Since 1961, we’ve helped riders of all ages learn the sport of competitive trail riding. Alongside other equine enthusiasts, you can deepen the relationship with your horse while learning new skills and setting your own competitive goals. There’s no place better to do this
than on the
open trail.
www.natrc.org
NAWD offers virtual shows each month from March-October, learn more and sign up at www.nawdhorse.org.
By checking your time against the ride map at each point, you can make adjustments for:
• continuing to (hopefully) slow your pace for the rest of the ride,
• saving the cushion you have built so you have extra minutes to
cool and relax your horse with a long walk into each P&R (especially
as the day heats up),
• allow your horse to grab more bites of grass,
• wet your horse down thoroughly at watering spots,
• allow you to take a potty break, or
• allow for the unexpected.
Hi-Tech Riders
These days, more and more riders are going hi-tech with GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, GPS capable smart phones, and horse heart monitors. The GPS tells you how fast you are going, the distance you have travelled and the average speed for that distance. The heart monitor helps you see if “Old Dobbin” is working too hard. Your strategy might include using these devices. Be forewarned – use your GPS as a guide because each GPS gives different speed and distance readings and will not exactly match the distances given on ride maps.
There are several strategies for keeping track of your ride time. They are a primary timepiece, a secondary timepiece, remembering who started both before and after you, and riding in a group.
Your primary timepiece will be a watch or the clock on your phone or GPS. It gives you the real time, which you note when you leave the timer. You do the math to figure out how long it took to get from one point to the next.
The secondary watch is for ride time. Set it to noon. As you leave the timer, push the button to start the time running. If you are supposed to take 1.5 hours to get to the first point on the map, then, if you are right on time, the watch will read 1:30. So much easier than calculating it in your head using real time.
If you remember who started before and after you and your timing device(s) fails, then you can see where the other riders are. If they left you in the dust, you are probably running late, or vice versa. Or when you see them, you can ask them how they are doing on their time.
You can ride with a group from the start and check with each other to track the time.
Long ascent. No trotting here!
Photo by Gary Walls
Long descent. No trotting here, either!
Photo by Gary Walls
Next month: We will look at more on-trail strategy for obstacles, P&Rs and more.