horse never tired

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fredders

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My horse is very enthusiastic and never gets tired lol. He gets ridden pretty much every day. An hours schooling or hacked out.When I hack him it is like it's nothing to him. He can easily do 2+ hours and the next day it's like he's not even been ridden. He goes out in the field for a few hours a day and will b out 24 7 in the next couple of weeks. He gets no short feed as he is a bit fat and has plenty of energy. He is a cob x. I'm Not complaining I like him like this. prefer it to a a horse thats lazy. Hes not naughty just very enthusiastic. And loves to work. Just would b nice if he was occasionally tired after I have rode him lol. He is 9 so not a baby anymore. Just curious who else's horse like this ?☺
 
IME all horses are like this... An hour or two a day is nothing for them. They can start to get lazy and prefer to do their own thing but they don't get "tired" unless you're working them very hard.

One interesting recent study took a look at how horses do at maintaining their own fitness when left to it (turned out in a field) compared to if you have them stabled and school them for an hour a day... The horses that were turned out were just as, if not more, fit than the ones being schooled at the end of the study.

Horses may not seem like they do much wandering about in their paddock but the moral of the story is that, actually, an hour of schooling isn't very much at all...
 
Barnacle, that is interesting, I think we under estimate their field fitness. I suppose it depends on the size of the field/paddock, but there again horses in the wild will cover 20 miles a day at times.

Fredders your horse sounds as though he'd make a good endurance prospect. One way to measure his fitness, buy a stethoscope (Ebay is your friend), make a note of his normal resting heart rate and listen to it again after he's done an hour's moderate work. The less time it takes for his heart rate to drop back to normal the fitter he is.
 
fredders said:
My horse is very enthusiastic and never gets tired lol. He gets ridden pretty much every day. An hours schooling or hacked out.When I hack him it is like it's nothing to him. He can easily do 2+ hours and the next day it's like he's not even been ridden. He goes out in the field for a few hours a day and will b out 24 7 in the next couple of weeks. He gets no short feed as he is a bit fat and has plenty of energy. He is a cob x. I'm Not complaining I like him like this. prefer it to a a horse thats lazy. Hes not naughty just very enthusiastic. And loves to work. Just would b nice if he was occasionally tired after I have rode him lol. He is 9 so not a baby anymore. Just curious who else's horse like this ?☺
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Why on earth would you expect a horse to be tired by a 1 hour hack? That doesn't even constitute light work. I am not surprised there are so many fat horses around as people are under the illusion that their horse is in medium to hard work. This isn't a dig at you as you are obviously keeping control of your horse's weight. When veterinary hospital were discussing prospect for OH's horse after surgery, they said he should be capable of light work. By this they meant 1-2 hours per day, 6 days per week.
 
Ned has only ever been tired once. But, he did an 8mile hack (nearly all in trot) then a 2 mile hack, then the next day he did 12 miles (walk/trot/canter) then trotted the 8 miles home again. He was pooped! But, after a day in the field he was fine again. He gets sweaty very easily, but I can't mistake that for being tired. To tire him out every day, I don't even know what I'd have to do haha!
 
I agree with the above comments re: light work and field fitness, but it still makes cringe when people drag a horse in from field after months of hardly anything, and go and do 3 SJ classes, or twice round a hunter-trial at high speed. Yes, the horse won't get particularly tired, but I dread to think what damage is being done to unconditioned tendons and ligaments. An hour a day of sustained exercise, IMO, is helpful in this respect.

Fitness is more than not getting tired!
 
This is the first winter my tb has been stabled in winter (with turnout in a smallish paddock during the day most days) compared to out 24/7 in a large field. he is much less fit than normal and is almost lazy when ridden.
 
I'm sorry I think you misunderstood me. Hacks are usually 2+ hours and are nothing to him. He's not any less energetic at all after I have ridden. I know he is only in light work but horses i have had before are at least slightly more tired after being ridden lol. He's just different to what I've had before.

