This article is not all inclusive in anyway shape or form.  This is just to provide a general overview of information, there are tons of books, articles and organizations out there ready to help you with the next steps.  Recently I attended a clinic given by the organization The Eastern Competitive Trail Ride Association (ECTRA).  I found the clinic to be so extremely helpful in assisting me to improving the care of my own horse, I decided to glean all that I could and share what I learned with you. I'm such a huge-a-sourus-rex horse lover; I want to do all that I can to take the best care possible of my horse and if I can help you along the way, ACES! I just want to give all the credit to ECTRA, most of the information provided in this article came from the competitors and experts sponsored by the ECTRA organization.

Have you ever wondered, "What's the difference between Competitive Trail and Endurance Racing?"  In endurance racing, everyone lines up at the starting line, a gun goes off and POW!  You're off!  In competitive trail, riders are given a starting time and are started one minute apart. Competitive trail tends to be a little stricter in terms of allowed hoof wear. For example, you can use horse shoes or easy boots, but leave your Old Mac boots at home.   In endurance riding, that isn't an issue.  Endurance riding is literally a race, Competitive Trail, is about your horse’s physical fitness, the horse that comes across the finish line with the best heart rate, respiration, and physical condition is the winner. 

The great thing about the sport of Competitive Trail is that it's all about making your horse the best he or she can be both physically and mentally.  You'll also get to spend hours of time with your horse, creating a more powerful relationship. It's all about kindness to your horse. The more you get to know your horse, the more you build a mutual understanding and the better able you are to "read" your horses physical needs. The more you learn about Competitive Trail, the more you will learn about horse care, and your horse will thank you for that.

Fitness: When you build your horse’s physical fitness, they will go through 3 basic types of fitness: cardio fitness, muscular and tendon, and bone fitness.  Cardio fitness is the first and easiest thing to build and if you stop working your horse for some reason, your horse will generally keep cardio fitness for 8-10 weeks.  In contrast, bone fitness is the most difficult to develop taking anywhere from 9 months to 1-year to develop and they can loose bone fitness in as little as 3-4 weeks.  You definitely don't want to give your horse more than 2 weeks off (unless of course they are sick or injured). 

Conditioning: You all remember the story of the tortoise and the hare, who won that race again?  That's right, slow is best.  To condition your horse, you want to take lots of pleasure walks, walking, walking, walking, walking, and then of course you want to start, walking.  It's all about the walking really.  Strive for distance; speed is the easiest thing to develop, if your horse can cover the miles slow, they will cover the miles faster once you get to that part in your training.  Second, you'll start trotting and finally you'll engage in interval training or sprinting.  Your average pace will end up being about 6mph .An outline of what your conditioning schedule might look like for a 25 mile competitive trail would be something like this, for example:

Week 1: 3-5 miles at a brisk walk (5 days/week but no 2 days off in a row)

Week 2: 5 miles/day gradually increasing to a trot.

Week 3: 5 miles/day with one 10 mile day all walking.

Week 4: 5 miles/day with one 10 mile day completed in 2 hours.

Week 5: 5 miles/day with one 15 mile day completed in 2.5 hours.

Week 6: 5 miles/day with one 20 mile day

Week 7: 5 miles/day with one 20 mile day completed in 3 hours.

Week 8: 5 mile/day, day off with light exercise before an event.

(This schedule is complements of ECTRA.)  If your horse has been a pasture potato, you'll need to take longer than 8 weeks to begin your training for a 25 mile ride.  In fact, the longer you take to condition your horse, the better off both of you will be.  Generally speaking, people will do 25 mile rides for 2 years or more with one horse, insuring their horse has the bone, ligament and tendon conditioning in place before moving up to a 50 mile ride.  Make sure that when you are working with your horse you frequently change leads when cantering and that you post on both diagonals to keep your horse in good balance.  Say yes! to cross-training, dressage is great!

