Fittening the event horse @ Intermediate level

[jenz87]

Hi everyone!
For my Stage 4 exam we need to discuss the feeding and fittening the event horse at intermediate level. I dont event so my studying has been books/online and personal opinions from friends. Id like some more opinions if people would be willing to share!
I dont need to know the ins and outs of everyones schedules, but those of you at a similar level, how many days do you school, hack, do you do much lunging etc? Anything you think is worth noting, or something you dont particularly like that is considered the "norm"?
Also....what do you feed your eventers? I prefer to feed high forage, low sugar starch diets but this probably wont suit all eventers? Thank you in advance!

 

[sportsmansB]

Workload and schedule will be different depending on whether during the season or preseason?
I'm on a competition yard and have been involved in the management for some 15 years now, and not that much has changed except we have better tack
For example, we would bring them in November/ early December for events in ireland kicking off end march
Ours get between 4-8 weeks off depending on the horse and how hard a season they had. Properly off, field no shoes etc.

Walker and walk hack for 2-4 weeks, walker and walk/trot hack for another 2-4 weeks taking us to mid / end Jan. 6 days a week. Then we would still hack 2-3 days but introduce school x 2 and lunge x 1 on flat for a couple of weeks and then with poles / fences for a couple of weeks. prob reducing hacks to 1-2 days and increasing school work, maybe a dressage or SJ comp by mid/ end Feb. Then during early march a few cross country schools, 1-2 x a week on the gallops (but building up gently) 1 hack 1 lunge and 1-2 jump sessions or a small show.

We use the early events to build fitness, they won't come out as fit at the first one as they are at the 5th one- and ride them accordingly. By the end of April we would expect them to be at a decent level of fitness. The rest of the year then 1 x event (or if not then prob a SJ show), 1 x day off, 1 x hack, 1-2 x flat school, 1 x jump school and 1-2 gallops. Depends very much on the horse, the blood ones don't need to gallop so much for fitness but might need a hard day to tire them out if they don't have a show that week.

We try and school and canter them as much as possible in the fields once the weather dries up, events are not on a fibre surface so neither should they be.
Ours are fed very simply and get majority good quality haylage and 2-3 scoops a day of a competition 15% mix. As the season runs on they may need more, we feed by feel and eye rather than a prescription. They all get turned out a few days a week after being ridden. Some really sharp ones get more turnout and hay rather than haylage.
Thats about it. Sounds easy!!

 

[EventingMum]

Pretty much as above. When we had a horse at that level he would do his last event end of Sept/the start of October and be rested till Christmas. He would then follow a fairly traditional fittening programme in terms of initial walking and trotting, we were lucky that he was a horse that kept himself pretty fit naturally. We use interval training once cantering is established, it's pretty effective and reduces wear and tear on the limbs to some extent. Knowing about using a heart rate monitor is useful for Stage 4. First event was a level down so Novice level. Feed is very much a question of what the individual horse requires, ours didn't need anything heating, haylage, non-molassed beet, Alpha A, a balancer and electrolytes. Remember the need for regular saddle checks throughout the season as eventers to change shape with fitness, also the need for vaccinations within 6 months of events, stud holes etc (one hole per foot v two etc).

 

[jenz87]

Thank you everyone, very interesting reading! Exactly what im looking for.
Can i ask (as a generalisation, i realise every horse is different). What sort of level of cantering would you expect to see for an intermediate eventer? 3 sets of 4mins? with 4min breaks? more or less?
Do you worry about what speed you are doing or is it done by feel?

Thank you

 

[EventingMum]

Personally, I would work up to longer canters with shorter recovery times for intermediate but everything is governed by the recovery time to monitor fitness Intermediate xc is 550m/m, experience riders will know the feel of this others may need to learn this so a measured, timed distance helps develop this. Personally, we didn't use stopwatches at odes relying on feel but used them for 3DEs however there is now a trend to use them even at the lower levels especially as phone apps are available which will help set minute markers and save riders wheeling the course to calculate them.