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What do y'all do off the horse to improve your stamina on the horse? I am hitting the gym regularly, work with a personal trainer twice a week, can do intervals on the bike and am now a hard core weightlifter. My stability and core strength is now off the charts compared to two years ago. But I still struggle with stamina during a ride. Biking and swimming aren't carrying over to riding. I can't run due to a knee replacement. Suggestions?

Rowing machine and or kettlebell training.

Swimming? Or just ride more. Riding is pretty aerobic workout.

Do you do anything like bag workouts? I run long distances and found that doing continuous (30+ minutes) bag sessions is about the only low-impact knee/hip exercise that gets my heart rate up to my normal running zone (140-145, yes, that's low).

I've heard that rowing machines are great for that too, but I've never had the opportunity to try one.

The other thing is that you need to continue the aerobic exercises for at least 30 minutes. An hour is better. This is a fairly decent explanation on target heart rate.

heddylamar wrote:
The other thing is that you need to continue the aerobic exercises for at least 30 minutes. An hour is better. This is a fairly decent explanation on target heart rate.

See, I think that shorter, intense bouts that recruit the core muscles work better. When I rode, it's usually 5-8 minutes of more intense work, then I give the horse a break. For rowing, I go hard at a high resistance for 500 meters at a time, which is about 2 minutes, and repeat 4-5 times. Kettlebell swings are a similar intensity and pattern, and I think that helps me out better in the saddle than when I could run 5 miles in 45 minutes.

StraightForward wrote:

heddylamar wrote:
The other thing is that you need to continue the aerobic exercises for at least 30 minutes. An hour is better. This is a fairly decent explanation on target heart rate.

See, I think that shorter, intense bouts that recruit the core muscles work better. When I rode, it's usually 5-8 minutes of more intense work, then I give the horse a break. For rowing, I go hard at a high resistance for 500 meters at a time, which is about 2 minutes, and repeat 4-5 times. Kettlebell swings are a similar intensity and pattern, and I think that helps me out better in the saddle than when I could run 5 miles in 45 minutes.

Yeah, there's two types of aerobic conditioning: short high intensity which builds aerobic power, and longer endurance which builds aerobic capacity. High intensity aerobic workouts will shorten recovery time from max-aerobic bursts (think muy thai or sprinting), while more endurance-type aerobic workouts (30+ minutes in target HR) will give you more stamina for a sustained period.

For me, my HR rarely goes above 80 while I'm riding, so high intensity aerobic isn't really needed there.

Yes, I think it's worth pinpointing the stamina bottleneck. I could be in shape to run a half marathon, but be dying during a dressage lesson. I think that was due to my core muscles not being used to maintaining the isometric contractions neede. The aerobic fitness mostly ensured that I didn't pass out and fall off, but as a runner, I still found that type of riding quote taxing.

goldhorse wrote:What do y'all do off the horse to improve your stamina on the horse? I am hitting the gym regularly, work with a personal trainer twice a week, can do intervals on the bike and am now a hard core weightlifter. My stability and core strength is now off the charts compared to two years ago. But I still struggle with stamina during a ride. Biking and swimming aren't carrying over to riding. I can't run due to a knee replacement. Suggestions?

Color me confused. You are riding a smaller horse at <fei. I do not understand the need for a lot of stamina. Maybe I don't understand what stamina is required. Maybe I am severely lacking in stamina and too dumb to realize it.

For aerobic fitness, I've found that a guided spinning session (with a heavy interval focus) gives me a lot of cardio impact in a fairly short amount of time (2-3 days a week for 30 minutes).

If it's the strength to maintain position while riding, you might try out some barre-type classes. It's a lot of isometric work that is very similar to what we need to be able to do on horse, in terms of how specific and occasionally strong the movement can be.

It is interesting how different people experience stamina. I was just at a Susanne von Dietz clinic and she noted that body type plays a huge role in how hard we work while riding. She emphasized several times that people with long torsos (compared to lower bodies) have a very powerful advantage in their influence over the horse---if they can organize that torso and use it effectively (and not to destroy the horse's balance). Dresseur has mentioned this several times that a long torso is a big lever on a horse. Von Dietz noted that competent long torso riders never feel like they are working that hard on a horse. They don't use their hands or arms too much and they don't use that much leg. It was a real "a ha" moment for me, as I am one of those long torso'd people and I've never really understood people talking about how hard they are working doing similar things to me and my horse.

That's interesting piedmont re long torso. I had seen that clinic and thought about going to audit. Will try to next time.

I think men are generally long in the torso, which coupled with their strong backs, makes it easier for them to balance a horse without hands and arms. However, being long in the torso and short in the legs or arms wouldn't seem to me to be helpful.

I have one of the VonDietz's books where she has pics of the different body types and proportions and talks about the advantages and disadvantages. I have yet to figure out which I am. There's a whole lot more to it than just long and short torsos. Just like with horse conformation, one thing may balance out another. I know one thing about myself and that is I have a very weak upper body.

I have always thought that being long-legged with a moderate torso was best as a riding physique. And I thought that I had the complete opposite of something useful for riding! I do have to work on lengthening my legs and my outcomes are not impressive. I think von Dietz was just emphasizing that you have to understand what you bring to riding (proportions/type) and work with it effectively. There are different challenges for different bodies.

piedmontfields wrote:I have always thought that being long-legged with a moderate torso was best as a riding physique. And I thought that I had the complete opposite of something useful for riding! I do have to work on lengthening my legs and my outcomes are not impressive. I think von Dietz was just emphasizing that you have to understand what you bring to riding (proportions/type) and work with it effectively. There are different challenges for different bodies.

VonDietz is correct. Too bad so few trainers understand this which would explain the challenges some of us students have in achieving textbook equitation. It's probably deserving a thread of its' own.

You may have heard of George Gullickson, the saddle guy. Ok, yes...he is all those negative things you've heard about him, and unfortuntely I learned the hard way. But, this guy knows a lot about rider conformation. He was the one that identified my issues. He told me I had a long pelvis which is a disadvantage in riding. I always saw something funky in my conformation but until he told me I didn't know what it was. I also have a tilted pevis and a long thigh. I have so many conformational disadvantages that it's a miracle I've done as well as I have. At least now I know why I'm limited.

To get back on the topic of stamina, it was brutally hot in my indoor today for my morning ride. I was literally dripping sweat when finished and poor mare was drenched. I can hold up reasonably well during the riding, but when finished I am drained and takes a good while to get going again.