Long-Distance Horse Selection: There's a reason we all loved the movie Hildalgo so much.  It's because he beat all the odds on the "wrong" horse.  Good news, great news actually, there is no wrong horse! (Except for maybe your draft style horses.) But, there are horses that will make competitive trail so much easier.  Arabs generally make the best breed for this sport because of their size, bone and muscle structure, confirmation, heart, temperament and spirit.  The lighter the color of your horse the better, as it is easier to cool a light colored horse. (See cooling your horse for more information.) That's not to say that a black quarter horse couldn't be used. It'll just be a little more challenging.

The first thing you have to do, is analyze yourself. What size horse do you need to fit you? For example, I'm nearly 6' tall; I wouldn't do so well riding a 14.3 hand Arabian.  Likewise, if you are competing in this sport and you are (cough, cough) 75 or so, you may not want to bring your 18hh thoroughbred stallion to this sport.  It's really common sense kind of stuff.  Make sure you can handle your horse both on the ground and under saddle.  Having a hard to handle horse is stressful on EVERYONE.  And by the way, trailering should be no big deal for your horse.  (Invite me out for cappuccino and I'll tell you a couple horror stories.)  Make sure you and your horse are compatible in terms of, temperament, size, and energy level, easy to control, not too spooky, and that you feel safe on his/her back and on the ground. Also, you want to pick a horse with an uphill build, withers higher than the croup and you want to pick a horse with a steep croup.  Steep croups are stronger.

Generally speaking, the horses that do well in this sport are Arabs, warmbloods, saddlebreds, gaited horses and small thoroughbreds.

The next thing you'll want to consider is the soundness of your horse.  My friend Deb (shown right) always says, every horse has something you have to deal with, every horse has issues.  So true, the question is, can you deal with the issues that your horse has, within reason?  Your horse must be sound and have good legs.  (Don't worry, if your horse is lame at the event, the vet will pull you out of the event and hand you a clip board and make you a scribe for the day!)  For example, an issue that you might have to deal with, that might be doable, would be if you had a dark colored horse or a heavily muscled horse (both have longer recovery rates).  Lameness or weak tendons is not an issue you can deal with in this sport.

Spirit: Does your horse have a good spirit, that is, the drive to go on and keep going when you're both tired, basically, do they like their job enough that they won't quit? (Like that scene in Hildalgo when Cowboy is ready to give up and he can't find his horse in the morning and his horse had already joined the line up to begin the race.)  Does your horse have natural balance in rough terrain and sure footedness?  Everyone in Montana is going to love me for saying this; it's much easier to find a sure footed horse out west than in Western New York, and most of our horses around here live in level paddocks

Pulse/Respiration: Does your horse naturally have a good cardio return, you can't improve a horse’s heart rate, but you can improve their recovery. (By the way, you want a 44 in recovery therefore a resting pulse rate over 44 isn't so good, you'll loose points.)  What that means is, a normal horses pulse, is around 40 or so beats/minute.  If your horse’s pulse rest rate is normally 50, it will be impossible to get their rest rate down to a 44.  Your horse’s respiration will be 4-24 breaths per minute.  To take your horses pulse, you can find their pulse under their jowl (easiest spot) at their heart at the girth (using a stethoscope) or on their legs.  Just count the beats over a minute’s time or you can count the number of beats for 15 seconds then multiply that number by 4.  For breaths, just watch their sides inflate and deflate with each breath and count the number of contractions over a minute’s time. 

Not allowed: In competitive trail the only horses that aren't allowed are pregnant mares, horses under 5-years old, and stallions cannot have junior riders. Old Mac boots and similar styles that cover the coronet band are not allowed.  Metal shoes and rubber shoes are allowed, but rubber shoes do not work so well in sandy terrain. 

Vaccines: Your horse must have a negative Coggins and it must be given the same year of the event, even though your Coggins test is good for 2 years, to compete in Competitive Trail your Coggins must be dated the same year as your event!  All shots must be up to date including rabies.  Consider vaccinating for EPM. EPM is a parasite, there is now a new vaccine for it.  EPM is curable should your horse get it, but if they do get the parasite, it could cause permanent irreversible damage.  The risk of your horse contracting EPM is higher than you think and the meds will break your pocket book if your horse should contract it.  West Nile is also a good vaccine for your horse as most competitive trails take place in the wilderness.

