Horse Fitness

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ThrillsandSpills

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My 16.3 TB type Gelding on loan has had a couple of months off apart from the occasional hack abound with his owner, he has been back into full time work (3/4 days a week) for 2/3 weeks now.

Looking to see if anyone has some good fitness exercises for him, to get ready for summer camp, he is still quite green so nothing too complicated for him

All advice is appreciated:)
 
What would you consider full time work? Hes worked 3/4 days depending on my other horses, school arangements etc. walk, trot and canter for around 45 minutes, one of these sessions is usally hill work and another trot/canter poles or a this week i did a small grid. Sorry i dont undersatnd how this would work, he is living out full time so wouldnt he just exercise himself in walk?
 
Really depends on what you want his fitness for - if you are planning on doing some RC level activities, 3-5 days a week of varied work can usually be plenty. But if you are aiming higher than 90cm jumping or you want to do One Day Eventing or 3 Day eventing & some higher level stuff you may need to be looking a 6 days a week ensure they are fit enough to have the stamina.

Sounds like you are keeping it varied which is good - never underestimate the power of transitions, like ab exercises for horses! Aim for near 80-100 in a good strong session once a week & then plenty of hacking & hill work is good. Pole work including cavalettis is good gymanastic work to keep them supple & of course a day lunging every week can also help build fitness & strength!

You know your horse - some horses keep fitness better than others, older horses might need longer to get fitter - all depends & of course, all depends on your final outcome aim for what you are using the fitness for! Most horses can jump an 80cm course no bother at a show at the weekends with 2/3 days work during the week on a regular basis.
 
It depends on the horse. Mine is ridden generally 5 times a week, and is doing 80k endurance rides. I like to do some interval training and lots of hill work. I also do a longer ride one day a week.
 
I have 3 now in work and I always aim to work each for a minimum of 4 times a week, which includes some Manege work and some longer and shorter hacks ranging from 1 to 3 hours. If a horse lives out on a sizeable paddock they do help to maintain their own fitness too.
 
ThrillsandSpills said:
What would you consider full time work? Hes worked 3/4 days depending on my other horses, school arangements etc. walk, trot and canter for around 45 minutes, one of these sessions is usally hill work and another trot/canter poles or a this week i did a small grid. Sorry i dont undersatnd how this would work, he is living out full time so wouldnt he just exercise himself in walk?
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Full work would be 6 or 7 days a week. If a horse has been out of work for a few months, I'd certainly be putting in AT LEAST 2 weeks of walk work, then 4 weeks of trot, building up from 5 mins to 20 mins, before I even started cantering. This would pretty much be all hacking work as well, I'd only resort to the school if absolutely essential.

A horse walking around his field grazing will not be building up enough muscle to support the tendons and ligaments of any sort of strenuous work with a rider on board.
 
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