Fitness ideas?

katiieking

katiieking

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Hello! 3rd cup of coffee already whilst I try and get summer plans sorted *eeep*

Question, how do you get your horses fit?

I have a 20x40 school, but riding round every day gets boring! My hacking routes are lovely, although allow for no more than a trot, but we do have a good large field!

Would canter sessions around the fields be beneficial? Or stick to the school? The fields are safe to use and ours so no issues that way! The horses would probobally love a good gallop too, but what about your fitness training? Concentrated school work, or not so concentrated long distance?
 
I cant school mine in the summer as it gets too deep and she has leg issues so I just hack.

We do lots of hill work and lots of off road hacking, probably 40 minutes most days and this has built her up beautifully. She is really quite fit now so I am now starting to introduce schooling on hacks, lots of transitions and more fast work! (off road only) :)
 
katiieking said:
What pace are you usually going at? I worry about doing too much trotting road work incase of damaging legs!
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I do a mixture of gaits but 90% is at walk. We do go out for quite long rides though, probably 50 miles a week. Fortunately we are in a nice area and I like being out riding (we have no arena or anything). It's kept him fit and sound :)
If we were competing I'd probably have to find somewhere to do more canter work, but once the horse is used to it I've not found that steady trotting on the road causes problems. I think, also, that lots of miles out hacking keeps them happy and unstressed.
 
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Gloi said:
I do a mixture of gaits but 90% is at walk. We do go out for quite long rides though, probably 50 miles a week. Fortunately we are in a nice area and I like being out riding (we have no arena or anything). It's kept him fit and sound :)
If we were competing I'd probably have to find somewhere to do more canter work, but once the horse is used to it I've not found that steady trotting on the road causes problems.
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Ah that would be lovely! Not very scenic in my area unfortunately :(

We only have problems as we don't have great roads, very easy to slip on or trip, its the accidents that happen when trotting that cause the problem!
 
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