Tack: Any tack you want to use is allowed as long as it fits your horse well. (If your ill-fitting tack rubs on your horse you will get points taken off.) All bit styles are allowed. Sheepskin saddle covers are like a sponge when they are wet and can be extremely uncomfortable to you and your horse if your event takes place in the rain. Western saddles tend to distribute the weight of the rider better, but are much heavier on your horse as well as hotter.  English saddles tend to have numerous pressure points, particularly on the withers.  Tree-less saddles can make the rider sore but tend to be better for the horse particularly if you as a rider are a bit heavier.  In a nut-shell, your horse will be working for hours over rugged terrain; you want your horse to be as comfortable as possible.  And oh, by the way, a saddle fitter is generally cheaper and more convenient than an equine chiropractor. 

Rider Fatigue: You need to take care of yourself.  They make really cool fat and sassy water bottle carriers now that attach to your saddle.  Drink a lot of water; on hot days consider putting a wet sponge under your helmet if you need to. Don't be upset if you need to self eliminate from the event.  Better to quit than to dehydrate.

Riding attire: You may ride in anything you want.  You must have an approved riding helmet (I wonder, can you even purchase a non-approved riding helmet?) if you wear sneakers your stirrups must be caged.  You may wear shorts, tank tops, whatever you want to, just remember leather boots may fill with water, rubber boots might be painful, never wear a tight shoe, and you never want to let fashion come before comfort.  If something feels a little itchy, rubs a bit, is too tight or digs even a smidge, by the mid-point of your ride you'll be willing to pay someone to cut off whatever it is that offends you. No Joke! Your favorite clothes when dry might be an ancient torture devise once they become wet.  You won't know your weather conditions until the day of the event, so be prepared.

Your shoes: If you become eliminated from the event, or if you should fall off your horse, you may have to walk miles in your shoes, make sure they are extremely comfortable.

Trail Manners: If you learn nothing else, learn these things.  I can't tell you how terribly rude it is to compete with someone who has no respect for you and your horse. And also, it is okay to stop in the middle of your event to help a rider in distress, in fact, the clock stops for your ride until help arrives, so there is no reason not to lend a helping hand to someone who is in trouble.  Here are the top 10 things you can do to have good manners on the trail:

1. Let someone know you want to pass, wait for them to give you the ok. (I heard of a girl who passed without announcement, she got her knee shattered by the horse she was passing who felt suddenly threatened. My friend Barb’s horse got terribly spooked by an approaching rider from behind and her horse threw her! She was badly bruised.)

2. If your horse kicks, put a HUGE red bow in their tail and teach them better manners.

3. If you come across someone who is giving their horse a drink in a stream, wait for that horse to finish before passing the rider. That might be the first drink that horse has had all day, it shouldn't be interrupted.

4. Always help a distressed rider and horse.

5. If you stop on the trail, raise your arm.

6. Don't tail gate. Keep one horse length back when walking, 2 horse lengths back when trotting, 3 horse lengths back when cantering.  This is a minimum requirement.

7. Do not trespass, we are losing trails in NYS; don't jeopardize our current trail permission.

8. Thank vehicles that slow down for you.

9. Ask vehicles to stop on bridge crossings.

10. If you want to sponge your horse, let others pass you before you do so.

Vet Check:  There are generally 2 judges at the event, the vet judge and a lay judge.  The lay judge looks over your tack and bridle looking for sore spots or missing hair rubbed off by your tack.  The vet judge looks at the horse’s legs, listens to the heart, looks at mucous membranes and documents any old injuries. Just remember, however you present your horse to the judges at the beginning of the event, is how you need to present your horse throughout the competition.  At the beginning of the event, you will present your horse to the vet, there the vet will look at a number of things, and this is where you point out any cuts, scratches, scars and flaws to the vet both old and new.  If you don’t and the vet finds an old mark at your vet check during the competition, you will lose points.  The vet will look over your entire horse, take its heart rate, respiration, etc., and handle your horse.  If your horse is a nervous horse, tell the vet. It’s okay to talk to your horse, but the better behaved and cooperative your horse is, the better your score will be!  Cooperation and attitude are listed on the score sheets! 

