You just found your path to
true athletic partnership with your horse
Endurance riding is your passion. The thrill, the connection, the achievement! But let’s be honest: After a long ride, it’s not just your horse who’s feeling it. But who has time to fit in fitness?
Still…the aching muscles. The stiff lower back. The fatigue that sets in well before the finish line. And deep down, the nagging worry that you might be the weak link in your partnership.
The truth is, your endurance horse is an athlete. But are you?
Endurance is a Team Sport
You know how hard your horse works. You know you can help him by riding your best from first mile to last. But let’s face it:
You’re busy. You have obligations to work and family, plus horse conditioning and care. Where does fitness fit?
You’re not sure what to do. Getting fit sounds great, in theory, but which exercises are worth your effort?
You’re not as young as you used to be. Advancing age and accumulating injury have left you discouraged. Is it too late to regain lost ground?
You struggle to stick with it. Once your motivation wants, you tend to give up despite your best intentions.
You can get away with it. Thanks to your horse’s strength and forgiveness, you can complete rides without focusing on your own fitness…and least for now.
How does this sound?
Short, flexible workouts that fit into your schedule
The exact exercises you need to support strong, confident, pain-free distance riding
Instruction from an endurance rider who is also a personal trainer and nutrition coach
Support from a community of fellow endurance riders focused on building their fitness
YOU CAN ride stronger in a day ...and longer in your life.
Why Riders are Joining Essential Endurance Rider Fitness
Claim the Pre-Enrollment Special
The Essential Endurance Rider Fitness Program opens February 1, 2025. Pre-enroll now to get 15% off the regular price, plus get the Rucking Mod* FREE (a $21 value). That’s a savings of $50!
*The Rucking Mod teaches you how to to swap out the walk-run cardio workouts in the Essential program with rucking (walking with a weighted pack). This is an excellent alternative for endurance riders who can’t or don’t wish to run for fitness.
Shouldn't Riding Be Enough?
The process of conditioning our horses does, indeed, make us more fit for the sport. However…
Horses don’t require as much exercise as humans do to maintain optimal fitness. Most of us – yes, even 100-mile competitors – simply don’t ride long, hard, and often enough to maximize our fitness through horse time alone.
Additionally, the very nature of riding creates muscle imbalances that must be counteracted with different fitness activities. If you work at a desk to pay your feed bill, those imbalances are only getting worse!
Most of the time, riding is not intense enough to improve cardiovascular fitness and strength beyond our current levels. This goes for daily barn chores, too.
None of us are getting younger. Unless we take action to counteract the loss of muscle and bone that comes with age, we’re accepting increased injury risk and decreased longevity on the endurance trail.
Think about it… Are you fitter now than you were six months of riding and farm chores ago?
Doing more of the same won’t lead to change. It’s time to shake things up!
Enter Essential Endurance Rider Fitness
Finally, a fitness program designed by an endurance rider, for endurance riders! This isn’t about becoming a gym rat. It’s about becoming the athletic partner your horse deserves. The 16-week Essential program is designed for distance riders who want:
- To ride long distances, in greater comfort, both now and later in life
- To be supportive partners for their horses, despite not being the “fitness type”
- A gentle introduction to personal fitness, whether for the first time or after an extended break
- The knowledge and motivation to lay the specific foundation needed to build a true equestrian athlete
Your Journey to Full Partnership
With Essential Endurance Rider Fitness, you will:
Establish healthy habits that set you up for a lifetime of better health and horsemanship
Correct common muscle imbalances to reduce discomfort (and look better) both in and out of the saddle
Improve suppleness, balance, and core stability, contributing to reduced injury risk and better riding
Strengthen key muscle groups so you can support your horse over long miles of trail
Achieve the cardiovascular fitness to lead your horse back to camp if necessary, and trot out for the vet with ease
For less than the cost of a new saddle pad, you can transform yourself into the full athletic partner your horse deserves!
Your Essential Program Includes
SIXTEEN WEEKS of progressive cardio and strength workouts tailored specifically for distance riders
EQUESTRIAN-SPECIFIC mobility and balance routines
SHORT, FLEXIBLE WORKOUTS to fit into your busy equestrian lifestyle
TRAINER TALKS for ongoing motivation, education, and support
VIDEO COACHING demonstrations of all exercises
RIDER OPT-IN EXERCISES to integrate your increasing fitness into your endurance riding, where it counts
MINIMAL EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS so you can work out in your own home, without the time and expense of going to a commercial gym
COMPLETION AWARD when you finish Essential and receive an exclusive discount code for the upcoming Next Level Endurance Rider Fitness program to build on your success
This Is Your Investment in Excellence
The Essential Endurance Rider Fitness Program opens February 1, 2025. Pre-enroll now to get 15% off the regular price, plus get the Rucking Mod* FREE (a $21 value). That’s a savings of $50!
*The Rucking Mod teaches you how to to swap out the walk-run cardio workouts in the Essential program with rucking (walking with a weighted pack). This is an excellent alternative for endurance riders who can’t or don’t wish to run for fitness.
Meet Your Trainer
Hi! I’m an endurance rider in the northwest region of the United States. When I was younger, general fitness kept me feeling pretty good on long rides. But when I returned to riding 100-milers in my mid-forties, I discovered it wasn’t so easy!
I tapped my background as a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer and nutrition coach to identify the exact strength, mobility, and cardiovascular fitness that endurance riders need to go the distance. Putting them into practice launched my game to a whioe new level.
Now, I’m sharing my program with you. Together, we can optimize our endurance riding experience even in the face of advancing age and accumulated injuries.
I hope you’ll join me as I build this life-changing suite of unique fitness programming especially for you and your distance horse.
