Bringing a horse back into work after a year off

[xxkatejayxx]

How would you do it?? Could you give me a rough fittening plan - would be required to hack out once, twice max a week for about an hour - an hour and a half plus approx 3 fun rides a year and some schooling (on grass, fairly flat and for approx 20 - 30 mins every couple of days when fully fit)

Hes been off work as his owner works 12 hour shifts so doesn't have much time to spend with him, hence why shes loaning him out. Hes out on grass 24/7

 

[bellaM]

You want to start by walking him out in hand and move on to long reining just to get him fit and build him up. Lunging can be taxing on a horse that have sat in a field for a long time!
I'd do this for a few weeks, then perhaps think about some gentle lunging, after that build up the riding slowly starting by just walking out and some trotting. Good luck, just don't rush things!

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Was he off due to injury? If not:

At the yard I work we would start by riding the horse in walk for 20 minutes a day, just hacking to start with. Build to half an hour by the end of the week. Increase this by ~ 10mins a week, starting to trot in week 3, just once on each rein for a few hundred metres initially, gradually building up by adding one more trot a day (so long as horse feels up to it). In week five we would introduce canter as we did trot. For the work this horse is to do I'd imagine he'd be fit enough after only a few weeks of trot and canter. Can introduce schooling in third week if desired, I would start off just 'schooling' for 10 mins at the end of a hack. Only do basic exercises to start with, i.e. 20m circles, changes of rein across diagonals, later introduce leg yielding, serpentines etc when you feel he is ready. Basically take everything slowly. Try to ride him atleast every other day the during initial fittening period.

 

[AmyMay]

The last horse we had in this situation was a mare that had been off for around 18 months through pregnancy and foaly's birth.

We initially rode her for around 20 mins a day - building up to an hour in the second week. This was all done in walk and on the roads. From there on we just increased the length of time she was walked for - starting to do some trot work in around week 4 or 5 (might be a bit quick for some).

The mare came to hand very, very quickly.

 

[Petrie]

If she's been off for a year, I would take 4 weeks of just walking on the roads to start with. This might sound over-cautious (and really boring!) but a year is a long time of doing nothing, and everything will be very soft indeed.

You could start with 20 mins a day in hand or ridden (being careful of saddle sores) then build up gradually from there, until you're doing 1hr 30 walking on the roads by the end of the four weeks.

Then you can introduce trotting, light schooling, very light lunging, and build up gradually.

 

[vicm2509]

Week 1 - walk for 20 mins, icreasing to about 30-40 by the end of the week on a flat surface i.e grass or not too deep menage
Week 2 - Introduce short bursts of trot and some road walking. Increasing walk to upto 1hr per day
Week 3 - Increase trot
Week 4 - Introduce a little canter and maybe some hill work
Week 5 - Walk, trot and canter doing more hill work and perhaps some lunging
Week 6 - all paces developed, can start some galloping and jumping.

Obviously varies with horses age and condition and what he has done before but that would be about right for the average horse that has been in work before.