Riding and physical fitness

Redhorse
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One reason Cavalry Officer may live longer is that the Infantry life will destroy your body over time. It is a HARD life - one of the reasons I am glad to be Artillery.

As for physical condition, riding does require the use of different muscles not normally used in walking or running, and requires different use of the same muscles for running or walking. Pushing my clutch pedal to the floor after a few hours of hard riding is always entertaining.

Oddly enough, I have to make a conscious effort to breath when riding at faster gaits - I have been surprised at how much my body works on a horse a faster gaits. When I first began riding I didn't think it would be necessary. Boy, was I wrong.

Stephen P. Wuensche
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bisley45
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I have read elsewhere in the forums about "suppling exercises" for cavalrymen, but have never read of infantrymen even doing any stretching before a march.

Also, in the Time-Life "Old West" book that has my earlier quote about TR, the quote is is used in conjuction with a sketch of him horseback. He's dressed like a cowboy, riding a cowboy saddle, and sitting it like foxhunter.

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I'm sure you all have heard this, but a study was done useing several professional ball players (football, basketball, etc) and a jockey. The final result showed that the jockey was in a higher degree of fitness then any of the others.

Jim
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I didn't get into riding until age 50 but, being light of build and an old Scouter, thought I was still "in shape". Hah! After the first week of serious lessons (my instructor was a many times over Tevis Cup rider teaching serious endurance/independant trail riding) I felt stiff as a board but yet my instructor kept telling me I was too "noodly" in the saddle. Later on she also noted that I kept holding my breath at faster gaits which was keeping me from "relaxing" into the saddle, in fact was "stiffening" me up. Sounds contradictory, but after 4 years of her lessons and now a summer as a Horse Wrangler with unlimited afterhours of solo and duo riding thru the Hi Sierra, I understand better, most of the time! The mental AND physical challenge of going across rough country, at differing gaits, for 2-4 hours at a time is fatiguing but that very fatigue requires more concentration on keeping things together. I could do 25 or 30 in a day, but I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near in shape for a 50! But then, my Pop, a mountain kid who rode most places before getting his first car about 1935, can't understand why I continue to take "lessons". "What's there more to learn...its just a horse" he retorically asks. Of course he went on to a long career in the AAF/USAF flying most any prop driven aircraft...kind of like horses...get in or on, go and stop.
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Thanks for bringing this to the surface again, an interesting thread that escaped my notice till now-though I believe some of the details are to be found elsewhere as well. It is impressive the TR could make a 50 miler and arrive still smiling if he weren't riding good distances regularly at the time, stamina and conditioning being the key words to be found in the previous comments. Ron's post highlights and explains these factors, as Jeff's gives a good example of how quickly one's capacity to endure fades, even with an experienced rider who has eased the daily regimen a bit. Not mentioned but another dissipation that takes an uncomfortable toll over the miles is the softening of calluses which quickly disappear without regular riding.

I find the lower back to be the most indispensable set of muscles, upon which so much else depends. You can shift your seat, drop your stirrups, do all sorts of things to spell different body parts but when your back tires to the stage that it can no longer provide the supple tension that supports and gives free play to the rest you're all but done for. Not to say that you can't hold up through pain and fatigue as necessary-walking is a great reliever- but it makes for a long day. Another aspect to consider is that when the rider is spent the horse will not be far behind.

Again, one must assume that TR was riding regularly at the time, or had a great capacity to grin and bear it, or both.

Sandy

PS: This discussion underscores the fact that to get the most, best, out of the horse the rider must be the better conditioned of the two.
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Riding can also be therapeutic. I hurt my foot last winter wearing boots without arch support (Plantar fasciitis). From a similar experience a couple years ago with my other foot I learned from the Physical Therapist that stretching exercises were best. It so happens that riding in short stirrups with an English saddles is exactly the same exercise so I have been riding as much as possible. A half hour several times a week is a big help and is a lot more fun.

Years ago when I first started riding my school horse was sold. I was told that it went to an injured army helicopter pilot who had badly damaged his spine in a crash. Apparently riding was good therapy for him.

I have been reading the papers of General Leonard Wood. When he was stationed on Governor's Island (in New York Harbor) prior to WWI each page of his diary starts out with an entry about his morning ride.
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selewis wrote:Again, one must assume that TR was riding regularly at the time, or had a great capacity to grin and bear it, or both.

