Getting a horse fit for pony club camp (again)

R2R

R2R

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I have said a teenager on my yard can take my 5 year old to pony club camp. She rides him well but is quite novicey - and has come on leaps and bounds since I last posted!!

ANYWAY

Her stuff for camp came through and it says the horses are ridden twice a day for 2 hours a time! I didnt realise this....how on earth do you get them fit? Would hunting fit be enough?

I take my neds hunting on 1 hrs hard work a day and additional longer faster hacks at the weekends (DIY/WORK etc)

Is this sufficient for camp?
 
I think it will be fine, you have to remember a lot of the riding is in lessons when they will be waiting and watching others for some of the time its not non stop trotting/cantering round for 2 hours at a time.
 
Yeah that will be fine.

Remember hunting is flatout and jumping....camp will be active and longer than your normal ridden hours yes....but not flat out constantly like hunting. They get fairly fit themselves over the week and adjust too tbf with adrenaline and all of that.
 
We didn't do anything specifically to fitten daughter's pony for camp. She normally works about five days a week, of which one day will be competing, perhaps another a lesson of up to one hour's duration, then the rest hacking, schooling, jumping etc., but normally sessions are no longer than an hour. As said above, the camp riding sessions usually involve a lot of standing about in between active work.
 
I think you'll be fine. Our pc has an age limit for camp - I think it is 5. We've had a couple of youngsters attend if it is just a case of it its been a hard day's work, hot temps etc, and if the pony is looking stressed / tired, then it perhaps doesn't do the afternoon. Some afternoons are more land based / theory / stable management etc anyway. Just see how he gets on and take it from there. Hope he's a good boy and has fun!
 
Thanks for replies I went c/r jumping last night so wasnt online!

He is a hard nut I am sure he will go on and on - we went for a hack the other weekend, did quite a lot of fittening work for my friends eventer, me keeping up on my boy...both ended up a bit sweaty but not my youngster! He wasnt even puffing and still wanted to go on the way home!

Do you think it would be worth putting him on a slow release energy mix?

:D
 
Changing his feed won't make any difference to his actual fitness! However, if you are increasing his work then he will be using up more calories, so you may have to either up his current feed or change to a higher calorie one, if you find he starts to lose weight.

As he is young and the rider is quite novice, then I would opt for something low in cereals and starch, just to make sure he doesn't get above himself! (Usually the cube version of a feed is less starchy than the equivalent mix - for example Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes has less starch than their Slow Release Mix).

What is he being fed at the moment?

Sprog's pony only got high fibre cubes at camp, although we upped the quantity she normally gets.
 
He currently gets ½ a scoop of basic nuts, ¼ scoop D&H build up mix, 1 scoop garlic chaff and some sugar beet twice a day, as well as adlib haylage and a whole host of additives :D
 
Hi, even if it says 2 hours twice a day, some of these sessions will be taken up with stable management too, (well that's how it was when I used to go!) so horses are not always ridden for this amount of time! Also as others have said in the lessons there will be lots of waiting around due to group sizes!
 
At our camp they're stabled 24/7, so they need to get out twice a day. They do stand around at times, it's not like a 2 hr schooling session.

We've never fittened them for camp, & I've rarely seen them sweat during lessons!

Because of the stabling 24/7, we get them used to a different routine & give more hay in the preceding weeks.
 
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