Paint it Lucky
Well-Known Member
I am interested to know how fit people on here like their horses to be for specific events and hiw seriously you take fitness training and why, because I seem to get my horses much fitter than other people for the same events!
For example for senior PC camp which is 5hrs riding in xc, sj and D for 4/5 days with an ODE at the end I would gradually increase my horses workload, by half an hour a week to 3 and a half hours of hard work a day, 5 days a week, (with one off day and one easy day), in the weeks prior to the camp. This is our yard policy to ensure the horses are fit enough and reduce the risk of injury. The horses I've taken (and me!) have always been more than fit enough to cope and so got the most from the experience. But other campers would only ride their ponies for an hour a day in the week before the camp and consider this fit enough, and in fairness most of them did cope fine as well.
When preparing my horse for hunting I'll want him to be working 5-6 days a week and have done a few 2-3hr hacks and be used to sustained cantering before going. Yet I know other people who'll hack their horse for half an hour 2-3 times a week and then take it hunting. Their horses don't stay all day (mine does), but surely they are putting them at risk of injury and exhaustion?
The same applies to endurance rides I've done, I only enter low level rides (the most I've done is 30 miles), but for this I spend weeks, training my horse, with a long ride every weekend, building up to four hours with him. And yet I know someone who almost never rides her horse and took it to a 20mile pleasure ride the other week, ok these aren't high intensity but none the less, surely she was asking too much of her horse?
So what are your oppinions on fitness levels? I know some horses are easier to fitten than others. I used to do a lot of long distance running when I was younger so a lot of my fittening ideas come from that. Do people not fitten their horses properly because they don't know they need to/don't know the risks of not doing so? Are they too lazy, or do they assume horses are naturally fit?
For example for senior PC camp which is 5hrs riding in xc, sj and D for 4/5 days with an ODE at the end I would gradually increase my horses workload, by half an hour a week to 3 and a half hours of hard work a day, 5 days a week, (with one off day and one easy day), in the weeks prior to the camp. This is our yard policy to ensure the horses are fit enough and reduce the risk of injury. The horses I've taken (and me!) have always been more than fit enough to cope and so got the most from the experience. But other campers would only ride their ponies for an hour a day in the week before the camp and consider this fit enough, and in fairness most of them did cope fine as well.
When preparing my horse for hunting I'll want him to be working 5-6 days a week and have done a few 2-3hr hacks and be used to sustained cantering before going. Yet I know other people who'll hack their horse for half an hour 2-3 times a week and then take it hunting. Their horses don't stay all day (mine does), but surely they are putting them at risk of injury and exhaustion?
The same applies to endurance rides I've done, I only enter low level rides (the most I've done is 30 miles), but for this I spend weeks, training my horse, with a long ride every weekend, building up to four hours with him. And yet I know someone who almost never rides her horse and took it to a 20mile pleasure ride the other week, ok these aren't high intensity but none the less, surely she was asking too much of her horse?
So what are your oppinions on fitness levels? I know some horses are easier to fitten than others. I used to do a lot of long distance running when I was younger so a lot of my fittening ideas come from that. Do people not fitten their horses properly because they don't know they need to/don't know the risks of not doing so? Are they too lazy, or do they assume horses are naturally fit?
