Bringing horse back to work, advice??

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amanda1788

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My horse has been out of any heavy work for the last 3ish months. I've been hacking him over this period but nothing strenuous just short periods of trotting. He has not got any injuries I just did not have much time over the winter to ride.

So I am now wanting to start schooling him again, but am unsure how much work I should be doing on each schooling session. Initially should I just do 15-20mins of mainly walk with periods of trotting. Getting him use to moving and doing changes of reins and circles?

Thanks for any advice.
 
I wouldn't even trot to begin with, just walk. Let him have lots of breaks to stretch as well as schooling is much harder work than hacking would be. You have all the time in the world, so no need to rush :)
 
It depends on how much you have asked of him out hacking. Were you making him work in an outline? Either way his tendons and ligaments will eb strong and he should have retained muscle tone so I would crack on with it! You will soon feel if he is tired when working him on the school. You don't need to walk circles etc. Just make sure that you keep periods of 'work' short so he doesn't get tired and loose confidence- i.e canter 2/3 20 metre circles and then do something he finds easier. Lateral work (even in walk) will help him stretch, use himself and loosen up his across his back. Best to keep work long and lo for a bit and build up some topline!
 
I bought my mare back into work after having 3 months of easy work (she was ridden a bit and lunged everyother day). I followed this plan with her and it worked really well, slightly diffrent though as she is an ex racer.

Week 1 and 2 - walking on roads for 20mins progressing to 30 in week 2
Week 3 and 4 - walking on roads for 30mins progressing to 40/50 in week 4
Week 4 - introduce hill work in walk and 5 mins of trot on the road
Week 5 and 6 - increase walk and trot work on road and intoduce hill work in trot
Week 6 - introduce short canter on grass, continue increasing very thing else, start schooling
Week 7 - increase time schooling, increase length of canter on hack, continue road work in walk and trot
Week 8 - continue with above, introduce long canters, introduce short periods of gallop
Week 9 - introduce jumping, begin interval training on hacks, continue schooling.

She has followed this programme and has built up a lot of muscle and is comp fit.
Hope it helps :)
 
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how fit was he before? was he correctly muscled before? and has he been living out? and what breed? (sorry for so many questions :o)
my mare is chunky ish and takes longer to get fit than a tb ;) but she lives out so maintains her fitness quite well over holidays :)
i'd build up fitness on hacks first for the next few weeks asking horse to work itself correctly - then introduce schooling when he is stronger :)
or maybe do 10mins each time you ride in arena in walk for now just doing bending and flexing etc - and build up more on hacks - then gradually build up arena work over next few weeks - introducing trots etc in a few weeks - all still only 10mins at at time till he's stronger
i bet he's fitter than you think ;)
 
He is a welsh X, lives out and wasn't really fit just did 2/3 schooling sessions a week and hacking. I didn't do much jump work as he is still learning. He's 6 by the way.Thank you for comments so far. x
 
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