Endurance…the equestrian sport of riding/racing for miles and miles…..

Do you dream of riding through forests, mountain ranges, prairies & deserts? Guess what…you might want to learn more about endurance riding!

It is an amazing sport that has taken me from coast to coast and all throughout North America.  I have gotten to ride many places that are very remote and some that you might not expect, like inside city limits. Wherever you live there is probably an endurance ride going on close to you and it’s so easy to find out more.

Endurance riders are a really easy-going group that I call my endurance family, my personal favorite rides are just across our northern border in Canada.  There is always an endurance family reunion whenever we get to a ride, catching up with riding buddies, potlucks & campfires…we always bring the smores!

Here are a couple of websites that have tons of information about endurance riding; www.aerc.org & www.endurance.net.  The one that our governing body AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference) has is super organized with lots of great information.  They have all the rides listed by geographical location and under each ride they list the ride manager. Before we ever thought about getting started in endurance we went to a ride and volunteered.  It was just a phone call to the ride manager and next thing you know we were there helping out and learning about the sport.

Right now my family is planning our annual trip to the AERC convention where this year I get to be a member of a young rider panel discussion.  USEF & AERC are hoping to continue to increase our number of young riders and through this panel will help inform any youth interested in getting started.  I hope to have a video of the panel discussion to post on my blog after convention.

Wondering about breeds and training for endurance riding?  Well I ride Arabians and they are really great at this sport.  But that doesn’t mean you need to go out and buy an Arabian so you can start competing. Actually I think most breeds can do the sport, except maybe some of the really big draft type horses, but in AERC many different breeds do well.  A lot depends on the training, if you look at the horse you currently have, depending on the breed you might just have to adjust the training program to better suit the horse.

Most rides that we go to are sanctioned with AERC and the distances start at 25 miles.  25 mile races are considered limited distance and those are great for beginners.  Some other typical distances are 50, 75 & 100 miles.  The Young Rider Championship distance is 75 miles so I have been concentrating on those recently, but my true passion is for the 100 mile races.  One day I hope to have completions from all the top 100 mile races around the world.

Happy Trails, Kels

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Category: Endurance, Kelsey Kimbler: Endurance Blog