Advice from a Bunny

For those who haven't yet checked out Horse Nation, the time has come. It's a compilation of entertaining horse-related randomness, mostly humorous in nature. Leslie Wylie is the HN editor-in-chief, and her Southern sarcasm is all over the site. I'm pretty sure she gets paid to scour the internet for every funny horse-related news story, YouTube video, meme, etc, that's out there. Her personal blog was one of my favs, though it unfortunately has gone dark since HN premiered.

Anyway, in a recently-debuted monthly column on HN called Fit to Ride: Ask a Rabbit, yours truly submitted a question for cute little Pi to consider, and she graciously used my question for her first response post!

Pi, the advice-giving bunny of Horse Nation's Fit to Ride column.
Photo from HorseNation.com

I asked how riders should change their diet and exercise before and during a show to keep their energy up and ensure their well-being. 

In a nutshell, cute bunny recommends:

In regards to exercise, for one week before the show you should continue to exercise but do a "lighter" than normal version of your workout, and also to cut out your workout all together for 1-2 days before a show, in order to let your body heal itself from the stresses of exercise.

As to diet, bunny recommends that for the week before the show and during the show, that we graze all day on many snacks and mini-meals instead of a more typical 3-meal-a-day routine. This promotes a better metabolism and ongoing energy rather than highs and lows. Pi lists some great whole foods to have at shows to achieve this.

Read the full article at:    http://www.horsenation.com/2012/08/14/fit-to-ride-ask-a-rabbit-2/

Now, this advice makes perfectly good sense to me. But as I look back on what I normally do before shows, I realize that I pretty much to the opposite. Oftentimes I will:

• Not reduce my exercise the week of the show, with the idea that I want my stamina as high as possible.
• Spend more energy than normal the day or two before the show, usually putting in an extra ride or two, and doing errands, packing, and running around like a crazy person preparing. Kinda defeats the purpose of a day or two of rest.
• The week of a show I don't change my normal diet routine at all. In fact, if anything, I probably eat less-healthy-than-normal by having more take-out and fast-food in between all the errands and packing and extra rides after work. 
• For the show cooler, I typically stock up on Cliff bars and breakfast shakes and call it a day (for one-day shows). For overnight shows I put in much more effort, cooking veggies, hard-boiled eggs, pesto pasta salad, and white bean muffins, etc. 
• On show days, breakfast is normally on-the-go, and I do snack a bit in lieu of an actual lunch, but I'll have large dinners with friends and fellow riders. Mexican food never tastes as good as it does after a long day of cross country!  

Interesting to think about how my habits directly contradict sound, rational advice from a cute bunny. Good thing I asked the question, huh?