Have you ever heard of the term "Social Licence"? I came across the term recently and I realised improving our social licence, as equestrians, but also as endurance riders is for a large part why I do what I do: I want riders to learn and know more, so they can become better ambassadors for our sport each day. But what is a "Social...
I'll let you think on that question for a moment, and while you are thinking about the type of equestrian you are, also think on whether you are happy being that type or if you perhaps want to be different? Many of you will be the "Passenger type" maybe even without realising you are...Or perhaps you know you are the passenger type a...
The 2024 winter webinars were well attended, and I have got the recordings of the 3 free ones here for you free to watch until the 15th of January 2025They are: * What to do in winter* Everything you wanted to know about endurance * Can my horse do endurance? I hope you enjoyed those, we have more webinars coming up, all to get yo...
A very merry Christmas to all of you, and I hope you will have a great and endurance-ful 2025! I have some presents for you: Check the member section on the website as you will find the presents there from the 23rd of December to the 15th of January to find all the recordings of our recent FREE webinars! If you are not yet a member ...
We've got you covered! Loads of help available for you, something for everyone.You might just want to listen to a webinar one evening, or follow a number of them. But it could also be you want more structural help via one of the endurance coaching courses on our website. Let me start with what we have to offer webinar wise: Keep an eye on...
I'm thrilled to write another 4 articles for you (if you have missed the previous ones about "Fuel efficiency", "How to gauge the efforts of our horse in work", "Using your HR monitor when training" and "The fitness plateau", have a look at the older blogs on the website. In this series of articles, we'll look into the quality side of training...
Have you followed the World Endurance Championships 2024? If you didn't, have a look at the different media available. A start in the dark in a huge thunderstorm and then 160 km of tough muddy conditions, really testing all combinations at this top level of our sport. Being a Dutchie in the UK, I supported 2 countries, cheering on both the Dut...
We have been working on this project for a while, and on Saturday 30th March, we began the first session of the Groen Equestrian 2024 Comparative Heart Rate Study in Banbury, Oxfordshire. As many of you have noticed, I am very interested in heart rates, particularly how various breeds of horses respond to the same workload and how we can provide be...
In the previous article, I told you about using your heartrate monitor when training. I hope you have found that helpful, and have started to use your heart monitor more. Not only to see when the HR drops low enough to vet, but also during training or other work to see how your horse responds to the intensity of the work you are asking it to do. In...
Making your training schedule can be hard: how much should you train, what rides to do, what about tapering, rest and other things you need to consider to compete your horse happy and healthy? Groen Equestrian can help. We have a lovely package to help you:3 recorded webinars and 2 30 minute face2face zoom sessions to give you the th...
In the previous blog, I told you about logging the distance, duration, average speed, and elevation of your training sessions. Adding indexes for climb and canter gives a selection of great parameters to compare training and see how you progress. But these numbers do not tell you anything about how your horse actually experiences the effort du...
This is an old piece (4 years ago to be precise) I wrote after being part of the Dutch team for the 2019 European Championships. It still resonates very much with me, especially now I have taken a little break from endurance until the youngsters are old enough to start. Watt and me will be doing other fun stuff in the mean time. Have a read, s...
In the previous article, I told you about the fuel efficiency of our horses, using a hybrid car analogy. Unfortunately, I won't be as anecdotal in this article but I'll try to illustrate where I can. So last time we learned that higher intensity work will use more of our horse's petrol: glycogen. And that glycogen is a depletable fuel source that c...
This is the first in a series of articles I wrote for the EGB endurance magazine in 2023. I have added it as a blog as well for you to enjoy and use I (well, really hubby and me 😉 ) bought a new car. Our older (very fuel-efficient) diesel needed replacing and we got a hybrid. Not one of those plug-in ones, but one that will load up its own ba...
What a year. What a horse!A total of 8 rides ( 9 ride days) and 460 km (the most she's ever done), nearly 9000m (!!) elevation including the Golden Horseshoe 80 km and Red Dragon 80 km! In 2022 I have solely focused on competing Asphodele Larzac, my small (but huge ) amber champagne part bred Arab mare. So why is she both small ...
They say oxygen is the source of life ,and of course that is correct, (nearly) all metabolism needs oxygen to perform. So we could say: More oxygen = better performance We could have a huge heart, the best muscles for the job and an unlimited supply of fuel. But without the oxygen, and with that the lung capacity to get oxygen to t...
This a perfect time to sign up for one of the 2 endurance coaching courses Groen Equestrian has to offer to get ready for you new upcoming endurance season. Yes 2 courses!Besides the year long course Endurance: Step by Step" we now also offer the 4 month (extension possible) course "Endurance: train smarter not harder"Have a look at this video in w...
STARTING WITH ENDURANCE When you become a (free) member of the groen Equestrian Endurance community (just sign up via this tab: Become a free member or log in if you have subscribed before) you can view a lot of free content:Information about Esther Groen and all her horsesIntro's for all the series in the libraryInformation about the "Enduran...
I was reminded of this phrase in a chat with an endurance friend recently, don't dive before you can swim, or perhaps in horse riding terms: Don't gallop before you can walk. Some might want that 100 miler, some might want "that special ride" and some want to win the biggest races. Big goals are amazing, but often there i...
Now the schools have started again, the structure of "normal" life has started once more. And what better time for us to do some "studying" as well? In my coaching I often get asked about heartrate monitors, which one to use and how to use them. They can be a super tool to aid your training so that's why I will start with 2 webinars...
