Best way to get a horse fit

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JessPickle

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I want to try and get Pickle a bit fitter and am really not sure what kind of exercise regime I should have him on. We have an indoor school, jumps, are allowed to lunge and lots of hilly hacking! currently he does the following.

monday- Nothing
Tuesday- Schooling for 40 mins OR Hacking in walk/trot and a bit of canter 1 hour but sometimes nothing!
Wednesday-Schooling for 40 mins OR Hacking in walk/trot and a bit of canter 1 hour
Thursday- Hacking for 1.5 plus 30 min schooling session
Friday- try to tack him on a hack but sometimes he ends up doing nothing
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Saturday- 1.5 flatwork lesson and 1 hour jumping lesson
Sunday- 1 hour flatwork lesson + 1/1.5 hours hacking

So thoughts please, I currently don't lunge much but he does lunge
 
how fit do you want him! I would say with the amount that you are doing he should be pretty fit anyway! Mine probably does 2 lunge sessions (20 mins), 2 schooling (45 mins) and 1 or 2 hacks a week and he is pretty fit!
 
Wow He Must Be Really Fit..! One Of Mine Event And They Dont Even Do That Much!! Lool Good Luck With Him
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When I put / I meant either or! he either hacks or schools. People have just said if I want to do more with him he needs to be fitter.
 
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I'm glad you meant <u>either</u> because he'd either be very fit or extremely knackered doing it all
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LOL he would probably fall asleep mid hack if I did all of that
 
I think that's a lovely regime, and if that is a typical week then he's probably not unfit at all.
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I think the only addition could perhaps be more varied and strenuous trot and canter work, for example uphill cantering, prolonged periods of trot and lots of transitions between both, a sort of HIIT session if you like. A weekly gallop on good ground would do him good too.
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Even so that still seems a lot of work! It is more than I needed to get a fairly cobby IDXTB Novice fit anyway!
Maybe focus on quality rather than quantity. If you work him hard ie lots of transitions or grids you can get a lot done in 40 mins (use the rest of your hour for warm up/cool down).
Trotting up hills is brill and interval training for that final bit of stamina.
 
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maybe ask for him to work in the RS on the days you can't work him or try lunging. Introducing hill work will help too.

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I don't really have that option, he is ridden by the same regular clients on the same days. They arn't going to change days. Also all horses on working livery have to work weekends
 
You could try to do more trotting and cantering up hills when you hack him out- doing more intense faster work or interval training will get him fitter as well
 
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