Are horses who are T/O 24/7 Naturally fitter?

E

EquestrianFairy

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 October 2006
Messages
6,502
Visit site
-moving on from the post below regarding a TB who seems quite fit after not being ridden for a while a few answers mentioned if its T/O for 24/7 then horses are naturally fitter?

Is this the case?

All my horses are out 24/7-365days unless we have a show/hunting etc and they are on a little hill so would that mean that they are fitter because of this?

Quite interesting
grin.gif
 
in my experiences no! we have RS horses who are always turned out. My horse is so much fitter than any of them, even if they have the same work load! and he is in at night
 
That does not mean being stabled means your horse is fitter?! how you measuring the fitness levels? rate of return to resting heart rate? recovery time( Heart rate measurements) Units of sweat?


A horse able to regulate his own locomotion is fulfilling natures needs to move both physically and mentally. reduced stress levels increase the ability to perform better, and the reduced stress allows a horse to fitten quicker. A fit horse would be being ridden for a set period of time over a set period of days over the week, performing set tasks. Any turnout can only complement a fitness regime and reduce the liklihood of stomach ulceration due to increases in fibre content in the horses hind gut and an increase in his psycological wellbeing.
 
Well depends on workload obviously, and what kind of temperament the horse has. Is it a run around the field type, or a head down and eat type.

I would say yes, they have a better basline fitness if they have access to enough turnout. And obviously they are 'naturally' fitter, as horses are naturally meant to live outside
smile.gif
 
Depends on the horse I suppose.....my horses are stabled at night apart from in summer...

......whenever I go down to the yard during the day there is usually one horse trotting/ cantering around playing...and that my boy......
I ride when I can and dont follow any kind of programme, we hack/school and jump depending on how the mood takes me and he is always full of energy and ready to go....I guess he keeps himself ticking over, bless him.....
 
My horse is in 24/7 at the moment and worked every day. I would say he's pretty fit.
He goes out when it is dry for a couple of hours a couple of times a week for a leg stretch and a roll and a fart, but that's about it.
 
A horse that lived in and did no work would be less fit than a horse that lived out and did no work...
The level of fitness would depend on the terrain in which the horse lives in and how much grazing etc and what you are expecting them to do.

My horses live on a 6 acre hill and are fit enough to hack out wether I ride everyday or once evry two months. However I wouldn't expect them to be able do a days hunting on that..
 
i remember reading about a study, they measured the oxygen intake of race horses in full work, and then measured their oxygen intake after time off in the field (about 8 weeks or so) and found it to be very nearly the same! about 1-2% out if i remember correctly.

but i have found that fittness levels do decrease in the field; but this could be because they are eating more so have more weight on.

but then again, horses in the wild were fit, but would they have been as fit as a horse eventing?

tongue.gif
very interesting thread
tongue.gif
 
would be a good dissertation idea, 2 groups of horses one field and the other stable kept, on the same work loads and measuring fitness before the exeriment, during and after.
 
i think it depends how you define fit- fit for what?

fit for hacking is very different to fit for eventing or racing. are we talking muscular fitness? respiratory?

interesting question though!! xx
 
I wasnt looking for a 'fit for... ' just fitter in general i suppose?

I just found it an interesting topic for discussion mainly because mine are out 24/7/365.
 
Out of all the horses in my group on the yard, mine tend to get the most turn-out because they have to fit in around my work....a certain other 2 horses came out at midday and were back in by 4pm because they had to fit in with their owners lifestyles...and they were the most unfit/injury prone horses on the yard...is this because

a) they went mental after being turned out and pulled muscles tendons etc
b) they were ridden only infrequently and pushed too hard because they were unfit due to being stabled most of the time?

Who knows...they were the cleanest horses on the yard, which their owners were very proud of, but not the fittest or fit for any purpose really
smirk.gif
 
I think a field kept horse has a better basic level of fitness than a stabled one if both do little work but I do find that my horses do best when they get to be stabled at night and out during the day, as otherwise they don't rest properly so don't have the energy to work. (Does this make sense?)
So they are fitter up to a point but if you want a horse to be really fit it needs time to get proper rest in it's stable rather than constantly moving around/being hasseled by other horses.
 
Our cob has shown himself to be fitter living out and not in regular work than several other similar types in work regularly. By regularly I do not mean daily hard work, more like a good hack every other day. However, our cob can outdo them in stamina, strength and length of time working - easily.
 
In my experience TBs return to fitness more quickly than other breeds and having been created for performance, are able to perform at a higher intensity after a layoff than other breeds. Does that make sense? So in comparison to a cob (no offence to cob owners!) a TB would be able to work harder and faster after a similar layoff, but would seem very unfit compared to a TB kept in work. So I think it's less about the horse living out, than the fact that it's a TB.
Sorry if that's not very clear!!
 
Oh I can do this one! We have two cobs (in sig and avatar) and they live out together 24/7. The skewbald has been hacked today for one hour at walk and trot and is unclipped but was rugged early autumn, and was fine if sweaty afterwards. He is 16, and keeps a level of fitness for hacking easily. The piebald is 14, bib clipped and unrugged, and lathered with sweat after a 20 min walk, we have had him over a year and think he has never been fit in his life, his condition isn't soft, it's blancmange, and he gets ridden about once a fortnight whereas the skewbald goes out say twice a week. Two horses, same type, completely different. Regards breeding, the pie seems to be completely coldblood, whereas I know the skew is abou 3/8 TB.
 
