Placing in the top ten has always been the goal of the competitive endurance rider in the USA. I want to introduce (or reintroduce) another concept that is at least as important to the individual competitor in international competition and much MORE important to those who will ride for team competition: PACE (or time), not PLACE.

Learning to pace yourself and your horse is probably the single most important skill the competitive endurance rider can learn. Knowing what a 7mph and what a 10 mph pace is can make the difference between finishing strongly at the end of 100 miles and barely finishing. Every top endurance rider I have ever worked with has an uncanny ability to pace their horse during a ride based on the course difficulty and weather any given day. It is often possible for these riders to predict within minutes when they are likely to arrive at a given check and to predict their overall elapsed ride time and finish time, including recoveries and vet holds.

How do you develop the skill to pace your horse at any given ride? Number one is knowing your horse and how well he or she performs over any given terrain and in various weather conditions. Hot, humid weather and a mountainous trail will obviously slow down the pace, especially in the latter third of a 100 mile competition if the pace is fast too early. Conversely, flat trail and cool weather may well lead to a fast pace if you and your horse have successfully trained to compete using fast, efficient ground covering gaits.

Studying the results of rides that have taken place over a given course can help. Comparing the fastest (top three), fast (top five to ten), and competitive (top ten to twenty depending on the ride size) times and splits at each vet check will also give you a good idea what pace is possible and what a reasonable pace may be for your horse on any given day. If your horse is having a particularly good day, you may be able to match or best the top three times. On a poor day, only average pacing may be in order. Estimate your times based on a good average pace (say 9mph) vs. a very fast pace (say 11 mph) and plan your leg times and overall ride pace accordingly. See how your horse is feeling early in the ride and adjust your pace accordingly, but KNOW WHAT THAT PACE IS! (By the way, one mile is 1.6 Km. We will be talking in MPH here.)

You will receive ride results from the pre-ride in Compiegne this last May (see the end of this article for how to get the information online)*. Study them. Learn the trail and terrain from the maps, the video and from the results (which include leg times and speeds) so when you actually pre-ride the trail you will already be familiar with what to expect (and you CAN/ WILL pre-ride the entire trail before ride day). Analyze the ride pace for each leg of the ride and be prepared to go over the race day plan with your Rider Coach in the days before the competition. Use mental imaging to rehearse in your mind what you will do over given sections of the trail and use the preparation techniques outlined in the book that was sent to you on mental toughness training and in the other recommended reading. Visualize yourself riding through the trees and making effortless transitions in pace and gate at various parts of the trail. Work on your confidence and preparation for ride day and that will carry over to your horse. The better prepared you are mentally, the more of that confidence your horse will pick up from you and the better you will do. In short, the more emotionally, mentally and physically prepared you are, the better chance you have of helping your horse perform at his/her best.

Planning and pacing as described above will be one of the primary pre-ride exercises you will go over with your rider coach before the ride. A plan will be worked out with your expected pace for the ride in mind and contingencies should you have a particularly good or particularly poor day. Your pace will be compared with your “game plan” as the ride progresses.

What do you need to know now? Review in your mind what your horse's optimal pace was over various terrain, at various points in a 100-mile ride. If you are not used to thinking in this way, go back and look at your ride results from rides where you have done particularly well and rides where you have not done so well. Look not only at the overall times, but the times for each leg of the ride, and whether those parts of the ride were particularly tough in terrain or weather condition. For example what did an 8mph pace feel like and was that a particularly good or poor pace for your horse.

Notice nowhere in this discussion have I mentioned the “competition”. Certainly how your competitors are doing is important and of interest, but only secondarily early on (usually the first ½ to 2/3 of a ride). Certainly our goal is for you not to go out too fast too early trying to keep up with the “yahoos” especially if you and horse are not used to that pace. Likewise, we don’t want you to lose touch with the front riders, especially if your goal is to do well in individual competition.

If you are riding for the team, it may be just as important for you to keep a pace that guarantees a finish in good time rather than the absolute best time (with the inherent risks). Regardless, you will still need to be in tune with your horse’s capabilities that day. The point here is to KNOW WHAT YOUR PACE IS at any given time and KNOW WHAT PACE YOUR HORSE CAN SUSTAIN at any given point in the ride. We are also working very hard to have support people in place ride day that will keep and relay your times relative to those in front of you and your relative placing so that you will not lose touch with your immediate competition. Team members in particular may be asked to pick up the pace to 10MPH or slow to 8 to assure a finish and stay within a team medal winning time frame. If you know how to pace your horse optimally for both speed and SOUNDNESS throughout the day, you will be prepared to ride for the team.

In summary:

1) RIDE YOUR OWN RIDE. This ride will see a large number of competitors take off too fast at the start. There are some technical portions of this course that will lend themselves to strategic planning, however. Also, the easier the terrain, the easier it is to lose touch with the front and find yourself out of the “hunt”. We must try to balance speed and consistency.

2) FEI TEAM competition is about TIME, not placing. If we are to bring home the team gold, the times are all that count. If we have the first place horse, we still need two others with good times. Keep that in mind on your training and any competitions you have left. Get used to riding a given pace, that is one that you know will get you to 30 miles, 50 miles, 80 miles or the finish by a certain time. Then, if you have the luxury of being able to back off and place well, you will know what that pace is. We are fully aware that your ride plan may require radical change ride day depending on conditions and yes, the competition, but we want to be in the position of modifying a given plan rather than starting from scratch.

If we ask you to pick up the pace for the teams’ sake, or you find yourself in a position to go for the top three, you will know what pace is possible for your horse. DO NOT get caught up in the “everybody else is going this fast, I guess that is what it takes at the international level”. Pacing is the key at any ride, even the biggest. Learn what pace your horse can sustain and stay sound and in excellent metabolic health.

Rick Stewart

Chef d’ Equipe
USA Team, 2000 World Endurance Championship, Compiegne, France