Chan he is the same. He sweats but isn't tired ☺

Thanks for all the replies ☺
 
I found my mare was exhausted after her friend died and she was only next to other horses.. If I schooled her for 20 mins she'd be too tired to do anything the next day.. I put this down to not resting enough and being stressed. Otherwise every other minute of the day she is ready to go. :)
 
The kids need to gallop the nuts off the ponies for at least 3-4 hours to bring them back tired!

The exception is the young ponies. They find it all a great adventure, but get tired very quickly.
 
I've not found my horse tired by physical exercise, but she gets mentally exhausted if being schooled intensively for 45 minutes. We did the Newmarket 20 mile ride last year and she came back as fresh as she went out. She's no racehorse though and couldn't keep up with those racing snakes streaking past her. She gave up trying eventually.
 
Last Autumn I took my horse autumn hunting for about 5 hours on the Saturday, then on Sunday rode him 1.5 hours to a 12 mile fun ride and then rode home again. We didn't gallop around hunting, but we were quite busy and the ride was reasonably leisurely but it was still a fair amount of exercise for him bearing in mind he was probably only 60% fit. He was absolutely fine all the way through the weekend and gave no indication of being tired at all.
 
I agree, it's very interesting.

My TB will get tired in the school and start to drop me a bit after 45 mins at which point we stretch and finish up, but I think that's mental tiredness rather than physical. I have never felt him tire when hacking, even if we go for like 10 miles in trot. I guess they are built to be on the move all day.
 
Same with my new boy, only got mentally tired so far in the school but that's cos he's still a baby and is obviously thinking really hard when we school, bless him. My mare is never ever tired (apart from when I catch her snoozing in her stable!), always full of beans and has a fab outlook on life.
 
I have one hacking route where for just over a mile and a half you go uphill continuously. The slope does vary from shallow, to moderate to steep, but you just go up and up. Plus, of course on the way back you go down and down. That route is a much bigger test of fitness than a longer distance over flatter ground IME.
 
Yep - mine's never tired, apart from mentally in the school.

Years ago I worked at a riding school and all the horses did at least two hours a day and often up to seven at the weekend. They were never tired but part of that is feeding correctly for the work regime.
 
I took my girl to our first dressage experience a few weeks ago. We did two prelim tests plus a warm up for each test. It was about an hour in the lorry. She slept all the way home and the whole night, and her stable was clean the next day. I think there's definitely an element of mental tiredness involved!
Op I would seriously consider endurance, your boy sounds like he'd enjoy it!
 
The only thing we do regularly that leaves them completely knackered is a long carriage drive, finishing with a half mile up a really really steep hill. They're already tired by the time they hit the hill, having done 10+ miles pulling a cart already, but know that home is at the top, so willingness isn't an issue. The level of fitness really shows. The little Dartmoor is a muscular little chap and always gallops up it (he's twigged this gets it over with) but he can only get to the top without slowing if he's super-fit.

They don't seem to suffer for it, and would go out and do the same the following day without ill-effect. The Shetland thrives if we work him this hard, but sadly we rarely have time.
 
pennyturner said:
The only thing we do regularly that leaves them completely knackered is a long carriage drive, finishing with a half mile up a really really steep hill. They're already tired by the time they hit the hill, having done 10+ miles pulling a cart already, but know that home is at the top, so willingness isn't an issue. The level of fitness really shows. The little Dartmoor is a muscular little chap and always gallops up it (he's twigged this gets it over with) but he can only get to the top without slowing if he's super-fit.

They don't seem to suffer for it, and would go out and do the same the following day without ill-effect. The Shetland thrives if we work him this hard, but sadly we rarely have time.
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We have a few hills like that, and some gallops if I let F go flat out at the bottom he doesn't make it to the top even with a TB in front to give him a tow. He's not tired enough not to do it again. He gets a day off after hunting - usually an hour + hack there, hunt 4/5 hours hunting and an hour back, not sure if he is actually tired though, he still pees about in the field when we get back :p. At 22 :p.
 
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