Getting a young horse fit

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Kristine

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Ok so I have just started to ride a 6 yr old Irish Vanner and I am planning on taking him to some pair's x country, hunter trials and things like that.

The only problem is that after a 1 hour hack with 2 gallops he is quite sweaty where as he feild mate doesn't, can some one please give me some tips to help with his fitness or point me towards a good website that has some good fitness plans

thank you in advance

Kristine
 
He may be sweaty beacuse he is too hot. Is he clipped. Hill work is great for fitness as is interval training - canter several minutes then trot several mins and repeat the process
 
He is clipped, he's got a blanket clip. He only has hills around him. One of our canter/ gallops is up where the other is up a hill down a hill then back up (there the two main one's we have). To get to any decent hacking we have to climb a huge chalk hill (no so steep but long)

I have taken him hunting once and he did an hour and a half but it was stupidly hilly and he struggled.
 
Babies do find all work mentally and physically tiring, and with vanners they take a long time to mature, so it may not be a fitness issue, but a maturity issue. My old cobby has only just properly filled out and grown up, so just keep it easy with him. No reason why he shouldnt do small HT, just let him tell you when he has had enough!
 
He's good at telling me when he has had enough!

he turns his head around and tries to nibble my boot!

I didn't realise it took so long for cob's/ vanners to mature!

That explains more than a lot!

Thank you
 
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