Endurance riding: from pleasure rides to 160 km

What endurance riding is

Endurance riding is long-distance riding over marked routes through the countryside. Endurance GB, which runs endurance rides in Great Britain, stresses that it isn't about racing flat out. It's about riding at a steady pace that suits your horse, within a set speed range, and finishing with a happy, healthy horse. Vets check the horses at every level above a group pleasure ride, and horse welfare comes first.

Endurance GB says that to get started you don't need a particular breed, costly tack or many years in the saddle. If you already enjoy hacking, it suggests endurance will feel familiar, just with marked routes.

Types of ride

• Group pleasure rides are relaxed, non-competitive rides organised by local groups across England and Wales. Routes are marked, there are no jumps, and there's no pressure to go fast. For many riders, Endurance GB says, this is where endurance begins.
• National pleasure rides run alongside bigger endurance events. Complete the route within the speed limits, pass the vetting, and you take home a rosette. A 20 km ride might take between 1 hour 40 minutes and 2½ hours.
• Graded endurance rides (GERs) start at 20 km and go up to 160 km. Your grade depends on your riding speed, your horse's recovery, its final heart rate, and its overall fitness and condition, so the fastest rider doesn't automatically do best.
• Competitive endurance rides (CERs), typically 65 km or more, have mass starts: the winner is the first to cross the line and pass the final vet inspection. They're only open to experienced combinations that have proved themselves at lower levels.
• FEI classes are international rides under the rules of the FEI, the international federation, up to elite 160 km competitions.

What the speeds feel like

Endurance GB's guide: 7–8 km/h is a forward walk with some trot; 8–10 km/h steady, comfortable trotting; 10–12 km/h an active trot with the occasional canter; 12–15 km/h longer stretches of trot and canter; 15 km/h and over is for established combinations with fit horses. As you move up the levels the speed ranges rise, but you don't have to ride at the top of them.

Vet gates and heart rates

On longer rides the route is split into loops, separated by vet gates. At each one, vets check that horses are:

• sound and comfortable
• recovering well
• properly hydrated
• fit to continue

The horse's heart rate must recover below 64 beats a minute before it can carry on. At the end of a ride, the vet checks the heart rate again, counting over a full minute, within 30 minutes of finishing.

Preparing your horse

Endurance GB's pre-season checklist:

• Fitness. Build up distance work, with whatever else suits your horse (interval training, groundwork, flatwork) for suppleness, stamina and responsiveness. See Advanced training for how fitness is built.
• Saddle and bridle fit. Horses often change shape over winter, and again as they get fitter, so have a qualified saddle fitter check the saddle, perhaps several times in a season. Endurance horses wear their tack for hours, so any pressure point soon shows. Check stitching, buckles and D-rings for wear too.
• Routine care. Vaccinations up to date, teeth checked, worming or worm egg counts done, and your farrier happy with the feet. See Vaccinations, Dental health and Parasite control.
• Know the vital signs. Learn your horse's resting heart rate, so you know what you're aiming for. Get your horse used to having its heart rate taken, being handled all over, and having its mouth looked in. The atmosphere at a ride can push a horse's heart rate up, so practising at home gives you a better chance of a calmer horse on the day.
• Practise the trot-up. Make sure your horse is sound before you leave home, and practise running beside it on a loose rope so the vet can see it move freely.

See Preventative care for a horse's normal temperature, pulse and breathing rate.