You will need to trot your horse for the judges. Your horse needs to be able to go in a straight line both directions as well as a circle. It is okay to lunge your horse in a circle in both directions or you may simply jog along side your horse. This is called, trotting in hand. Just be sure that you practice this before the event.  You don’t want to be clumsy and your horse may not know how to turn nice in a circle moving towards or away from you.  Make sure you’ve worked on this ahead of time.  However your horse is moving at the beginning of the event, he/she must move the same way when you present your horse at each vet check. If your horse is springy at the beginning when he/she trots in front of the judge, they must show that same springy stride at each vet check. Likewise, if they are dragging their feet half-way through the event, they better have been dragging their feet at the initial presentation before the event.  Vet checks are mandatory. The mid-safety check is called a hold or lunch and lasts for 20 minutes.  Eat and don’t forget to cool and feed your horse!  Sometimes on a trail you will be told when lunch is ahead.

Be sure that your horse can be handled by others. Your horse should have perfect ground manners. Have different people handle your horse ahead of time so that your horse is familiar with strangers being around.  Your horse should be able to be handled and touched, everywhere! Have multiple people “swarm” your horse during training to practice what might happen at the competition.  And finally, be sure your horse doesn’t spook at white paper that blows on a clipboard!

You will have about 20 minutes before each vet check to cool your horse down.  You need to do this properly.  You can read about cooling your horse on the Healthy Horse link cooling your horse.  To test for dehydration, pinch the horse’s skin on the neck and shoulder, if the folds of skin don’t bounce right back, your horse is dehydrated. You may also check to see that the horse’s mucus membranes are moist and that the color is normal.  Know before the event what normal is to your horse.  Practice these things ahead of time.  Allow your horse to drink on the trail and be sure you are drinking as well. 

Drinking: When giving your horse a drink it is best to give them room temperature water allowing them to take 10 sips in 10 minutes time.  It is okay to allow your horse to drink water out of a stream or a puddle while trail riding, as long as there isn't sand in the bottom of the puddle (which could cause sand colic) or an oily film on the top of the water. 

Electrolytes: The use of electrolytes can be dangerous.  Caution should be used and consulting with your vet is strongly recommended.  Nevertheless, a few tips might be helpful.  You should never exclusively give electrolyte water, and a horse almost never needs electrolytes for rides under distances of 25 miles.  If you decide that you want your horse to have electrolytes after a hard workout, it is often recommended to offer a bucket of electrolyte water and a bucket of normal water allowing your horse to chose which bucket to drink from.  Your horse could get “crumped” that is, their heart rate won’t come down because of being given electrolytes.  The key to avoiding this is really knowing your horse well and being overly cautious about the use of electrolytes and consulting closely with your vet.  Do not wait until the day of the event to administer electrolytes for the first time. 

Tying up:  Tying up is a common thing that can be properly managed and prevented.  Tying up happens in a number of ways. I’d just like to quickly recommend this website for you: http://www.shady-acres.com/susan/tying-up.shtml  it will tell you so much more about tying up than I possibly can.  In competitive trail, should your horse tie up it is likely your horse has tied up due to an electrolyte imbalance, low selenium levels due to excessive sweating, or possibly that you let your horse rest for too many days before the day of the event.  This happened to my horse when we were in training for an event in the Adirondacks it all started with a lactic acid build up in his muscle tissue and could have been prevented had I warmed him up slowly before riding, used electrolytes properly, and spoken to a nutritionist about his diet and grain intake.  I learned the hard way, my horse suffered because of my ignorance. If you are going to go into this sport, be sure to learn about all of these things ahead of time.  You can always contact Buckeye Nutrition directly and speak to a PhD in nutrition for free!!!  How cool is that?!  www.buckeyenutrition.com Low starch and high fat diets just might be part of the prescription.

