treacle_beastie
Well-Known Member
I wonder if anyone can help me come up with a fitness programme for my horse.
She is 6 years old and has just come off 7 weeks box rest due to some deep cuts to her chest. These are now almost completely healed and she is sound and ready to start work again. She moved yard on Friday and was turned out for the first time on saturday and has been relaxed about the whole process though I did sedate her with 2.5 ml sedalin on Fri, Sat and this morning.
I rode her tonight and despite me being absolutely petrified she behaved perfectly and we walked around the school for 15 mins on large circles. ( I was scared cos last week before we moved I attempted to ride her but she did bucking bronco the first time and went vertical the next - mainly due to the fact that she was a wee bit exited to be out of her stable!)
anyway - she was fairly fit before her accident and could manage 45 min of trot and canter schooling session and was ridden/lunged/hacked 6 days a week but has obviously lost all muscle and put a few pounds on . She didn't struggle at all tonight with the 15 min walk and I felt she could easily do a couple laps of trot but I don't want to push her too much though I do plan to have a trot on her tomorrow just to see how she reacts for my own peace of mind i.e make sure she doesn't try and deck me!
I will lunge her also in the pessoa but only in walk for the first few weeks and only on the long and low setting - I know some of you don't agree with the pessoa but it worked wonders on my horse and I didn't see any mouth jabbing and she learnt to use herself properly after using this!
So what would you do to build up her fitness again? How much, what and how often?
She is 6 years old and has just come off 7 weeks box rest due to some deep cuts to her chest. These are now almost completely healed and she is sound and ready to start work again. She moved yard on Friday and was turned out for the first time on saturday and has been relaxed about the whole process though I did sedate her with 2.5 ml sedalin on Fri, Sat and this morning.
I rode her tonight and despite me being absolutely petrified she behaved perfectly and we walked around the school for 15 mins on large circles. ( I was scared cos last week before we moved I attempted to ride her but she did bucking bronco the first time and went vertical the next - mainly due to the fact that she was a wee bit exited to be out of her stable!)
anyway - she was fairly fit before her accident and could manage 45 min of trot and canter schooling session and was ridden/lunged/hacked 6 days a week but has obviously lost all muscle and put a few pounds on . She didn't struggle at all tonight with the 15 min walk and I felt she could easily do a couple laps of trot but I don't want to push her too much though I do plan to have a trot on her tomorrow just to see how she reacts for my own peace of mind i.e make sure she doesn't try and deck me!
I will lunge her also in the pessoa but only in walk for the first few weeks and only on the long and low setting - I know some of you don't agree with the pessoa but it worked wonders on my horse and I didn't see any mouth jabbing and she learnt to use herself properly after using this!
So what would you do to build up her fitness again? How much, what and how often?
