Best plan for fitness/stamina

[emfen1305]

Looking for advice on a couple of ideas I have to build up my cobs fitness. He's had a relaxed winter and a slow return to work after his navicular diagnosis and now we are back up to 5-6 days a week of work (unfortunately most of which is spent in the school as it's still too dark to ride after work!) I try and hack once a week for an hour (mostly in walk) school 2 days for 45 mins and then 1 hour in my lesson and then 1 day he is "lunged" - ie chased around the arena (my instructor advised me to do this to get him moving without me on him)

My instructor wants me to work on building his fitness/stamina to help him with his canter work to move up to actually competing at prelim (not just practicing all of the tests at home ) but with the ground being so wet I am limited with my options in how much trot and canter I can do outside of the arena! On top of this, he really does not like hacking by himself and we've had a few knocks of confidence even with other people so currently quite happy if we can pootle around in a walk but this is not really helping our fitness!

I don't have my own transport so need to hire and it's ideal for me to share with someone else which I do but we are limited to once a month really due to costs and she likes to use her hire for competitions so that's what we usually share for which is fine.

The two options I was thinking of were:

1. Pay out the extra money to hire a box and go to the gallops or farm ride once a month - would once a month really do much for our fitness? It's not like I could whack him straight up the gallops or canter him all the way round the farm ride but at least we could do more cantering than we do at the moment
2. Persevere and just canter in the arena trying to build it up a bit more each time? We only have a 20x40 and I don't like doing loads with him in there.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

 

[[59668]]

DOn't underestimate the value of hacking in walk and trot. I do a lot of this, and while it sounds like you have had some difficulty hacking I do think this is worth working on. The more you do it, the better it should get. I have been working on hacking alone, as I find it really hard and my cob mare isn't the bravest alone, so I have been hacking for 30 mins alone after every schooling session (built up to this long), doing one longer hack alone a week (1hr) and hacking in company once a week. I school for 20/30 mins twice a week, and go out to a clinic/comp/gallops at the weekends. She is actually really fit now, and I am surprised how well this has worked.

 

[be positive]

More hacking will help but I would also gradually increase the canter work in the school, I only have a 20x40 and that is fine for the work at prelim level, most people do not do enough in canter, it tends to get put on the end of a schooling session when really it can be used in the warm up, some more intense work and during the cool down all of which help build stamina, i helps stop the horse treating it as exciting, or hard work depending on the horse, lots of transitions in and out keeping the actual canter short is helpful for something lacking balance or stamina.
Don't forget to use pole work to break up the flatwork, jumping as well if you can will all benefit the canter as well as get them using different muscles especially as he is not getting much hacking and hillwork.

 

[Leo Walker]

I'd be hacking as much as I could. The canter work can be worked on on the lunge and then transferred to under saddle. I'm trying to improve my ponies canter at the minute. Shes a driving pony so its especially tricky and her natural canter is poor to start. Shes doing 6 miles trotting as often as I can, sadly only once or twice a week at the minute, and then 2 sessions in the school. 1 schooling where we mainly walk and trot and then work on canter transitions and cantering alternate long sides etc. The other session is fun stuff for her. We do 1 or 2 lunge sessions as well. Raised poles work wonders for core strength and fitness.

If you've got a water treadmill near you I'd be trying that out as well. She currently is far fitter than she should be, and thats because for the last 2 months the school has been flooding on and off. When it does I've been lunging her in the water at walk and steady trot. Its been a 10 metre stretch of mid cannon bone water, and it has improved her fitness and strength like nothing else I have ever seen. I only started doing it in desperation, but now I am out there every time it floods and intend to take her to the water treadmill over the summer as well when/if it finally dries up!

 

[emfen1305]

Ok so sounds like I just need to get my brave pants on and get hacking then! I feel like I can count every second when we hack on our own so we only go for about 10 minutes! But i suppose if I do that after a schooling session then that's better than nothing!

Actually I have just started doing canter in the middle of the session rather than at the end but that's just been this last week, and we've been focusing on the transitions mainly up and down and I have noticed that has helped. Totally forgot about poles as well so can add that in too!

The water treadmill would cost the same as the gallops as would have to hire transport but it's a good idea about the water, when it rains one side of our bridle way gets totally flooded so can ride him through that as the ground is firm so I trust it!