Pacing: Pacing is all about you and your horse.  Mark a 1-mile flat distance ACCURATELY.  Walk and time your horse, then trot and time your horse.  In general, you want to pace your horse about an average of 5 miles in 45 minutes.   After you get the hang of training, try pacing your horse again but on different terrain and see what your horse’s time is.   Be sure to ask ahead of time what kind of terrain your horse will be competing on, you’ll want to know if it is sandy, hilly, etc., so that you can condition your horse accordingly.

Remember, once you enter your event, you can at any time pull your horse out of the competition or rest and take a ½ hour penalty.  All rides have each 5 mile marked and long distances have the last 5 miles marked at each mile.  Some helpful tips are, let your horse stride out a bit the first 5 miles of your event, they are fresh with more energy. You also may want to work your horse faster when the trail is shady and move slower in the sunshine.  When you come into your vet check, begin to cool your horse allowing your horse to walk the last mile in, allow them to graze a bit.  You’ll have 20 minutes once you arrive at the vet check to fully cool your horse down.  Make sure your horse is comfortable with water being dumped over them via sponge, buckets, and pouring.  Hoses are never used at Competitive Trail events.    See cooling your horse for more details. 

It is best to train your horse or ride alone, particularly when you are pacing.  My friend Barb (shown left) has a little Arab and I have a huge thoroughbred.  Our 2 horses do not move at the same rate of speed. If she tried to pace with my horse, it would do a disservice to her own horse.  Her horse would expend a great deal more energy to pace with mine.  If I had to hold my horse back, it would be a disservice to him (not to mention frustrate and anger him, he really likes to move).  That isn’t to say we shouldn’t work together.  During training time, we ride about 2 times per week together, but the lion’s share of our training is done independently.  During a competition, we would not ride together, although if we had similarly paced animals, we certainly could, that is allowed.  The idea is that you really do not want to make your horse go at a pace or speed that he or she isn’t conditioned to.  If you do, however, start out with a horse that paces similarly to yours, but the pace just isn’t working, separate your horses by dismounting and holding your horse if you cannot pace with a partner, and let them move out of sight before remounting.  Safety, safety, safety…

If you face a trail obstacle your horse will not cross, you may dismount and walk them across the obstacle and remount.  That is allowed.  Just remember, judges are placed randomly along the trail and there could be a vet or lay person hiding in trees and bushes!  For this reason, do not tamper with route markers or even consider cheating, (you also may want to take a hard look around before watering the bushes, if you know what I mean.) The advantage to riding alone on the trail it really gives judges and vets a chance to really analyze your horse in motion.

Ride Briefing: All rides have a briefing; they are just last minute instructions about the trail conditions and recommended paces.  They will tell you about any dangers or potential dangers on the trail.  You can ask questions about civilization, cows, dogs etc.  In addition, you will be given your time of departure.  Riders are set either 30 seconds or one minute apart from each other.  You will receive a map of the course and the turns are marked in some color, you’ll see 2 ribbons blowing vertically which means there is a turn ahead.  There are ride managers on the trail if your horse should lose a shoe or need a “hospital.”  Longer distance rides have a horse trailer designated as a “hospital.” There are usually 2 vets at each competition but not a Farrier. If your horse should lose a shoe, only easy boots are allowed, that is boots that do not cover the coronet band of the horse’s hoof.  

Have Fun: Above all, have fun and be safe.  It’s all about your relationship with your horse and improving it.  Competitive Trail is a great way to condition and train your horse in a loving and compassionate manner.  Some of the most special times I’ve experienced with my horse have happened while training.  The extra time I’ve gotten to spend with my horse has been a tremendous blessing in my life, and I know it will be in yours.   I love the t-shirt that says, “Horses are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”  Happy trails to you… Gael J. B. Orr