Backing Up Instinct: How Hylofit Helped This Rider Understand Her Training Decisions
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Courtenay Tuxhorn loves to compete. A former competitive triathlete, Courtenay took up eventing with her horse, Bam, last year. Together they moved through the lower levels with ease, finally reaching the point in their career in which running their first Preliminary event made sense.
But then, plans went awry. Midway through their first Preliminary cross-country course, Courtenay and Bam slipped and fell. While they were both relatively unhurt in the fall, hindsight painted a picture for Courtenay that prompted her to take a step back and analyze her training and lead-up to each competition. After all, we as horsemen and women dedicate so much of our energy to the concept of “feel” — but how do we back up that feel and instinct?
Enter Hylofit.
Courtenay had been using Hylofit’s equine heart rate monitor for fitness training as she prepared for the Prelim and was fascinated by the depth of data available for her analysis.
After the fall, which was a setback to her original game plan for the season, Courtenay used her Hylofit data to prepare for another competition, this time at Training level. Her goal was to regain some of the confidence that had taken a hit after their fall. This is when she noticed something interesting in the Hylofit data: in her training, Courtenay and Bam had only spent a small window of time training at the speed required for Training level. This was concerning.
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“I wanted to compete again [after the fall] and my primary goal was to make Bam to feel like a hero,” Courtenay said. “But when I looked at our rides in the Hylofit app, I saw that we’d only spent 20 seconds at or above Training level speed.”
Courtenay also noticed that while Bam had spent time in Zone 5, the highest intensity heart rate zone, most of the time spent in that zone was not at the right speed. This meant that Bam could potentially encounter difficulty A) making the time allowed and B) efficiently galloping while also jumping at the higher speed since he hadn’t worked this combination in his training. Check out the data from Courtenay’s ride, which was a group cross-country schooling lesson:
Here is where riders often reach a crossroads, battling between data and feel. Bam is a Thoroughbred who holds his fitness well. After taking a precautionary month off, he was showing no ill effects from the fall or from coming back into training. But looking deeper at Bam’s heart rate data gave Courtenay pause.
“Just thinking about the concept of wanting my horse to be successful, why would I go out and ask him to gallop at 450 meters per minute — and adding in jumps — when he only spent 20 seconds doing that since we fell? That really caused me to think about my goals and how I’m preparing for them.”
And so Courtenay made the decision to drop down a level, to the Novice level, at the next competition. After seeing the Hylofit data, the decision was easy. Could Bam have completed the Training level event? Probably so. But without training at that level, Courtenay felt it was an unfair ask. After all, she wanted Bam to feel invincible, like a hero, after his next show.
Courtenay knows what she and Bam are capable of — that’s never been in question. But the addition of Hylofit to her everyday routine has made the decision making process — the part of horse ownership that haunts all of us the most — easier. Yes, it’s important for horse owners to develop the right feel and instincts, but having the right data to back those instincts up has proven invaluable for Courtenay, who says the peace of mind Hylofit has given her is priceless.
“I looked back at our last six runs after listening to the EquiRatings podcast about the ‘6 Run Average’, and when it was laid out in front of me, the clear trend is that I am not comfortable riding at speed. Even though we school over Prelim fences, we weren’t going at the right pace to be successful — of course it made sense to drop back down,” she explained.
“And so this part of training is something I need to get better at. This is only our second season of eventing, and we ride a lot on our own. Hylofit has helped me make my decisions based on actual information, not just potential.”
Ready to buy your own Hylofit System? Shop here.
About Hylofit: The Hylofit System is a heart rate monitor for horse and rider that provides real-time feedback and post-ride insights for both athletes. With wireless hardware and an intuitive app and web platform, Hylofit provides insights into the emotional and physical state of your horse. For more information, head to www.hylofit.com
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