Fitness plan - TB had break after taking shoes off

[doris2008]

My rising 12 yr TB had his shoes taken off last September. He has a history of foot pain related problems which were helped with remedial shoeing & bute. Last year bit the bullet & decided to sack shoes off in the hope of improving feet. Had great results - feet are stronger, no longer cracked, he is much more confident on them & they have hardened off well. Heels beginning to look better & hopefully long term soles will thicken up.
Basically I have never had a horse which hasnt been shod which wasnt a native!
He can still be foot sore on roads & is definatley sensitive on stones - very! But he is sound when trotted up on the road. He is also no longer on bute. I am definatley going to sort him out some boots as I dont think he will be up to much road work without them.
He has done pretty much nothing since shoes were removed other than the odd stroll up the road in hand.
How much should I start off expecting him to do? The most I have asked of him is 10/15 minutes up the road in hand. I was thinking in the time until I have sorted boots to start some long rein work in the field as I dont want to start school work until he has hardened off a bit & developed some muscles from walk work. I am fairly sure riding is out of the question for now as he has lost all muscle & saddle wont fit so will get it refitted when he has started some work.
Am just after a few tips really from those who might have done this before..

 

[Saxon_Jasmine]

Hiya,

I recently bought my TB back into fitness, although she had only been off work for 2/3 months, so slightly different from yours. I found an article on H&H website about fitness plans which was really helpful. I think you would have to modify it slightly for your horse as he/she has been of work for quite a while.

I did some more research and found that it is best to plan a 8-10 week plan that increases the work and introduces different things each week.

You could maybe start with 20mins walking in hand/long reining/poss. lunging and increase the time through out the week. Then introduce slightly longer walks and poss. trotting by the end of the second week. After three weeks you could be doing 30/40mins walk and 10mins trot (long reining or in hand). It is best to do this on a hack/in a field rather than in the school. If the horse is happy walking and trotting with no rider then you could start riding him in the fourth week for 10/15mins a day in walk, then build up to longer periods of walk and introduce trot in the fifth/sixth week. You could also introduce canter on the lunge in the sixth week. Then from here gradually build up the walk and trot when he is ridden and introduce trot poles in trot and canter on the lunge. Introduce short (2mins and building up) periods of canter when he is ridden. By the eighth/ninth week he should be able to walk for about 40mins, trot for 10/15mins and canter for 5-ish mins on a hack. If he can do this then you could start schooling him, starting with basic things like transitions and listening to the leg, then asking for a contact and lateral work.

Hope this helps!

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

I've done it slightly differently with my TB that's been off for about 9 months. He has been out all that time in the field.

He had shoes put on and went out on exercise that day. I started off riding him for 15 mins on the straight and its been going up by about 5/10 minutes a day. We are still walking on the flat but will progress to doing hills after about 2 weeks. We have a lot of different hills round us - some gentle, some steep. Obviously the steep ones will be saved till further down the line. I'm not even considering schooling him for at least 6 - 8 weeks. I'd like to be able to ride for over an hour with walk, trot and canter work included before taking him into school to do squares and circles.

 

[doris2008]

Thanks. I think it is more the lack of shoes that is worrying me! And how he will cope.
Sadly we dont have any hills! At all! Would be delighted to have just one!