no major hills. A lot of it is done on a limestone track as well as the rest of the fairgrounds which is asphault and gravel. We have never really had issues with her being tender footed or getting abcesses (knock on wood) if her feet seem to be a little chipped we use tuff stuff and also file the chips away.