Advice on fittening youngster from the field...

[aradiagreen]

Hi,

My 13.3hh cob is 4yrs old in June and I've owned him for a year. I'm not sure what he'd done before but he had been broken and knew basic aids. He's pretty chilled and more likely to need leg than holding back. He lives out 24/7 and is a good doer - in the summer he can get quite fat! He has a handful of Baileys Lo Cal Feed Balancer each day when I catch him.

Over the past year I've done little with him as I wanted him to enjoy settling in, bonding with me and growing up! Everyone has such different ideas about how much work a youngster should do! I rode for half an hour a few times on hacks in walk but mainly spent time grooming him, a little ground work and long reining and led him out a couple of times a week to see the sights and get used to traffic.

I'm looking forward to him turning 4 as then I feel I can start to do more with him. I'm hoping to go for long hacks inc. trot work and an odd canter. I want to start doing some polework with him (further down the line) ready to start jumping. And ofcourse schooling but once he is fit.

At the moment he still has his winter coat. I rode him in walk yesterday for 45minutes and he seemed to enjoy it and was a little sweaty afterwards but he is shaggy! What would you suggest as a fittening plan for him, bearing in mind his age? And that I only plan to do long hacks for fun and a bit of schooling/jumping when he's old enough and fit enough. I would be happy this summer if we could just hack out mainly in walk for 2 or 3 hours or is that too much for a 4yr old??? We have no hills and 50% would be road work and the other grassy tracks.

How about just walking for 3 weeks - building up from 30min every other day? Then start bringing in a bit of trotting and gradually building it up from there until I can work him over poles during a 30-45min schooling session? Obviously that would take several weeks/months...

AND...

So far he has been barefoot and just has his hooves trimmed. Now I'm starting to take him out more I'm starting to wonder when and if he has to start wearing shoes??? He has had no problems so far. We will have to use roads quite a bit once we start going further afield. Would he be able to go barefoot as long as we only walked when on hard ground/roads?? He has a normal farrier btw not a barefoot farrier though I am interested in the barefoot technique.

Thank you SO much for taking the time and trouble to reply to me. I have found this forum invaluable since taking him on for support and advice!

 

[fidleyspromise]

As you say, everyone has different ideas regarding 4 year old's. My personal thoughts are to keep it nice and simple so that he enjoys his work. So with this in mind, if this was my horse, I would be aiming maybe 4 days a week, if schooling not more than 45 minutes at a time. Hacking = up to 2 hours.

How about just walking for 3 weeks - building up from 30min every other day? Then start bringing in a bit of trotting and gradually building it up from there until I can work him over poles during a 30-45min schooling session? Obviously that would take several weeks/months...

This sounds perfect and similar to what I would do.

Most of all, I go by how the horse feels and I find they let me know when they're ready to move up a gear as well as going by common sense. ie. Horse fresh and wants to canter in first week = not a good idea.

I'd leave him without shoes. There's a good chance he won't need them. Let him tell you what he needs. I was like you and as soon as I took my horse out hacking (I didn't have the internet and people to tell me not to throw shoes on straight away). She was a little footsore, I threw four shoes on her and I'm now struggling to get her to go without shoes. A lot of horses go on stony ground etc without shoes, its all to do with their diet. (the barefoot taliban can explain all of this far better than I can).

Hope this helps and sounds as though your on the right tracks. x

 

[AMW]

I'm in similar circumstances with a 4yo Welsh pony living out. I think they keep fitter out 24/7 unless they are on v good grass.
I broke mine last year, gave her the winter off and have picked her up again. We hack a couple of times a week, we have even started popping the odd log in the wood. I have just started schooling her this week as felt she was fit enough to cope. We don't have a school, however, I find she comes out the field warmed up so to speak. She gets on with the job and I'm delighted how in 3 20 minute sessions she has progressed.
Re shoeing, she is also barefoot but I'm getting fronts on her next week as our tracks are stoney, done the same last summer.
I'm chuffed to bits with her and am enjoying her so much

 

[aradiagreen]

Wow, you two are up early! ;-) thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I dont have many horsey friends so Its great to hear what you think. Yes i shall see how he feels and concentrate on enjoying ourselves! And try to keep the shoes off as he drames fine so far. We dont go over stoney ground just à bit of road or cycle paths. Good to know we're on the right track, enjoy the sunshine!

 

[cob&onion]

My cob is 4 next month, she was backed last summer then turned away from October to Jan. She is now hacked 4 x per week up to 1 hour and schooled for 25 mins 1 x per week. We mostly walked and did a bit of trotting at first but have built it up slowly, now, being the end of march we had our very first "proper" canter along a bridleway just this morning, she really enjoyed it and i thought i may have had to keep urging her on but nope she kept in canter until i asked her to come back to a trot. Her stamina and fitness is improving all the time