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...
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...
What was your first thought seeing this picture of Watt and me cantering on these gallops?Most thoughts will have been positive: a lovely bit of cantering, "oh I would love that", and some of you can nearly feel the air passing their face because you know how it feels to have a nice canter on a good surface.Snapshots like these: of a rider doing th...
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 ...
This is the follow up webinar to the "Understanding the use of a heartrate monitor" Webinar, both are fine as stand alone, but are very much part of each other if you really want to know about how to really make the best of riding with a heartrate monitor. The first was all about the different monitors available, what it can measure and some theory about physiology of the horse.
In this webinar we are going to use the monitor, working with baselines, the effect increased intensity of work has and how to work with training phases and perhaps if at all needed, with some interval work.
I specifically address how hill work can create it's own low speed high intensity work and how you can combine that to high intensity work on the flat (which is what all apps and monitors are really designed for). I have used my own horses for a few case studies to make it really understandable.
Have a look!
I have done 2 webinars about heartrate monitors (I had to: too much to tell you and both are still long ;) ) Both are fine as stand alone, but are very much part of each other if you really want to know about how to really make the best of riding with a heartrate monitor. This is the first, about different ways to measure heartrate, which systems are available (at the moment of recording, end of 2022), combining systems if you want more.
I also discuss individual range of heartrate, maximum heartrate, VO2max and the training zones often given by apps. To really understand how a heartrate monitor can be useful in training for endurance it is good to know what the aerobic threshold is (and the anaerobic threshold) and what happens within the horse when these are reached. The last thing i discuss is monitoring your horse's fitness levels by using (standardised) fitness tests.
Have a look (and remember, you can watch as many times you like within your subscription period)
This is the last in a trilogy about "Training smarter, not harder". In the first one we focused on how every horse is different, because of its ability, its weaker links, circumstances and management. In the second we talked about all aspects involving training and resting.
In this webinar, I will explain how you can combine the knowledge about your individual horse with all of its individual circumstances and use your knowledge about training to do it right.
Some circumstances and weak links require us to go slower, focus on specific work and prerequisites before we can safely increase training. And we also need to realise that the type of ride we are preparing for can require a different way of training (and sometimes even per individual horse)
I will tell you all about it in this recording:
This is the second webinar in a trilogy about "Training smarter, not harder". In the previous one we focused on how every horse is different, because of its ability, its weaker links, circumstances and management.
In this recorded webinar we will go into what training actually is, how we know we are actually training, how much rest our horse needs after a training and when we are ready to train again, or "just work" our horse.
Have a look:
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...
So now we know how to make the training schedule we can finally get started with training! But how does the schedule actually work on a weekly base? When do we train, when do we rest, and is there anything in between? I'll explain about all in this 4th tutorial. Because it is super important to realise not all your riding needs to be...
So now we know how to make the training schedule we can finally get started with training! But how does the schedule actually work on a weekly base? When do we train, when do we rest, and is there anything in between? I'll explain about all in this 4th tutorial. Because it is super important to realise not all your riding needs to be...
Most of the time we are using one stimuli (or I should really say: change one stimuli), but there are reasons to combine more than one, ideally not within one ride, but in consecutive workouts. Sometimes you have to because it is part of your particular situation, but if you are in that situation it is vital to understand that your worklo...
Most of the time we are using one stimuli (or I should really say: change one stimuli), but there are reasons to combine more than one, ideally not within one ride, but in consecutive workouts. Sometimes you have to because it is part of your particular situation, but if you are in that situation it is vital to understand that your worklo...
jTime for a bit of exercise physiology made simple. In this tutorial I'll explain how training actually works, what a stimulus is and to use it correctly. I'll let you in on one of the most important things about training: without rest, your training has no effect! I will tell you about which stimuli I use to work on increasing the workload of the ...
jTime for a bit of exercise physiology made simple. In this tutorial I'll explain how training actually works, what a stimulus is and to use it correctly. I'll let you in on one of the most important things about training: without rest, your training has no effect! I will tell you about which stimuli I use to work on increasing the workload of the ...