~ Tamara Baysinger
FAQ About Essential Endurance Rider Fitness
The Essential program is designed for active and aspiring distance riders who wish to ride longer, in greater comfort, while properly supporting their equine partners.
The program is appropriate for personal-fitness beginners and riders returning to the saddle after injury or illness (with your doctor’s permission, of course).
If you want to maintain your status quo, simply doing your regular rides and barn chores, this program is NOT for you. If you’re ready to up your endurance game and make progress with purpose, you are in the right place!
If you are currently able to ride and perform the basic tasks associated with horse care, you are fit enough to start the program.
Essential Endurance Rider Fitness offers a very gentle, gradual introduction to cardiovascular fitness and resistance training, plus mobility, balance, and even plyometric work to help you gain (or regain) new levels of physical ability and confidence as a distance equestrian.
It’s okay if you’re working through some physical challenges, including past injuries, bodyweight struggles, or plain old aging. As long as your doctor has cleared you to get started, you can do this!
Absolutely. Essential is different from other fitness programs! It doesn’t just assign workouts and leave you to implement them on your own.
The Essential program includes weekly Ride Meeting videos and Trainer Talks to keep you encouraged and informed about why the exercises are relevant to you, as an endurance equestrian. Essential also includes optional homework assignments and Rider Opt-In exercises to keep your new skills top of mind and applicable in the saddle.
You’ll also have access to a community forum where you can connect directly with your trainer and fellow riders.
Essential contains 16 weeks of workouts to gently and gradually progress your mobility, strength, and cardiovascular fitness. After the initial 16 weeks, you will still have access to the program so you can revisit the workouts anytime.
Essential offers flexible workout programming totaling about 3.5 hours per week, broken into 30-minute segments that you can fit into your schedule as needed.
The program also includes Trainer Talks to provide support and motivation. These brief lessons, plus optional homework, can be accessed at your leisure.
The Essential program is designed to use minimal, inexpensive equipment that you can use at home. You might have some of it already!
The full equipment list includes: resistance bands (loop style with removable handles and door anchor); stability ball (optional); yoga mat; and foam roller.
You’ll also need a good pair of shoes and, ideally, a horse to be your partner as you integrate your new skills into your riding life.
The program incudes a shopping list with links to each item, so it’s easy to get exactly what you need. The same equipment will continue to serve you if you choose to graduate to the Next Level Endurance Rider Fitness program after completing Essential.
The Essential program is designed to elevate your cardiovascular fitness benefits beyond what walking, riding, and barn chores can provide. Running is the simplest, most efficient method for most people, and it is a useful skill for endurance riders. For this reason, the Essential program includes a very gradual walk-run program that will prepare you to run 2.5 miles in 30 minutes by the end of 16 weeks.
However, some riders are unable to run for various reasons. The Essential Rucking Mod explains how to use rucking (walking with a weighted pack) as an excellent alternative to running. Through February 1, 2025, you can get the Rucking Mod ($21 value) for FREE when you pre-enroll in the Essential program.
The Essential program is designed specifically for distance riders who need to be able to maintain good riding posture for very long periods, plus be able to mount from the ground, hike out of a sticky situation, trot out for the vet, and handle unwieldy objects like portable corral panels and buckets of water.
Most rider fitness programs focus heavily on flexibility and core strength. Essential certainly includes those elements, but also focuses on:
- Counteracting common muscle imbalances that cause discomfort for both horse and rider
- Building cardiovascular fitness so you use up less energy while riding for hours at a time
- Increasing strength to support good riding posture and reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
- Training your neuromuscular system to react appropriately to sudden challenges, like stepping in a hole or sticking a “teleport” spook
Absolutely.
Although the Essential program was designed to specifically target the needs of endurance riders, it is also highly applicable to all kinds of equestrians. If you want to feel stronger, more balanced, and more energetic for anything from trail riding to dressage lessons, Essential offers the foundation you need.
It depends.
Current moderate exercisers (like those who take daily walks in addition to their barn time) will absolutely benefit from the equestrian-specific nature of the Essential program, which targets the exact needs of distance riders.
If you are already committed to regular weight-bearing cardio and strength training, plus balance and mobility work to keep any muscle imbalances in check, you might want to wait for my upcoming Next Level Endurance Rider Fitness program.
No. Essential Endurance Rider Fitness is a personal fitness program designed to complement your riding. It will not teach you to ride, but it will lay the foundational balance, mobility, strength, and cardiovascular fitness you need to ride longer and better.
The Essential program is not specifically designed for the purpose of decreasing bodyfat. However, the additional physical activity it requires – especially resistance training – supports the metabolic environment needed for fat loss if combined with appropriate nutrition.
The program does not include meal plans, but it does offer basic recommendations for appropriately fueling your fitness.
You will most likely have access for many years, but I don’t like it when people promise “lifetime access” because none of us can predict the future. I CAN guarantee that you’ll have access for at least two years (probably much longer!) and you’ll be able to download your workout blueprints to use forever.
For a limited time, you can pre-enroll in Essential for just $160 USD and get the Essential Rucking Mod (a $21 value) for FREE. After the program opens on February 1, 2025, the regular price will be $189.
Yes! Just click the button to enroll and select “give as a gift” at checkout.
Pre-Enroll Today and Save $50
The Essential Endurance Rider Fitness program will open February 1, 2025. Pre-enroll now to claim the special pre-enrollment price of $160 plus get the Essential Rucking Mod for FREE.
*The Rucking Mod teaches you how to to swap out the walk-run cardio workouts in the Essential program with rucking (walking with a weighted pack). This is an excellent alternative for endurance riders who can’t or don’t wish to run for fitness.
It's never too early, and it's never too late, to invest in your endurance riding dreams!
