kirstie
Well-Known Member
I am currently bringing my horse back into work after a 6 week break. She has been back in work now for two weeks, the first week was spent just in walk, in the school a little bit but mainly hacking. I introduced trot in the second week, gradually building it up- again in the school with slightly less hacking due to my work hours and less daylight hrs. I am going to start to introduce canter in the beginning of the 3rd week. I am riding 5-6 times a week.
She is a 9yr old Trakehner who I compete in dressage on, I am hoping to really concentrate on training over the winter and be out at Elementary early spring. We are behind in our training due to her taking a long time to physically and mentally mature and then having a long break off when I had an injury 3 years ago. It took me a long time to regain my confidence to ride properly again- I now feel we are both ready to really pick up the work and progress in our training.
She is a good doer in the summer but can tend to drop off over the winter if not carefully managed. She currently looks good, very shiny but I would not want her any lighter weight wise and I would really like to start building some muscle. In hindsight, she has always struggled to build muscle, despite being worked correctly, though not always as consistently as I would like. I am aiming to rectify the work issue from now on and want to ensure that her diet is correct and will maximise her muscle mass and support her weight through the winter.
She is currently on ½ scoop alfa A and ½ scoop high fibre nuts. She is out on good grass 8-9 hrs a day and currently has 10lbs of very good quality hay at night. She is sharp through the winter and feels the cold, so is well rugged. I would normally introduce sugar beet in the next few weeks when the grass looses goodness and obviously up the hay and other hard feed.
She will be worked 5-6 days a week through the winter; schooling, one hack a week and some lunging with draw reins.
I am open to any suggestions- thank you for reading if you got this far!
She is a 9yr old Trakehner who I compete in dressage on, I am hoping to really concentrate on training over the winter and be out at Elementary early spring. We are behind in our training due to her taking a long time to physically and mentally mature and then having a long break off when I had an injury 3 years ago. It took me a long time to regain my confidence to ride properly again- I now feel we are both ready to really pick up the work and progress in our training.
She is a good doer in the summer but can tend to drop off over the winter if not carefully managed. She currently looks good, very shiny but I would not want her any lighter weight wise and I would really like to start building some muscle. In hindsight, she has always struggled to build muscle, despite being worked correctly, though not always as consistently as I would like. I am aiming to rectify the work issue from now on and want to ensure that her diet is correct and will maximise her muscle mass and support her weight through the winter.
She is currently on ½ scoop alfa A and ½ scoop high fibre nuts. She is out on good grass 8-9 hrs a day and currently has 10lbs of very good quality hay at night. She is sharp through the winter and feels the cold, so is well rugged. I would normally introduce sugar beet in the next few weeks when the grass looses goodness and obviously up the hay and other hard feed.
She will be worked 5-6 days a week through the winter; schooling, one hack a week and some lunging with draw reins.
I am open to any suggestions- thank you for reading if you got this far!