Sandy
While working on a history of the Theodore Davis Boal and the the Boal Troop (Boalsburg PA) I found in Boal's files many references to riding. Boal, Leonard Wood, TR, and others were part of a Washington social group who shared a mutual love of horses. They regularly rode together in Rock Creek Park, in shows, and otherwise around Washington, DC. It is generally forgotten that Wash DC was a relatively small city prior to WWII and long rides in the country were a short distance away.
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Philip S wrote:
selewis wrote:Again, one must assume that TR was riding regularly at the time, or had a great capacity to grin and bear it, or both.

Sandy
While working on a history of the Theodore Davis Boal and the the Boal Troop (Boalsburg PA) I found in Boal's files many references to riding. Boal, Leonard Wood, TR, and others were part of a Washington social group who shared a mutual love of horses. They regularly rode together in Rock Creek Park, in shows, and otherwise around Washington, DC. It is generally forgotten that Wash DC was a relatively small city prior to WWII and long rides in the country were a short distance away.
And so into the modern era: I recall reading recently that Judge William Clark rode surreptitiously every morning, somewhere about Washington, when he served on Reagan's staff. You can take the boy out of the country...

OK, I'll go to Washington with you... providing I can bring my horse along too.
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Philip S wrote:Riding can also be therapeutic. I hurt my foot last winter wearing boots without arch support (Plantar fasciitis).
Unfortunately, for the inattentive, horses can be a source of a hurt foot too.

I say that as I had a minor accident yesterday (I'll spare the details) in which, solely by my own fault, I had a horse very solidly step on my foot. And in a way that hurts.

I was wearing a really heavy duty pair of cowboy boots, which was a good thing.
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I work out daily, and stay in good shape, I can still pass the PT test so I guess I'm doing ok. But since I have been on the Border I have not sat a horse in over 8 mos. There has never been a doubt in my mind of the value in riding towards physical conditioning and Iam feeling the loss of what riding can do for the muscles and respiratory system.

Even though I work out and throw my Harley around daily, I gained about 5 lbs and added almost an inch to my waistline within 45 days of being here. There is no doubt in my mind if I were to "try" to mount up today it qould be a painful experience. My muscle tone has changed greatly, I really wish I could ride about three days a week as I know I would get some tone and timing back at some point.

This is a good thread, glad to see it back up.
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I was reminded of this thread as I hadn't ridden all winter long and then engaged in a couple of really long days riding gathering and moving cattle.

Uff, these rides aren't out of the ordinary, but it sure showed me how out of shape I'd become over the winter. And how much my skills deteriorated too.
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I have to say I have to fully agree with this thread.

Beginning of this year I made a conscious effort to lose a fair bit of weight and improve my overall fitnes. And boy did it - together with some good lessons - improve my seat and overall riding by miles. So yeah, there is a very direct link between fitness and good riding. I'm still working to improve both...
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From Henry Fairlie's classic essay, The Idiocy of Urban Life Or The Cow's Revenge:
They rode horseback to work or to Parliament even in the coldest weather, and nothing jolts and enlivens the liver more than riding.
Quoted from the essay originally published in The New Republic, and republished in Bite The Hand Feeds You, quote from page 211.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JGiFng ... 22&f=false
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http://navymedicine.navylive.dodlive.mil/archives/4008
On Nov. 17, 1908, Roosevelt suggested to the Secretary of the Navy Truman Newberry that the Navy needed its own physical fitness test.4,5 Under Roosevelt’s omnipresent watch, Secretary Newberry and Rear Adm. Presley M. Rixey, Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, developed new annual endurance test worthy of the president (and arguably molded in his image!)

