Advice on getting my TB mare fit after injury....

[claire1976]

My 14 yr old TB has been off May-July with a hock injury. She has fully recovered from the injury and I bought her back into work the second week of July. I started with 20 min hacks at a walk and built it up to longer hacks with intermittent trotting. She was the fittest horse on the yard and I'm struggling to cope with the fact that she's so unfit. She desperately wants to canter when we go up the fields and I let her have a go but after 20-30 strides she puffing and panting. She stills seems to struggle with hill work despite her muscle tone being really good and I've been working her now for nearly 7 weeks. How long should it take to see a huge difference in fitness? I take her out 5-6 times a week which I do hacking and once a week in the school doing trotting and pole work. She's never been so unfit so I'm looking for any idea's to help build her up or any exercises people could recommend.
Cheers.

 

[Tempi]

do you lunge her? this is good for fitness and muscle tone (altho you say this is fine) . do you have a pessoa?

It can take some horses longer to come back into fitness than others. Was she actually blowing hard or could you just hear her breathing hard? do you ride her in an outline when hacking and doing hill work?

hill work is definately the best way so you are doing the right thing. perhaps set yourself a route to do as a fitening route and see how she improves over a wk, you should be able to notice a difference.

What are you feeding her?

 

[serena2005]

i was going to suggest lunging, my TB benifits greatly from lunging, im in the process of building him up again after injury, my physio is writing me a fitness plan, when i get it would you like a copy!?