Building up fast work to help horse lose weight

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CobsGalore

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I have spent the last month getting my fat and unfit 5 year old both fitter and slimmer. Don't get me wrong, he still has a long way to go, but I would like to start doing some fast work with him to help him lose the pounds.

He is now able to trot for much longer periods, 5-10 minutes easily, and I am starting to do little canters, probably 10-15 seconds, but I really have to push him to get this out of him. Sometimes we pop over a little jump too which gets him more 'excited' about going faster - he is a typical laid back cob!

How should I be building up his canter work? I don't want to push him too much and over do it and cause injury.

Can anyone give me a sort of plan or something for us to aim towards?

We do 'fitness' work in a field so I will not just be cantering round and round in circles in a school either!

Thank you!
 
rather than build up the speed, build up the time - if you can get to a stage where he will trot on a hack for a good 25-30mins then that will have more benefit than cantering about for a few minutes. And I mean a good active working trot, preferably carrying himself well, not shuffling about, and not stonking down the roads at full pelt either.

Once he can do that, can you trot up a good long hill?

once he can do that, can he do it twice, or more?

and then, start asking to increase the length of time he's cantering for - by that stage he should be fit enough to canter actively for a good length of time, and using that hill will improve him further still!

there used to be a book recommended by the pony club for getting horses fit... sure someone will tell you what it was....
 
I think so, that's certainly the way we get horses fit for hunting.
we do 4 weeks walk, building up to 30 mins, then 4 weeks walk and trot, building up to 40 mins trot, plus 20 mins walk, then we introduce canter work, building up to 15 minutes canter work at a time as well as the trot and walk. But, it's worth noting that we only work on a hill as there's no flat here! :)
 
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