Help with fitness routine

Bustalot

Bustalot

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Would anyone beable to share their fitness routines to get their eventers fit (BE90/100) level.

Especially the interval training part, how do you measure the timings??

Sorry first time ever I have wanted to get a horse fit for XC and not sure what is the best routine.

Thanks
 
I would also love to know this. I;ve competed a fair amount over the years in all 3 disciplines but have never done a ODE. My boy is 20 now but full of it and I would love to do one before he tells me he wants to slow down! I'd love to know how I can get him fit enough to do all 3 disciplines so close together! He's a traditional cob too so he's not natually built for stamina at high speeds and often finds himself running out of puff at the end of the XC. Therefore I'm thinking I would need to do loads of interval training to get him fit enough to do it!

murphysmummy
 
Depends what type of horse you have but providing not a cobby type I don't do any fitness work for BE90 / 100. My horse regularly hack an hour or so including trotting up some decent hill, can happily school and jump for an hour or so. Therefore providing I have xc schooled a couple of times I don't do any fitness work. I may 5 or 6 days before the first event give a 5 or 6 minute strong canter in a field to open up the lungs.
 
I agree with S-J, most horses won't need to do anything for a BE90 or 100 other than a bit more canter work. You could maybe just do a bit extra at the end of your normal schooling session if you feel you need it by adding a couple of minutes cantering in two point position and making sure you have a good forward pace.
 
My boy is very hairy and heavy though so I feel he would really need it to go through with a 80cm ODE. I'm planning one at the end of June and really think he would benefit from a bit of interval training. Could you possibly just give the bare bones of how interval triaing works? My boy currently does an hours hacking 4 times a week with plenty of trotting and some canter work.

Thanks, fairly new to this eventing lark!

murphysmummy
 
murphysmummy said:
My boy is very hairy and heavy though so I feel he would really need it to go through with a 80cm ODE. I'm planning one at the end of June and really think he would benefit from a bit of interval training. Could you possibly just give the bare bones of how interval triaing works? My boy currently does an hours hacking 4 times a week with plenty of trotting and some canter work.

Thanks, fairly new to this eventing lark!

murphysmummy
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I agree with SJ that most horses do not need to do fitness work as such to compete at 90/100, with yours he may need to up his work as he is a heavy type.

4 hours hacking a week is not enough to get him losing weight, unless you are also schooling on the other days.Can you find a field to canter in so that you can keep cantering rather than just the odd burst on a hack, then you can do a circuit or two on each rein with a walk as you change, build up to maybe 3 circuits, walk, change direction, 3 the other way, walk and 3 more. He needs to be working up to the bridle, not fast but powerfully cantering to really get him working once a week would really make a difference to his fitness and weight.

If you cannot use a field you can do the same in an arena but will need to do a fair few laps to make a difference. Increasing his schooling and doing plenty of cantering then will also improve fitness as will jumping once a week or a xc schooling session.

Hope that gives you a few ideas.
 
As a general rule for a horse being prepared for a novice one-day event, two five-minute canters, interspersed with a three-minute walk (per session) should be sufficient. These sessions should be carried out once a week, as part of a full fitness programme consisting of hacking, schooling and jumping training.

As your horse becomes fitter, you will be able to increase the periods of canter – again, this will vary with each horse and it is important to seek advice from your trainer. In time, you will find that your horse is able to travel faster for longer.

Tracking your horse's fitness

Reading your horse's pulse and noting his length of recovery will help you judge his fitness level. As he becomes fitter, his heart rate will go down, since the heart's capacity will have increased and it will be able to pump more blood with each beat.

You can feel for your horse's pulse under his jaw,
C&P'd from an article.
But it gives you something to aim for, remember that cantering for long periods is quite tiring in itself so go easy on him until he gets the hang of it.
:-)
 
Fab advice Baggybreeches and bepositive thank you. I do have an old football field that I could do some laps around that is pretty flat to give him a slightly easier time of it. I need to get on schooling again too. I haven't been doing a lot because I haven't had anything to aim for -easier to go hacking! :D
Will definately be upping his workload and getting my canter fitness in there too.

Thank you
I promise to send reports and piccies(if I ever work out how to do it!) :o
 
murphysmummy said:
Any ideas? Or perhaps where I can find an idiot's guide to interval training and fitness work?

thanks
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Getting Horses Fit by Sarah Pilliner

It's an old book (1986), written before the days of BE90 and (possibly??) BE100, so focussed more on Novice, but still worth a read IMO.

I would normally have agreed with those above saying you wouldn't need to do anything extra for a BE90; however, I saw a lot of unfit/fat horses at Solihull on Saturday.:mad:

I think that possibly some of the people newer to eventing at the lower levels no longer work their horses as hard/regularly as maybe some of us used to as a matter of course in the past. Just a thought.....
 
The majority of fitness' comes through endurance work, not intervals. Fitness is all about recovery. As Baggybreeches' said taking your horse's heart rate is a great way to gauge fitness. Knowing its heart rate allows you to know how hard your horse is working. No two horses are the same so what is good for one may not be good for another.

Your horse's heart rate should be taken soon after interval work and again after a set time of about five minutes. These two results should be noted and compared to the next training session. If the recovery rate is improving the horse is ready to gradually move up to the next level of training. Fitness comes about not on the gallops but while they are resting. Their body adapts to training through recovery.

The fitter your horse the better they will perform. A tired one will make more mistakes which is not their fault.

As horses, like humans are mammals, horses' energy systems principally work in the same way and the same physiological adaptations occur. As observed in 'fit' human athletes, 'blood lacates in 'fit' racehorses should be fairly low up to and around 85% of maximum heart rate.

Another benefit of regularly checking your horse's heart rate is to see if they are healthy.
 
I have an IDx mare who i event at BE90 level, the biggest thing that has helped her is getting a lot of weight off her (no idea if yours is fat, but this has made the biggest difference for mine) I find walking up hills is very good for low impact fittening, as well as doing canter work round our front field. My horse needs a fair bit more fittening than your average TB or sports type so i try and canter her at least once a week, school her 2/3 times, lunge once, jump once & hack once or twice, if i am competing i usually lose one or two of the schooling/hacking/jump sessions.
 
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