Help me to get him fit! (and other questions)

[Jackson]

I'm almost ashamed to say that Jack has ballooned from his fairly trim winter/spring belly to becoming a full on pig, and I only have my self to blame

Here is a fairly recent picture of the chub. I would love to hear how you get yours fit, and to drop the pounds. And also how you get them to use their backs and hind end more I would also like to hear some interesting excersises that we can do in the school, as he gets bored and distracted way too easily

We also struggle with getting him to stretch down in to the reins, and retain 'foreward' when I try and actively push him in to the bit (if that makes sense, he can have moments where he works brilliantly when we are bending in to corners, almost by accident, on the bends of serpentines and so on, but then we both just sort of flop and fail, his head goes up in the air and I can't get him working nicely.) I would love to know how to improve this. We are both self taught to a point and sometimes I worry that we don't do things right or proplerly, but apart from an occasional lesson from my mum, we don't really recieve any instruction damn money!

Feel free not to read what is after the picture, it's a bit waffly but just describes what we do at the moment

Thanks for reading!!

Today, three people have commented on how large he is compared to his former self, and we're moving yards in a couple of weeks so would like to get him slightly fitter for then, and then use the gorgeous hacking up there to keep us entertained while keeping the pounds off ready for a couple of competitions and a bit of fun later on

Anyway, at the moment, he is being ridden for half an hour at W/T and some quick canter transitions on the lunge (was having trouble getting the right leads, but it's well in to being sorted now, I hope.) at the end. We're also troting over a couple of poles and sometimes walk in hand over them to cool down and have some 'relaxy time' afterwards.

Some things that I struggle with are getting him motivated, and to work properly over his back, we're doing some leg yielding to get him moving away from my leg so that I can push him in to the corners easier, and stuff like that.

I was going to just increase the ammount of time that we were riding to maybe 3/4 of an hour, but wondered if just increasing the intensity of the work that he is actually doing at the moment might be more benificial.. like.. doing more bending, more poles, and maybe a bit more canter on the lunge? Sometimes I need to motivate myself too; sometimes I tend to go off in to dream world and let him dawdle and then end up on the floor

Thanks for reading... I have some polos that I can offer?

 

[canteron]

Actually, I think he looks lovely, but the grass does tend to blow them up at this time of year, so you either have to have them on less space, bring them in and feed soaked hay or work more - or a little bit of all.

Regarding getting him more on the bit, my experience is that you just have to persevere - it really does take time to get consistency. Just celebrate the small moments and keep working and they will become longer and more often. Be careful not to start messing with the head too much.

On motivation - a couple of thoughts apart from the obvious (lessons). Video yourself and to be honest, see how comfortable you look in the saddle and play with that, do you tip forward on transitions (if so hold your core more), etc. Get you mum to analyse the video with you - its really great helps if you see what someone on the ground see and helps you improve!

Also, if you can enter for a dressage competition and give yourself something to work towards - but if you can't get out could you do an 'interdressage' competition, they are dressage competitions on-line - you can google them.

Also, horses can get bored with too much school, so for fitness, if you don't want to hack out, try pony club games on your own (as in charging up & down the school and inbetween obstacles) anything to make the session fun for your horse!!

Good luck.

 

[Jackson]

Actually, I think he looks lovely, but the grass does tend to blow them up at this time of year, so you either have to have them on less space, bring them in and feed soaked hay or work more - or a little bit of all.

Regarding getting him more on the bit, my experience is that you just have to persevere - it really does take time to get consistency. Just celebrate the small moments and keep working and they will become longer and more often. Be careful not to start messing with the head too much.

On motivation - a couple of thoughts apart from the obvious (lessons). Video yourself and to be honest, see how comfortable you look in the saddle and play with that, do you tip forward on transitions (if so hold your core more), etc. Get you mum to analyse the video with you - its really great helps if you see what someone on the ground see and helps you improve!

Also, if you can enter for a dressage competition and give yourself something to work towards - but if you can't get out could you do an 'interdressage' competition, they are dressage competitions on-line - you can google them.

Also, horses can get bored with too much school, so for fitness, if you don't want to hack out, try pony club games on your own (as in charging up & down the school and inbetween obstacles) anything to make the session fun for your horse!!

Good luck.

Thank you He is an incredibly good doer so he is on limited grazing and nothing else, but he still manages to keep the weight

I love the idea fo online dressage, that's something that we can certainly try, but we weill have to get our canter 100% under saddle first

As for how comfortable I am.. I'm having saddle fit issues for my self atm; I have really long legs, but ride quite short due to short stirrup leathers and a bit of a wobbly leg and my knees poke off the front of the saddle, but my bum only fills a fraction of the seat it comprimises my riding somewhat, so I do pretty much everything bareback as much as possible, but that's okay, because I'm actually able to get him going better that way

I hate asking my Mum for horsey help though, being a poor student I rely on her way too much already financially, never mind expecting free lessons, she must be so fed up of her dear daughter

We do love to charge about though, and recently got to try out the RDA's handy pony course that they left out overnight wich was great fun and really woke him up!

Should have added that we do loads of hacking here, but it is all on roads which is limiting, and drivers around here are..

Thanks!!

 

[hannahmurphy]

Canter work burns calories so up that if you want to get his belly trim again for move to new yard! Whereas trot is the best of muscle building .... If you're aiming to slim him up a bit I would do it on the lunge, lots of canter work with lots of transitions, soon be back to former self

 

[Jackson]

Thank you Need to increase his canter and hopefully it will be under saddle soon too, so I guess that will be extra..

 

[Walrus]

My boy has been on a fitness campaign for about the last 6-7 weeks. He is noticably fitter now compared to when we started. I've been working him 6 days a week, mainly hacking with maybe 1-2 days in the school. Out hacking we've been marching forwards, trotting up hills and I've been trying to work him in an outline for maybe a third of our hacks. Most of our hacks are about an hour (at least). He's feeling bouncy and has never been fitter - I on the other hand am exhausted and nearly on my knees!! Have a weekend away this weekend so he's having 2 days off for the first time in weeks!