Endurance Riding Optimized: Horse & Rider Readiness for the Long Game
Want to get started in endurance riding, move up in distance, and keep riding for years to come? Endurance Riding Optimized is about whole-horse, whole-rider readiness for the distance trail.
Join endurance rider, personal trainer, and nutrition coach Tamara Baysinger of The Sweaty Equestrian for practical episodes about conditioning your endurance horse, preparing for your first LD, 50-mile ride, improving rider fitness, navigating ride camp and vet checks, solving common training challenges, moving up to 100's, and building the skills and experience that help horse and rider succeed at distance riding.
If you’ve wondered How do I get started in endurance riding? How do I condition my horse for endurance? Are we ready for our first ride or to move up in distance? How fit do I need to be as a rider? How can I ride longer without getting tired? or How can I keep endurance riding as I get older?—then hit that "subscribe" button and come along for the ride.
Endurance Riding Optimized: Horse & Rider Readiness for the Long Game
Ep32 - Introducing: Endurance Riding Optimized
•Tamara Baysinger - The Sweaty Equestrian
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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Exciting changes are coming to the podcast! In this episode, endurance rider and personal trainer Tamara Baysinger shares why Equestrian Fitness for the Long Ride is expanding to become Endurance Riding Optimized. Get a heads-up on what to expect in our new focus on whole-horse, whole-rider preparedness for the sport of equestrian endurance riding.
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Welcome to Equestrian Fitness for the Long Ride with the Sweaty Equestrian. I'm personal trainer and endurance rider Tamara Basinger, and I'm here to help you ride stronger in a day and longer in your life. Hey rider, welcome back to the podcast. I have spent more of the last month on the road away from home than I have spent here at home. A lot of this was out with horses, some of it was a family vacation, some of it was work travel, but I'll tell you what, I am really glad to actually be back at my desk talking to you like normal, except it's not going to be completely normal today because what I want to spend this episode doing is making you aware of some changes that are coming your way. One of the big advantages of being on the road, especially on a road trip, like just driving along the vast open roads of Nevada where there's not a lot of distraction, but there is plenty of time to think, is that I had time to ponder and make some decisions about a shift in the nature of this podcast that I had been considering. And here's what's going to happen: I am going to be broadening the focus of this podcast by the sweaty equestrian from the narrower focus on rider fitness to more of a whole horse, whole rider preparedness focus for endurance riding. So today I want to give you an idea of why this change, what to expect coming your way in future episodes. And by next week, you are going to see the new podcast name, new podcast artwork. So watch your feed. If you are subscribed and you are subscribed, aren't you? Watch your feed for the new title, Endurance Riding Optimized. Now, if you are subscribed, you will not need to re-subscribe. You'll just see the name and the artwork change. The logo, the little jumping horse logo, is going to stay the same, so you will recognize it. I just don't want you to be surprised when it says endurance riding optimized instead of equestrian fitness for the long ride. So let's talk about this. Why this change? Well, if you've been listening for a while, I think you know that I am just as passionate about the specific sport of endurance riding as I am about rider fitness. And many of you have said that you are looking for information about how to start in endurance, grow in endurance, and be engaged in the promotion of the sport of endurance. And I'm so glad that you have let me know that because you, you writers, you soon-to-be endurance riders, you are the future of the sport. Now, the urgency of all this was driven home to me recently, and I think a lot of others out there as well, by the low numbers at Tevis, the low entries. It was just over 100 riders, and it used to be over 200 every year. You had to enter early to make sure that you got a spot if you were interested. And these days, you're perfectly safe hanging out, waiting to register until a couple weeks before the ride because there will be spots left. I would love to see those old days come back where you have to really try to get that entry. In fact, that is something that we see with the on foot running version, the Western States trail run that is on a really similar trail. There are so many runners, ultra runners who want to run that 100 miles that not even close to everyone who wants to tow the line actually gets the opportunity. What if we could bring that back to the Western States trail ride? And it's not just Tavis, of course. Tavis is out of reach for a lot of riders for various reasons, including plain old geography, right? And not all of us have the exact right horse for that, or you know, all sorts of things. But the truth is we're also seeing declines in our overall numbers at all of our rides. I talked to some old-timer riders, much older than me, who saw starts where there were 20, 30, 50 riders in a typical hundred that was just in their state. It wasn't Tavis, it was just a regular old 100-mile ride. And you would have as many riders starting the 100 as we now see starting a 50. And it was common to see 50, 60, 75 plus riders starting the 50. And these days, when I start a 50, I see anywhere from, oh, maybe 10 to 30 riders, uh, at least in my region, which is the northwest region of the United States for AERC. Um, that worries me, honestly. That worries me because I want to keep doing this until I'm one of the old timers. I want to be the 83-year-old rider who finished the Redwood Endurance ride that I just got home from. I want to have that opportunity, but that is