Exercise schedule for pony - tips

Gropony

Gropony

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 February 2025
Messages
101
Visit site
I would love to have some tips on what would be a good use of my limited time so that I can control my pony's weight a bit but also increase his condition. He is a Haflinger x and currently a bit tubby, but losing it. In terms of time available:

Monday or Tuesday - 45 minutes (I can't do both)
Wednesday - he does 1 hour of TREC in a lesson
Thursday - 30 minutes or day off
Friday - he does 1 hour of lesson, warm up 5 minutes walk, 15 minutes trot, 5 minutes canter then either flatwork or jumping lesson for half an hour
Saturday - 2 hours - we do a hack but mainly walk with hills and some trot and canter because we go out with an older horse. He doesn't hack out alone and I don't have any other people to hack out with.
Sunday - 1 hour in arena mix of groundwork and mounted or I walk him out in hand up hills for an hour
I try to lunge or do groundwork once a week in the time on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday.

Aside the lessons, where I have no control over the content, what would be a good use of my time in terms of exercise? I find that after 45 minutes of arena work he starts to indicate that he has had enough and seems tired (but this could also be a lack of motivation because he is bored because he isn't sweating or out of breath). We are not allowed to jump outside of lessons.

I am thinking of getting a sharer who might want to take him to a few shows here and there, as I am not interested in that. The stables organise something almost every weekend and he could do Hunter classes (I am in France). TREC would be difficumt as he wouldn't go alone.
 
For fitness I would aim somehow to increase the hacking and possibly jumping if he enjoys it and it gets him going more than flatwork. I see it’s quite tricky in your circumstances to hack more than once per week. If you had a field you could ride in I’d suggest doing faster (or interval) work for your 45 mins or 30 mins sessions. I don’t think he’ll get fitter or lose weight with arena work unless you can keep the pace up.
 
We do have a huge graded arena so we can work reasonably. I will look at interval work.

But yes, hacking out would be better.
 
He is nine and until the age of eight had never been outside of the arena or his stable in the riding school where he was before. So it is all very overwhelming for him and he is naturally spooky. We have spent the last year going out in hand and now we can do a round trip of an hour or so. But still with several anxious moments.

Mounted he will take a few steps, stop, take a few more, getting gradually more panicked until he runs and it is dangerous because he doesn't pay any attention to where he is going. We are working on it and can now go out with another horse (he was the same in company before) and manage a 500m out and back route on his own.

I know it sounds ridiculous but it is just the way he is. I have never seen anything like it and neither has his previous very experienced owner in the riding school. If you push too much (this is true in general) he loses all control of himself, legs all over the place. He has poor eyesight in one eye which doesn't help but isn't the whole issue.

So I am careful which horses I go out with and only go with those that are bomb proof effectively. And going on his own is a work in progress.

The vet has seen him, he couldn't find any pain anywhere, he is very supple, his feet are fine, teeth are fine, he is strong. The osteopath remarked that he was unusual behaviour and interaction wise, that he interacted with the world differently than other horses, but that was all.

So yea, hacking out alone is for the future!
 
Not ridiculous at all. I bought an ex riding school horse and it's a challenge.

What worked for me was consistent daily hacking. Hunting and fun rides. The hunting was the real key to getting her to think forward.
 
Last edited:
I do walk him out after lessons, sometimes a couple of us do a short half hour tour after as well. When I ride at night this is not possible.

I am hoping that from November, when they are turned out in the sand rather than in the field it will help me out, because he doesn't eat grass so will lose weight and they run about and play a lot more because the surface is decent for such shenanigans.
 
Walking doesnt really do a lot. Get him doing canter interval work. You can do it in the school if needs be. I'd be doing interval work twice a week. And instea of ground work, lunge. I'm not a huge fan of one rein lunging for schooling purposes, but to get a horse moving and puffing in a short space of time it can work wonders.

It sounds like currently you do lots of nice things with him, and things that will improve his manners or ridden work etc, and thats great. But if you want to shift weight they need to be puffing and sweating a little bit. If you could do that 3 times a week and then do your usual hacking and lesson around that it would make a huge difference.
 
If you have access to a big enough arena or decent field, I would try building up to 4min canter on each rein. Obviously don't start all in one go, but start 30sec, 1min, 1min 30, etc over several days, timed on a watch as it's surprising how long it can feel. Give him a good walking break until breathing is back to normal and do it on the other rein. Then make sure you cool down properly.
To make it less boring, I throw in large circles, speed up, slow down, use anything left out in the arena as something to turn around. (our arena is 80m x 60m, so plenty of space, even for 175cm Enormosaurus).
 
Titchy Pony said:
If you have access to a big enough arena or decent field, I would try building up to 4min canter on each rein. Obviously don't start all in one go, but start 30sec, 1min, 1min 30, etc over several days, timed on a watch as it's surprising how long it can feel. Give him a good walking break until breathing is back to normal and do it on the other rein. Then make sure you cool down properly.
To make it less boring, I throw in large circles, speed up, slow down, use anything left out in the arena as something to turn around. (our arena is 80m x 60m, so plenty of space, even for 175cm Enormosaurus).
Click to expand...
Someone needs to make a C25K app for horses!! 😂
 
smolmaus said:
Someone needs to make a C25K app for horses!! 😂
Click to expand...
I would download it in an instant! Or something like MyFitnessPal where you put your target weight and what they eat, and it tells you based on the exercise they are doing if they will gain or lose weight.
 
Last edited:
Titchy Pony said:
If you have access to a big enough arena or decent field, I would try building up to 4min canter on each rein. Obviously don't start all in one go, but start 30sec, 1min, 1min 30, etc over several days, timed on a watch as it's surprising how long it can feel. Give him a good walking break until breathing is back to normal and do it on the other rein. Then make sure you cool down properly.
To make it less boring, I throw in large circles, speed up, slow down, use anything left out in the arena as something to turn around. (our arena is 80m x 60m, so plenty of space, even for 175cm Enormosaurus).
Click to expand...
I think that I am too soft - it is true that as he finds it hard to hold the canter for long I don't push him so that he doesn't start doing his half trot/half canter thing, so he never gets that out of breath. But I also think that he has worked out that when he does this I let him stop because the last few times he was barely sweating and not the slightest out of breath when we stopped and he was happy to go and hoon around with his friends after. He is very clever at workng out what to do to get what he wants. I probably need to push him more for his own good.

So intervals in the arena, more faster hacking and lunging. And think forward, which I think is really good advice, thank you @Amymay Again because I am always trying to keep him calm and I forget that he also needs to be free to go forwards and fast sometimes as well. I will start this week and see how we get on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top