Fitness program for 19 year old horse

[gymkana3000]

I currently have a 19 year old riding school cob gelding on part loan, and I would like to bring his fitness up over a period of 6-8 weeks
Here are his details:
Age - 19
In work? - He is currently in work, does walk and trot classes 4 times a day, 5 days a week. Does canter work (but not for long - about 5-10 minutes worth) about once or twice a week.
Any Medical issues? - He has arthritis in his fetlock joints, however it has only caused a problem once and has been sound since.
I'm looking for him to loose a bit of weight, for his cardiovascular fitness to be good enough to do a small course (he's an ex show jumper) and to improve his top line. Have any of you got any programs or regimes that I can do with him? I'm not allowed to changed his feed at all, but the amount of work can be increased/decreased.
Thank you!
gymkana3000

 

[Shay]

You do have some potential challenges.

Although he is sound now at the level of work he currently does I would be very worried about building him up to jump because of the arthritis. It would be worth speaking to your vet at an early stage to check your plans with them. It might be that he won't be able to jump. So you need to get that sorted first.

Ideally as you work to bring his fitness up you need to be able to control his feed as well. If he is slightly overweight now that may not be an immediate problem - but longer term you may need to be able to play with the forage / concentrate ratio.

Outside that - longer periods of correct work are going to work better than short more intense work. And only lots of time / correct work builds top line. I'm presuming he isn't worked in an outline by the RS so the first thing is going to be to start to ask for short periods of correct work on an outline; building that up slowly. With an instructor do make sure that you know what you need to ask of him - there is no point just holding his head in place (if he'll let you) without working on the other elements of self carriage, suppleness etc in place.

Programme wise for cardiovascular fitness (and assuming the vet says this is ok for the arthritis). Hacking is your friend. I'd look to bring in a little hill work ASAP. Starting with walking up / down hills building up over a week / 10 days to hill work work every ridden day; progressing to short trot work. Aiming for hacks of about an hour long each day - but starting in walk and progressing slowly upward over 3 - 4 weeks. Possibly longer so you reduce the risk of strain on his joints. You've got to balance this with his work in the RS which is going to be a complication - especially if there are periods of time when you can't take him so fitting in an hour or so of work every ridden day over his lesson work might be a challenge? Most horses can accept work 6 days per week - but that may not be an option for the RS - or at his age. Once he is fitter from hacking then start to introduce poles etc.

Perhaps a good place to start - other than with the vet of course - is speaking to a senior instructor at the RS to see what they recommend to enable you to reach your goal of jumping him.