fitness plan

[_daisy_]

how would you go about making a fitness plan for a horse that has been out of work for over 2 years?
The horse in question is a 16.2hh ISH, is very active in the field but is overweight and has a big crest. Has been recently muzzled to reduce the intake of grass and is going to be put in a smaller paddock with less available grass.
Ive started hacking for 30mins in walk and will slowly increase it longer periods and to include trot etc, but should I be doing something extra to get rid of the crest?

 

[jumpthemoon]

If you have reduced his food intake and increased his exercise the crest/weight should come off him. I would do at least three weeks of walk, increasing the duration, before I moved on to trot if the horse had been out of work for that long.

 

[Michelle73]

Yeah, plenty of walking for 2-3 weeks then a further 2-3 weeks of long walks, hill walks, starting to introduce trot and then 2-3 weeks more trotting and introduce a small canter. But if you're intune with your horse he'll let you know when he's ready to move forward with his training/fitness. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[silverstar]

Do you need to do that if you're horse has been off for a month?

Dont mean to hijack thread but my neds coming back into work after having a month off being mainly boxed during that time. He was fitish before.