All fab ideas as usual, thanks guys!

 

[JFTDWS]

Walk and trot out hacking will definitely build fitness. The amount of canter fitness you need to compete at prelim is really pretty minimal - I certainly wouldn't be hiring gallops to build it unless you actually want to go for a good gallop. Sledgehammer to crack a nut and all that I'd focus your resources on good training and save your lorry hiring budget for competing. You have an arena at home, you can definitely achieve prelim (and beyond) fitness in there with walk and trot hacking. I agree with BP - most people simply don't canter enough in normal work. Try using a gait tracker like equilab or similar - routinely in an hour's session I'd be doing at least 10 minutes canter work. This could rise to 20 or higher if I was really working on something.

 

[Kat]

For prelim dressage you don't need any significant level of fitness. Can your horse cope with an hour dressage lesson with a few short walk breaks without blowing excessively or getting very sweaty? If so there is no reason you shouldn't be able to go out and do a prelim test.

However to improve fitness I would definitely increase your hacking. One hour of mainly walking isn't much, try to go for an hour and a half or two hours and add some trotting in. If you have any hills then these are great for fittening. I manage to keep my horse hunting fit mainly with walk/trot hacking and some school work, I don't really have anywhere to gallop regularly. I normally aim to hack both weekend days unless I am competing or hunting and both hacks will be over an hour.

I would swap your "free schooling" for proper lunging work. Talk to your instructor and maybe even get a lesson in effective lunging so that you can make this time really count. 15 minutes is plenty as it is pretty hard work, but make sure the horse is working correctly and moving forward. Lunging on two lines is great if you can manage it but if not talk to your instructor about what lunging aids to use something like side reins, a cambon, bungee or equiami would probably help improve his topline strength as well as just fitness. Make sure you incorporate lots of transitions rather than just letting him bomb around.

In terms of your general schooling I would second the recommendation of a tracker like Equilab to monitor how much time you spend in each pace and on each rein. I would also suggest checking your watch and noting how long you school for.

Incorporate canter into your warm up. Count your laps of the school to make sure you do a suitable amount. I often canter large around the school one lap then do a 20m circle at A, B and C, then change the rein and do the same as part of my warm up before I start working on what ever I have planned to work on.

You can also do interval training in the school, you can't go very fast but it is a way of making sure you get enough canter work in and are able to increase in. I set a timer on my phone that beeps every minute and plan how long to spend in each pace on each rein. It is quite a good way to do something productive when you are short of time and don't want to *school*.

My timetable in winter is normally two days hacking then 3-4 days in the school of which one day might be lunging. Each hack is over an hour and each schooling session is 30 minutes minimum, lunging 20 minutes maximum. Obviously you build up gradually if your horse is unfit.

 

[emfen1305]

Thanks - sorry I should have been a bit clearer in my original post - he is fit enough to do a prelim and I could go out and compete but the quality of the work will be better the fitter he is and I don't really want to go out and compete when I know the quality could be better.

I do need to be better at hacking, I am hoping once the lighter nights come I can go every night consistently until it's not such a big deal and then i'll be able to go for longer. No hills sadly but we aren't far away from fields where I can have some short canters when it dries up.

I will definitely download equilab - i've never heard of it before but it looks good.

Thanks for all the advice! Roll on Spring!

 

[be positive]

Thanks - sorry I should have been a bit clearer in my original post - he is fit enough to do a prelim and I could go out and compete but the quality of the work will be better the fitter he is and I don't really want to go out and compete when I know the quality could be better.

I do need to be better at hacking, I am hoping once the lighter nights come I can go every night consistently until it's not such a big deal and then i'll be able to go for longer. No hills sadly but we aren't far away from fields where I can have some short canters when it dries up.

I will definitely download equilab - i've never heard of it before but it looks good.

Thanks for all the advice! Roll on Spring!

You are correct thinking the fitter he is the better the quality of the work, especially for a cob that can find cantering hard anyway so they get tired, lose balance ending up more onto their forehand so the quality deteriorates even further, aim for short bursts of quality canter, trotting before he needs to, do more of them and gradually increase the time but always be aware losing the quality and continuing may not help his confidence so can be counter productive.