Best Endurance Ride Horse Breeds + Exactly What To Look For

What are the best horse breeds for endurance races? Let’s find out. We look for unique characteristics when we want the best horse for endurance races.

These are the most common breeds used for endurance riding.

The Best Horses For Endurance Races

The Arabians are the most typical horse breeds used in endurance races. There are very good reasons for this, which we will examine here.

Arabian horses

Arabian horse is perfect for endurance races

Arabian horses have longer muscles, making them perfect for long stretches. They have compact bodies and long legs.

The breed has several variations, as people have bred Arabian horses for years. Some are bred especially for endurance racing. We want to see a horse that is not too tall and has long muscles that are great for long distances.

The horse must have a good temper and the will to keep going when things get tough, and that’s typically exactly what you get with an Arabian horse.

Arabian horses are not among the tallest horse breeds as they are around 14-15 hands (57-61” or 145- 155 centimeters) tall to the withers. This makes them great for endurance runs because they are not too heavy or bulky. We need a light horse that is still strong enough to finish the race.

Here are some other good advantages of Arabians:

  • They have a strong and light frame. This is important because it should not be too round and broad over the shoulders as it would be too heavy.
  • Strong feet The hooves need to be as strong as possible because they want to go over rocks and hard surfaces, and we need them to keep going no matter what we throw at them.
  • Good balance: We want the horse to be balanced well over the shoulders and have a good weight distribution between the front and hind legs. The hindquarters should not be too strong (as we often see with quarter horses) because that will cause problems in the long run.

So, as you can see, the Arabian horses are not too big.

This is perfect for endurance riding as we want a horse no more than 16 hands tall. Preferably, it should be a little lower than that.

Thoroughbreds, for example, are typically a little taller. We will look at the thoroughbreds in the next section.

Some Arabian horses are suited for long distances, while others are bred for shorter races. Like quarter horses, the sprinters will have stronger hind legs and shorter and bulkier muscles.

Criollo

Criollo horse

This horse breed is not as famous as the Arabians or the other breeds mentioned in this article. But they are worth mentioning because they have proven over and over again to be extremely good over long distances.

The horses were originally from South America, and they have a reputation for being very good at carrying a lot of weight over a long distance. Perfect for what we need here!

They are pretty small horses with an average size of only 14.3 hands (57.2 inches or 145 centimeters) to the withers. This is great for going long distances because we want a light horse.

On top of that, the Criollo horses do well with high and low temperatures. This is also important because you don’t know what weather you will experience over a 100-mile stretch. They have been bred from horses that did well in extreme heat and cold weather because these were the conditions in Pampas, where they originate from.

For a Criollo horse to be used for breeding, the horse would have to go 466 miles (750 km). It would have to do so in around 75 hours over two weeks. It was not allowed to have any food during these 14 days.

So, as you can imagine, these are very strong animals with high perseverance!

But it doesn’t stop here.

The horses would also have to carry a load of 245 pounds (110 kilograms) on their backs, and they would only eat the grass on the side of the road during these days.

Akhal-Teke

Akhal-Teke horse breed

This is a very interesting and fascinating horse breed. It’s actually known as one of the oldest horse breeds around and they are famous be being great with changing weather and temperature.

It’s a horse breed from Turkmenistan, bred to withstand high and low temperatures and extreme weather conditions.

Again, this is a very important trait to look for with your endurance-race horse. We want horses that do well in wet and warm weather as well as cold weather. Because these are the conditions you will experience along the way, you cannot stop for two days because it gets cold or starts to rain.

Remember that you typically have to finish within 24 hours or so.

It’s generally between 14.2 and 16 hands tall (59-64 inches or 150-163 centimeters), so we need to find one of the smaller horses among this breed. We cannot do well over long distances with a horse above 15 hands (60 inches or 154 centimeters).

Remember that we are discussing the best breeds and horses for long distances. If we were to talk about whether the horse would complete an endurance ride, we could also use a slightly taller horse. 

But when we look for a winning horse, we want the optimal height of around 14.5 hands (58 inches or 147 centimeters).

To show the level of perseverance in this horse breed, here’s an example of what they accomplished in 1935:

A group of riders rode 2500 miles (4023 kilometers) from Ashgabat (the capital of Turkmenistan) to Moscow in 84 days. On this trip, they passed 235 miles (378 kilometers) of the desert without water!

Cross-Breeds

You also find a lot of horses that are half-Arabians.

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, Arabians are the most used horse breed for these races. isey have the perfect dimensions and weight to do well in endurance races.

This also means that you will find a lot of crossbreeds that are half Arabian horses, which will do well over long distances.

Whenever you breed an Arabian horse with any other horse breed, you typically get a good horse for running distance races. So, it doesn’t have to be a purebred Arabian horse to do well.

Find a horse that works well with you and has a temper you can work with. As you probably know, all horses are different and have their personality, so it’s really important to watch how the horse behaves when you push it and try to go the extra mile.

Thoroughbreds

The thoroughbred horse is another great racehorse that can be used for long distances. They are built quite similar to Arabian horses but generally a little taller.

Thoroughbreds are typically around 16 hands tall to the withers (64 inches or 163 centimeters). They are very tall horses, which gives them an advantage in the field.

Even though they are a little taller than Arabian horses, they can be great. You will often find thoroughbred horses in the lineup during endurance races.

The Characteristics Of A Great Horse For Endurance Riding

So, what exactly are we looking for when we want to find the perfect horse for endurance races?

We can get pretty specific here, and we will now break it down into 4 things.

Not too tall

So why do we not want the horse to be as tall as possible? It would seem logical to look for a horse with as long legs as possible to go over long distances. That’s not the case.

This is because the extra height comes with additional extra weight.

We don’t want a heavy horse, so we must get a good medium-sized horse between 14 and 15 hands tall. This has often been proven to be the ideal height for a long-distance horse.

Slim muscles

Just like we don’t want a heavy horse, we do not want a horse with too much muscle. When you think about big muscles, it might seem like a good thing, but we are looking more after muscles built differently.

We are looking for what is known as “slow-twitch muscles.”

These muscles do well over a long distance and are also the type of muscles you find in human marathon runners.

This has to do with the fibers in the muscles. They should be slow-twitch fibers that burn fewer calories and work with low blood pressure.

This is something you need to develop in the horse by training. As you go longer and longer distances with your horse, it will develop the right muscle fibers inside the muscles.

A strong will

We need a horse with a strong will, but it also needs to be pretty calm.

Character is extremely important when discussing conditioning a horse to complete (or win) an endurance race.

So, what is the right type of temper for a horse here?

This is what you should look for:

  • A mild temper you can easily control
  • A horse that likes to compete
  • A horse that is not easily distracted as you will ride past traffic and noise
  • A horse that is eager to run

If you can check off all these four points with your horse you have the perfect horse for starting to train toward an endurance race.

Strong hooves

You also need a horse with very strong hooves, as they will get pushed to the limits.

You should take your horse to the farrier to have them look at the hoves. It is important to ensure that the horseshoes fit properly and that the hooves have no cracks.

It’s like choosing the perfect pair of running shoes for yourself if you were to finish a marathon. Nobody should do a marathon in canvas shoes or flip-flops.

In the same way, you need your horse to have the best possible foot care to make it less painful.

Some horses will not have strong enough hooves in order to go 50 or 100 miles. So, you better get it checked before working toward this goal.

Did You Know…

Endurance races developed as training for military horses more than 100 years ago.

The military wanted to ensure that the horses would do well over long distances, and they wanted to know the limits of the horses on the battlefield.

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