travelmad
Well-Known Member
Anyone able to point me to some good fitness plans?
Basically by May horse needs to be up to decent fitness for chukkas.
At the mo he gets ridden 3 times during the week, mostly semi-intense schooling - 40 minutes, and twice at weekends - lessons,etc - probably harder work for an hour or so. He is becoming relatively fit after having Nov and dec off, and fit enough to just lightly sweat in these sessions (apart from when he gets over excited).
He is muscling up nicely, building good topline on his neck but needs to put on further muscle on his back and bum, so a lot of the schooling work is concentrated on circles and turns etc.
How do I build him up from here? In an ideal world I want to keep working him 5 days a week as its not easy to get to the yard every day (hes on part livery). Can you get a horse properly fit if they are only ridden 5 days a week? Is lunging (am considering purchasing an equi ami) before riding those other days worth it?
And...
What about going to gallops?
The fields are not ready yet but there is one decent set of hills we can use for canter fitness. In meantime was thinking of paying to use race yard gallops? How often would you have to do this for it to be beneficial? Is once a week enough or is it too little and will it just be a waste of money?
Thanks!!
Basically by May horse needs to be up to decent fitness for chukkas.
At the mo he gets ridden 3 times during the week, mostly semi-intense schooling - 40 minutes, and twice at weekends - lessons,etc - probably harder work for an hour or so. He is becoming relatively fit after having Nov and dec off, and fit enough to just lightly sweat in these sessions (apart from when he gets over excited).
He is muscling up nicely, building good topline on his neck but needs to put on further muscle on his back and bum, so a lot of the schooling work is concentrated on circles and turns etc.
How do I build him up from here? In an ideal world I want to keep working him 5 days a week as its not easy to get to the yard every day (hes on part livery). Can you get a horse properly fit if they are only ridden 5 days a week? Is lunging (am considering purchasing an equi ami) before riding those other days worth it?
And...
What about going to gallops?
The fields are not ready yet but there is one decent set of hills we can use for canter fitness. In meantime was thinking of paying to use race yard gallops? How often would you have to do this for it to be beneficial? Is once a week enough or is it too little and will it just be a waste of money?
Thanks!!