Only anecdotal of course but I've noticed an improvement in the base level fitness of mine living out 24/7. They're on sparse grazing though so not fat. The other thing I've noticed is that they tend to be more honest with their fitness - you don't get that false fitness 'tizz' that you can get with a stabled horse.

H was 60 mile endurance fit living out full time, and being able to move about at will helped harden him up, and also allowed him to walk off any stiffness after the event. After all you wouldn't keep a human athlete fit by keeping them locked in the loo for 14 hours in the day.....
 
ive got to admit mine have been better since living out 24/7 and they are a lot fitter - the steep hill helps lol when i first moved to my field they couldnt canter up it in one go, now they can fly up it in seconds, so definitely fitter
 
I think that 'live out' horses appear not to have as much energy as 'half in, half out' horses because they are more 'exercised'.

A horse that stands in for 12hrs or so is likely to be more buzzy when it's ridden because it has that energy stored up, rather than walking it off in the field.

It would be an interesting thing to study - how would you test the fitness?

Amount of lung capacity? Red blood cells? Temperature changes at exercise?
I'd love to know the answer to this conundrum?
 
[ QUOTE ]


It would be an interesting thing to study - how would you test the fitness?

Amount of lung capacity? Red blood cells? Temperature changes at exercise?
I'd love to know the answer to this conundrum?

[/ QUOTE ]

recovery rate of similar types of horses doing the same exercise, some living out and some not. actually, a similar study has been carried out some time ago. recovery of wild mustangs was compared to those ridden during the round up-with the wild mustangs being much ftter.
horses walk alot in the wild. sometimes they canter/play or gallop when they need to. but most of the time they will walk, walk to graze, walk to water.
 
Well my boy is weird and spends almost his entire turnout time galloping flat out. He hoons around at 100mph until he's worn out, then catches his breath in walk for a short time and starts galloping again. (Someone at the yard once described it as 'Tobago doing his Interval Training'!) When he's finally bored with this he paces up and down the fence asking to come in. So they bring him in and turn him out again later, when he starts getting bored and fidgetty in the stable.

This means he kept himself very fit and muscled, even before he started ridden work (just a few weeks ago, as a 4yo). I was up at the yard to watch him being ridden on Friday. He had already been turned out and done his self-imposed galloping work-out a bit earlier. He was then ridden and worked fairly intensively for about half an hour or so - and then his tack was removed and he was left out, whereupon he immediately resumed the mad flat-out galloping, and was still happily charging around half an hour later...

He's like the bl**dy Duracell Bunny - just seems to have boundless energy and stamina. He's always done this, since he was a baby.

So I suppose my answer would be that it depends very much on the horse. I know other horses, at the opposite exreme, who barely seem to get any real exercise at all when they are turned out, so they would not be much fitter than a stabled horse. Young horses tend to move around more and play more, so I would expect youngsters on 24/7 turnout to be naturally fitter than stabled youngsters. With older/less energetic horses the difference might not be very significant.
 
Probably if your horse lived out 24/7 he'd not do this though. He'd run about for a bit and then pace the fence line. Then give up and graze....

I think the hooning is a stress/excitement thing - get it all out of his system, gallop about like a mad thing, and then bored so wants to come it for the relaxation of munching hay in the stable.

He'd soon learn that he could relax out in the field too if only he could be left in it.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]




[/ QUOTE ]

recovery rate of similar types of horses doing the same exercise, some living out and some not. actually, a similar study has been carried out some time ago. recovery of wild mustangs was compared to those ridden during the round up-with the wild mustangs being much ftter.
horses walk alot in the wild. sometimes they canter/play or gallop when they need to. but most of the time they will walk, walk to graze, walk to water.

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course - I forget about the recovery rates. Though does this depend also on the type and age of the horse?
 
It also depends on the area they are turned out on. When I've kept mine on very hilly fields yes, they've kept remarkably fit on doing nothing. On a boring, flat, square field no, I need to work at it.
My chiropracter made an interesting observation. She said that the horses kept out 24/7 (on a decent sized field) made quicker recoveries from the sort of conditions she treats. She puts it down to the fact that after her treatment they constantly gently exercise them as they move about. Turnout for part of the 24 hours is no substitute because the period standing about in a stable doesn't help them at all.
 
.

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course - I forget about the recovery rates. Though does this depend also on the type and age of the horse?

[/ QUOTE ]

hence the need for similar 'types', which would include age and breed
wink.gif


hillwork, up and down and lots of walking = horses with fewer back problems IME
 
I dunno, but I do know that my lad is turned out 6am-4pm weekdays Oct-April in a huge field that resembles the side of a mountain, and when I start doing fun rides in the spring he always astounds me at how fit he is, and makes mincemeat of me for the first month until I catch up. He is a draught cross so not the type that is supposed to be "naturally fit". He also doesn't do too much p|ss arsing about in the field (though he does indulge in a bit, I know).

I took him hunting for the first time last week, pooing my pants he wasn't fit enough to because he'd had 5 weeks off not that long before when I injured my knee. He did two hours pulling like an intercity and could have gone all day, I swear. Not just adrenalin - he recovered instantly after each gallop (one of which was very long, over heavy ground) and was fresh as a daisy and sound as a pound the next day. He just seems to stay eternally fit and I put it all down to his massive, wild field.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top