racebuddy
Well-Known Member
Intrested to hear how many days off a week everyone gives thier competition horses a week ?
I always think it's so interesting to try and work out schedules of what works for each horse, mentally and physically.
With the established ones i figure they kind of know their job at this stage, so unless an issue comes up (like needing gridwork to improve a bascule or something) its generally just a case of keeping them fit and muscled enough.
With ones just starting out , I find its more a case of troubleshooting issues that come up when competing, and at the same time keeping them overall education tapping along with clinics etc.
I think it's the most fascinating part of training to work out psychologically what each horse needs from a training plan.
Indeed!! Boggle is strange as despite being very busy minded and hot, he is the same however long he’s had off. I can leave him for two weeks and hop back on- no different. He’d be the kind of horse you’d expect to need a good lounge beforehand!
I always think it's so interesting to try and work out schedules of what works for each horse, mentally and physically.
With the established ones i figure they kind of know their job at this stage, so unless an issue comes up (like needing gridwork to improve a bascule or something) its generally just a case of keeping them fit and muscled enough.
With ones just starting out , I find its more a case of troubleshooting issues that come up when competing, and at the same time keeping them overall education tapping along with clinics etc.
I think it's the most fascinating part of training to work out psychologically what each horse needs from a training plan.
Yes definitely! Little mare is an interesting one, because she would quite merrily be up for work every day and lots of it (i have to make the conscious decision to stop and get off her or we'd just go on and on), but I think that she actually does the bulk of her learning and processing on her days off....she has 3 days off a week at the moment so it will be interesting to see how she develops.
Big horse psychologically does best with 3 or 4 days off a week, but physically ideally only a maximum of 1. Hence why he's not a great competition horse - a lot of his required physical exercise has to be super low pressure bimbling or his brain melts, bless him.
Accidental experimentation in my caseyes its a weird one. and someone asked 'how do you know?' before and i genuinely didn't lnow how to explain it? Like do you just get a feeling of what they need?
In the competition season (long distance rides) he will only get ridden 3 times a week, quality over quantity for me. I like to give plenty of rest and recovery after traveling and his rides.
I do think too many people don’t give enough time off when competing.