How fit for intro?

rotters13

rotters13

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How fit does a horse need to be for an Intro (or BE 90). I am planning on starting interval training this week and wondered what I should work up to?

Currently we are a bit behind on our fitness plan (thanks to the ruddy snow) and was wondering what ways of fittening there were that didn't take 2 hours a day etc? How effective is lunging? There are a few hills around us which we trot up but they are few and far between. At the moment she is only doing about one hour of work on alternate days and that she won't be fit by Tweseldown! Help!

Thanks a lot!
 
Twesledown is fairly flat if you are schooling, hacking (including) some hill work and lunging you are not going to be far off the fitness you need.

My girl is doing her first Intro at Bath and West and she will have one xc school and maybe one more 5 / 6 minute steady canter. I think you can get them too fit for intro although it slightly depends on your type of horse as some heavier types do need more.
 
I barely work mine for an hour a day (depends on weather as I only have a field to work in) and he does novice BE, but then he's naturally quite a fit type whereas I have to try super hard to work my Welsh Cob well who's clearly not built for eventing, he does Intro. It depends on the horse really, just as Sarah_Jane points out.

TBH, I dont do interval training - you dont have to do it to event. Its great if you have the facilities / land etc. to do it on. They dont have to be that fit for Intro although IMO Id rather they were too fit.
 
I think you'll be fine as you are - the event yard I worked at don't start specific canter sessions until the horses are going novice. Just general schoolong, hacking and the odd jump tends to keep them fit enough for intro and PN. Obviously if your horse is a bit chunkier/cobby you may want to do a bit of canter work, but I reallly wouldnt stress too much about it. The jumps are far too small to have an over-fit horse jumping them...gets a bit dangerous if your horse is so fit its pulling like a tank!
 
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