How can you tell how fit your horse is?

[Lill]

Just reading the 'Getting Fit' post got me thinking... how can you tell how fit your horse is?

I probably ride Blue 5 or 6 times a week for roughly 45mins to an hour each time (longer if hacking) and if i take him to a show will do 2 classes on him and he seems to sweat quite a bit (not sure if that is more noticeable as his winter coat is coming through) but he never puffs or looks out of breath! How do you think he would cope if i took him hunting? Am thinking of going this season...

 

[Claireg9]

i would say he should be fit enough!

 

[AmyMay]

You will need to get some 'wind' work in to him. So steady trotting work and fast work to build up his stamina.

I have been riding my loan horse all summer - but she is not particularly fit. The ground has been too hard to do any fast work, and so we have been schooling or quiet hacking.

She'll hunt this season - but will need to have her workload increased quite a bit to be fit enough.

 

[Suzy]

He sounds fairly fit. As with people, recovery rates, and how much your heart/respiratory rate increases when you exercise is a much more accurate guage or fitness than how much you sweat!

 

[pottamus]

I am with amymay on this one and feel that you will need to increase stamina through trotting and canter work of a long steady nature. I appreciate that all horses are different but I would not expect to see a horse sweating much with an hour's work or hack really...unless you were doing lot's of cantering. So I would look to increase the tempo a bit for hunting.