One aspect of riding cross country is riding at the correct pace (speed). When you enter an event you will be told the pace to ride at. This will be expressed in metres per minute (m/min). This is the number of metres you and your pony should travel in one minute. You will also be told your optimal time. This is the time taken if you ride the entire course at exactly the required pace. For example if the pace is 350m/min and the course is 1400m long the optimal time is 4 minutes (4 x 350 = 1400). Penalty points are awarded for riding too fast or too slow.
Since your pony does not have a speedometer you need to be able to guage your pace by feel. The best way to practice this is by timing yourself riding a known distance and then comparing that to the optimal time for that distance. The table below can help with this by giving you the optimal times around the rings and track at the Southlands Riding Club. To use this table find the pace you need accoss the top and then go down until you are in line with the ring you will be riding in. This gives you your optimal time in hours:minutes:seconds. As an example if your pace is 325m/min and you are riding in the McCleery ring it should take you 39 seconds to ride around the ring once. A simple expercise is to ride around once and have a helper tell you if you are fast or slow. Then adjust your pace for the next round. Another exercise is to ride around twice. Start your watch as you start riding. After one round check if you are fast or slow and adjust your pace so that your combined time is twice the time from the table below.
| Times at pace (m/min) | |||||||||
| Facility | 250 | 275 | 300 | 325 | 350 | 400 | 425 | 450 | Dist. |
| Track | 0:03:12 | 0:02:55 | 0:02:40 | 0:02:28 | 0:02:17 | 0:02:00 | 0:01:53 | 0:01:47 | 800 |
| Big Ring | 0:01:02 | 0:00:57 | 0:00:52 | 0:00:48 | 0:00:45 | 0:00:39 | 0:00:37 | 0:00:35 | 260 |
| McCleery | 0:00:51 | 0:00:46 | 0:00:42 | 0:00:39 | 0:00:36 | 0:00:32 | 0:00:30 | 0:00:28 | 212 |
| Covered | 0:00:50 | 0:00:45 | 0:00:41 | 0:00:38 | 0:00:35 | 0:00:31 | 0:00:29 | 0:00:28 | 207 |
| Indoor | 0:00:46 | 0:00:42 | 0:00:38 | 0:00:35 | 0:00:33 | 0:00:29 | 0:00:27 | 0:00:26 | 192 |
| Carnarvon | 0:00:38 | 0:00:34 | 0:00:32 | 0:00:29 | 0:00:27 | 0:00:24 | 0:00:22 | 0:00:21 | 158 |
One thing that might suprise you is how slow these paces actually are. 300m/min is same as the pace at which a grade 4 student will run the 1500m track event!
Finally some safety notes- Don't ride the faster paces, 350m/min and up without instructor supervision.
- Don't try and pace yourself until you've checked with your instructor that it is safe for you to do so.
- Slow down when passing other riders or "pedestrians".
- Choose a ring appropriat to the pace. Going too fast in a small ring is not safe.