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...

Food is crucial for every living being, but more so when doing sports. The right amount of nutrients are important to fuel muscles, repair micro trauma and build extra muscle. It is not just grass or hay, though that is a super important part of the forage. Fibre, protein and carbs need to match needs. For horses it is also crucial to keep the gut ...

How we keep our horse will affect your endurance training and the health of your horse. Housing will affect how it can recover, how it will keep fitness but also how much nutrients and sugar the system gets. Friends or foes can also make a huge difference to your horse's well being. The housing and all these different factors influencing fitness an...

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 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...

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...

A separate talk for vetgates, many are daunted by their first ride with a vetgate and yes, there are different things to look out for but try to see it as  "just a nice break" before you go again. Of course you will be vetted again and that can be a worry. In this tutorial we will focus on how to vet as quickly as possible and how you rid...

When you are watching this tutorial I presume you have trained your horse for the distance you want to ride. But have you really?  Different conditions can make a huge outcome to the result of your ride. Not only terrain, how you ride it and how that will affect your horse, but also weather conditions (which can actually make the same competit...

How you train, and whether you are doing too much or not enough will be different per horse and also for your goal… A cob training for a 40k in hills can find the work as hard as an Arab that is working to a 120k at high speed. How they train is different (or should be different).  But all need to work via the same principle: prepare...

How you train, and whether you are doing too much or not enough will be different per horse and also for your goal… A cob training for a 40k in hills can find the work as hard as an Arab that is working to a 120k at high speed. How they train is different (or should be different).  But all need to work via the same principle: prepare...

So how do you know your horse is fit enough for the goal you have set? I'm afraid you'll never know for sure until you try… But I will show you some indicators about how to have a pretty good idea of how you are doing and what to check in this tutorial. You can never pre-empt everything that will come your way on a ride. But if you train well (usin...

So how do you know your horse is fit enough for the goal you have set? I'm afraid you'll never know for sure until you try… But I will show you some indicators about how to have a pretty good idea of how you are doing and what to check in this tutorial. You can never pre-empt everything that will come your way on a ride. But if you train well (usin...

Tracking and logging! But that's not all, we need to interpret what we have done as well. We have to prepare our horse correctly for what is coming. Logging is the way to see what we are doing, if we are staying near our schedule and whether we are progressing or lacking behind. You can use a diary, or a spreadsheet to log, or use the Groen Eq...

Tracking and logging! But that's not all, we need to interpret what we have done as well. We have to prepare our horse correctly for what is coming. Logging is the way to see what we are doing, if we are staying near our schedule and whether we are progressing or lacking behind. You can use a diary, or a spreadsheet to log, or use the Groen Eq...

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...

You might have heard the term tapering, perhaps in other sports, or by other endurance riders. In this tutorial, I will explain what tapering is, the effect it has on your horse's fitness and when and how to use it correctly. Tapering is still a bit of a mystery in itself within sports physiology because it is not quite known how it works and how t...

You might have heard the term tapering, perhaps in other sports, or by other endurance riders. In this tutorial, I will explain what tapering is, the effect it has on your horse's fitness and when and how to use it correctly. Tapering is still a bit of a mystery in itself within sports physiology because it is not quite known how it works and how t...