2 fat geldings..

abss

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I have 2 very fat cob type geldings that I am trying to get fit for winter. they are both like the size of a house each!! :( what the best way for me to get them fit? they are hacking for about an hour every 2 days at the min? they are limited with the grass and in for most days. do I need to ride everyday? how often can I up the work load? TIA
 
What are they fed on? When they to out, can you fence off a track for them on poor grazing so they have to keep walking around for food? I would prefer this over them being in every day. Also, how much do they go out?

Personally I would be riding them as often as you can - with plenty of steady trot work and hill walking. Also plenty of transitions to raise the heart rate! I would up their work on a weekly basis, judging by how they were handling their work - I gauge my horse each time I ride, and then slowly increase the work as he finds it easier. Are they particularly unfit?

Good luck! It can be very hard work in the beginning, but slow and steady wins the race :)
 
Horse I ride went on holiday for 2 months and came back very fat.... I started off mostly hacking with a bit schooling and now he is ridden 5 / 6 days a week, with at least 2 or 3 of those days he is ridden twice!

Lots of hacking, hillwork, doing quite a bit of fast interval work now the pair of us. Sometimes hack twice a day, sometimes hack and school, but never school twice and never jump more than twice a week - normally once.

He's at the stage where we can canter continuously for 7 minutes with some gallop intervals (if my back holds up it can get quite sore). I could probably do with some ideas on how else to up his fitness to get him in tip top condition apart from schooling, hill work and fast work.

He thrives being in work, and seems to be enjoying the routine.
 
Well, my mare, who is on a diet, gets worked twice a day 6 days a week. I lunge or ride for 30 mins on a morning, and then ride for 60-90 mins on an evening.
 
they aren't being fed anything at the minute, they are massive! and I've only started with them this week! The field isn't really practical for fencing off at the minute either :( I riding one day on one day off but maybe i can up that abit. They aren't majorly unfit as wouldn't be caught yesterday evening and were just running circles around me for about 10 minutes before i managed to grab them!! I will up the hill work gradually.
Thank you for your help :)
 
Interval work is the best. So depending g on fitness 5min walk 1-5m trot then walk then trot and canter then walk etc
I'm not at all sure on the timings but I'm sure if you look it up you will find out
 
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