The new test gave officers the choice of completing one of three options: a fifty mile walk within three consecutive days and in total of twenty hours; a ride on horseback at a distance of ninety miles within three consecutive days; or a ride on a bicycle at a distance of 100 miles within three consecutive days. All personnel taking the test would be examined by a Navy Medical Board to determine whether the test may be taken without risk and report again to the board upon completion.6 Officers would not be promoted unless they passed the exam and their medical record would now include a fitness report.
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Determined to make one more demonstration of his toughness in his last months in office, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt set off to ride 100 miles (160 km) on horseback in one day. Accompanied by his military aide, Captain Archibald Butt, Navy Surgeon General Presley M. Rixey, and Surgeon C.D. Grayson, President Roosevelt set out at 3:40 a.m., riding to Warrenton, Virginia, and returned to the White House, the last 30 miles (48 km) in a blizzard, at 8:40 that evening.[36] The press, however, gave him credit for only 98 miles (158 km). When reporters asked him for a quote, the President replied, "It was bully."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1909
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Amazing how fast you lose condition. I have been riding about twice a week at my current post in Kenya but just hour to hour and half walks with some trot. Took leave over Christmas and borrowed a fit horse for a hunt with Grand Canyon Hounds on Boxing Day. Five hours in the saddle on one of our 55,000 acre fixtures with two runs on coyote. I would guess about two hours at other than a walk. Stiff for over a day. There is a difference between real riding and an amble through the tea plantations when it comes down to if it is you or the horse getting the excercise.
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Taking a second look at this thread, for what period of time did the Army continue to require riding proficiency. I know that they didn't during World War Two, of course. But at what point was the ability to ride no longer a requirement in the service?
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Excellent example. Col. Young rode nearly 500 miles in an effort to prove his physical abilities to serve in the Great War. He was then 53 years old. An irony of the Army's decision that he was too old to serve in Europe is that he had just served in the Punative Expedition, which was probably just as difficult of command, physically, as an equivalent command in Europe was. His effort was unsuccessful, and he was not allowed to serve in Europe. He was later recalled to service and sent as a military atache to Liberia, where he died in 1922.

I suspect that Colonel Young's problem wasn't fitness but the fact that he was black and that the President, Woodrow Wilson, was probably the most egregious racist to ever hold that office. Wilson was extremely partizan, vindictive and completely dismissive of anyone who questioned his judgement or policies... Leonard Wood and TR were also kept out of the war. These were all men who were vocal critics of Wilson or friends of Wilson's critics.
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JV Puleo wrote:Excellent example. Col. Young rode nearly 500 miles in an effort to prove his physical abilities to serve in the Great War. He was then 53 years old. An irony of the Army's decision that he was too old to serve in Europe is that he had just served in the Punative Expedition, which was probably just as difficult of command, physically, as an equivalent command in Europe was. His effort was unsuccessful, and he was not allowed to serve in Europe. He was later recalled to service and sent as a military atache to Liberia, where he died in 1922.

I suspect that Colonel Young's problem wasn't fitness but the fact that he was black and that the President, Woodrow Wilson, was probably the most egregious racist to ever hold that office. Wilson was extremely partizan, vindictive and completely dismissive of anyone who questioned his judgement or policies... Leonard Wood and TR were also kept out of the war. These were all men who were vocal critics of Wilson or friends of Wilson's critics.
Col Young was a great and interesting man. He'd actually commanded a mixed white and black command in a mounted charge, using machinegun support, during the Punitive Expedition, a feat which some would maintain wasn't possible. He was the senior officer on the field at the time.

He's largely a forgotten figure now, except to deep students of history such as ourselves, which is no doubt in part because all the great lights of the Punitive Expedition were either rising stars that came to shine in World War One and World War Two, or setting ones who were soon forgotten. The fact that he was not able to command during World War One meant that he didn't go on to be a household name.
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JV Puleo wrote:Woodrow Wilson, was probably the most egregious racist to ever hold that office. Wilson was extremely partizan, vindictive and completely dismissive of anyone who questioned his judgement or policies... Leonard Wood and TR were also kept out of the war. These were all men who were vocal critics of Wilson or friends of Wilson's critics.


Wilson was indeed very racist, something that portrayals of him such as that in the fawning movie Woodrow Wilson wholly omit. To make matters worse, he lived in an era were there was a rival in organized racism with a resurgent KKK at work in quite a few states. Wilson gave a boost to that sort of spirit when he endorsed the movie Birth of a Nation with the comment "it is as it was", which didn't help matters.

Additionally, and less seriously, Wilson, in my view, also suffered from the belief that lecturing was an effective means of persuasion in all circumstances. Having been a university academic, he tended to treat those he needed to persuade as if they were pupils in a university class. That didn't work on the other Allied Powers and it didn't work on the U.S. Senate.
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