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About Endurance
The horsesport disciplin Endurance riding is a competition over long distance trails testing the stamina of a horse under surveillance of especially educated veterinarians. Everything between 25 and 160 km in one day or multiple day competitions are endurance in its different categories. Beside endurance riding there are also competitions in endurance-carrriage driving with one or two on hand. The beautiful thing in endurance is, you can be as competitive as you want. In national rides the slogan “to finish is to win” is paramount for most of the riders and their crews. The most important goal is to ride a fit horse over the finish line. Some do it for the adventure in nature, some for having fun with likeminded horsemen, for some it is the goal to ride as much kilometers as possible in one year with a healthy horse and some go for winning the competition. The most important is the welfare of the sport partner, the horse. Before a horse can take part in the competition a “First Inspection” has to proof that the horse is healthy and has no medical issues. During the ride itself the rules of the “VDD” for national rides and the rules of the “FEI” for international competitions determine how long the single rounds can be and how often the veterinarians check the horse before, after a break of 30 to 60 minutes,it can continue on the next round. The inspections are a pattern all vets follow and as soon they indicate any medical issues or the horse is not fit enough to continue, the horse is out of competition. In principle the fastest horse is the winner but after crossing the finish line the rider has present the horse to the vets again and only if the vet finds the horse fit enough the horse will be ranked. Welfare of the horse is paramount. The training of endurance horses is always a long-term project. The rider / trainer needs a good knowledge about performance physiology and training gauge. Only if you spend a lot of time with your horse in training you will be abel to judge the efficiency and stamina of your sport partner during an endurance competition to ride your partner save over the often challenging trails. Experience shows that most of the horses have fun with endurance and a lot of the horses develope a own ambition not at least because running lies in nature of the horse. Many endurance horses you find for many years in endurance competitions even at ages up to twenty.
The horsesport disciplin Endurance riding is a competition over long distance trails testing the stamina of a horse under surveillance of especially educated veterinarians. Everything between 25 and 160 km in one day or multiple day competitions are endurance in its different categories. Beside endurance riding there are also competitions in endurance-carrriage driving with one or two on hand. The beautiful thing in endurance is, you can be as competitive as you want. In national rides the slogan “to finish is to win” is paramount for most of the riders and their crews. The most important goal is to ride a fit horse over the finish line. Some do it for the adventure in nature, some for having fun with likeminded horsemen, for some it is the goal to ride as much kilometers as possible in one year with a healthy horse and some go for winning the competition. The most important is the welfare of the sport partner, the horse. Before a horse can take part in the competition a “First Inspection” has to proof that the horse is healthy and has no medical issues. During the ride itself the rules of the “VDD” for national rides and the rules of the “FEI” for international competitions determine how long the single rounds can be and how often the veterinarians check the horse before, after a break of 30 to 60 minutes,it can continue on the next round. The inspections are a pattern all vets follow and as soon they indicate any medical issues or the horse is not fit enough to continue, the horse is out of competition. In principle the fastest horse is the winner but after crossing the finish line the rider has present the horse to the vets again and only if the vet finds the horse fit enough the horse will be ranked. Welfare of the horse is paramount. The training of endurance horses is always a long-term project. The rider / trainer needs a good knowledge about performance physiology and training gauge. Only if you spend a lot of time with your horse in training you will be abel to judge the efficiency and stamina of your sport partner during an endurance competition to ride your partner save over the often challenging trails. Experience shows that most of the horses have fun with endurance and a lot of the horses develope a own ambition not at least because running lies in nature of the horse. Many endurance horses you find for many years in endurance competitions even at ages up to twenty.