only going to happen if we keep riding, keep bringing up new riders in this sport, keep opening doors for our new riders, keep promoting the sport, and keep taking action, each of us, to keep this thing alive. Um, I know there are a lot of reasons that people are struggling to get started or keep going in endurance. Trail access is an issue in some areas. There are feed and fuel prices going up. There's the cost of living generally, the cost of keeping horses. Some riders are aging out or dealing with horse injuries or family obligations or time limitations. And some of these barriers are indeed intractable for a time. I myself have gone through seasons where I couldn't get to rides because life just got in the way. But the good news is that most of these barriers can be overcome at some point. So I want to be a piece of the story. I want to be a cog in the wheel. I want this podcast to help support you, especially you upcoming riders, and also explore the issues that affect all of us and our horses, no matter how far we have come in our endurance journey. So, going forward on this podcast, which again is going to be renamed Endurance Riding Optimized, we are going to talk about topics like understanding how to condition your horse. And it's different at different points in the conditioning journey. When you're starting to condition a horse, not just the number of miles you're doing will be different, but how you do those miles on the conditioning trail? That's going to look very different than it's going to look in two or three years as you and your horse start to level up. How about nutrition? What does your horse need? What do you need in order to perform well as an athletic team together? What gear do you need or not need? How do you deal with certain behavioral issues that tend to crop up with our horses, even if they're usually really good and it just happens at a ride? What do you do about that? What if you lack knowledge and direction to get from where you are now in your endurance journey to where you want to be, no matter how big that goal is? How do you deal with fear and confidence issues? Riding your young horse, riding alone, riding in groups? How do you make better time on the endurance trail without actually stressing your horse and riding faster? Yes, that is a thing. It's totally possible. How do you address your own discomfort and fatigue? How do you get started in the sport and how do you stay in it as you age? So, this show going forward is for you. If you are investigating whether endurance is a good fit for yourself and your horse, maybe you're getting started as a newer endurance rider and you want to be sure that you get it right. Keep yourself and your horse safe. Maybe you're an active endurance rider and you're looking to develop your own knowledge and ability and continue to advance in the sport. Maybe you're already solid with where you are or you're starting to shift toward retiring from endurance, but you still want to be part of this all-important shared effort, not only to save, frankly, but to promote and expand our sport. And maybe you're not even an endurance rider at all. Maybe that's not for you, but you still see the crossover value to your own equestrian discipline. You are welcome here too. And of course, the equestrian fitness part is not going away. Fitness for the rider, because this is a team sport. It's about the whole horse and the whole rider. We expect our horses to use not just their bodies, but also their minds. Well, why wouldn't we expect the rider to use not only our minds, but also our bodies? Now, this isn't about necessarily being young and lean. One of the great things about equestrian sport generally and endurance in particular is that we all have the opportunity to participate on a level playing field with riders of all ages. Our youngest and our oldest riders are out there doing this thing together, grandparents and grandchildren. And I love that. So this isn't about being young. It's also not about being lean. I would rather see a heavy, strong rider supporting their horse than a featherweight rider who's fatigued and getting in the horse's way. Maybe you've heard me say before, I don't care how much you weigh, I weigh how much you care. See, being an equestrian athlete is about putting in the reps to be your personal best, your personal best for your horse, regardless of the limitations that are beyond your control. And we all have those. For some of us, it's age, for some it's health conditions, for others, it's prior injuries. We've all got something that keeps us from being perfect for our horses, but we also all have the choice whether or not we are going to put in the effort to be that full athletic partner that our horse deserves. So again, we're going to talk about endurance from all the angles. Rider fitness, yes, but also the horse, the tack, the philosophy, all the things. Now, I would love to hear from you exactly what you would like me to explore. I have a long list of topics. I could talk about this stuff all day. But if you send me a topic that you would like me to cover, I will put it on that list. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you have my email address. You can hit reply on any email from me and you will reach me, a real live person, directly. So don't be scared to ask a question, even if it's a simple one, because if you're wondering, chances are that other writers out there are wondering the same thing. Also, this is a new direction for the podcast. I hope that it resonates with you. Be sure to subscribe. Let your friends know too. That is a totally free way to support the podcast and let me know that you like the new direction. And remember, before we go here, you're going to see the podcast name and art changing before the next episode. So keep an eye on your feed for endurance riding optimized. And I will see you on the endurance journey next week. Want to get more sweaty? Subscribe to my newsletter at the sweatyequestrian dot com slash newsletter. And remember, you have what it takes to be a full athletic partner for your horse. Saddle up strong.
