How much exercise do you do with your horse?

[Neddie123]

As title says really. I cantered 2.8 miles today, trotted 3 miles, and walked 1. Have always kept my horses fit and ride 5/6 days week (not all the same length/speed/type of work) but wondering what others do? Obviously riding dependable on weather/other commitments but interested to know what others get up to.

 

[kathantoinette]

Wow that’s a fast ride! I don’t have the ground for any length of cantering other than roughly 800 metres at a time and only a couple of opportunities for that on my usual routes. Sometimes the ground isn’t suitable at all for a canter.
I hack a few times a week, then school flat or over poles and fit a lesson and competition in usually once a fortnight.

 

[SEL]

Depends on which horse but I won't trot on tarmac so a lot of my hacking is at walk. My bridlepaths had quite nice footing last weekend but I have a feeling they'll be back to concrete soon. I school in the field so if ground gets hard then I won't rag them round

 

[Julia0803]

I’m very jealous you have such usable off road riding!

Most of our hacking is 60-80% roads before and in between stretches of bridleway.

Before my horse got injured and was back on boxrest a typical example (looking at Equilab) would be a 6 mile ride that contained probably the maximum amount of trot I could safely do. All but about 30seconds of trot was off-road. I covered 3.9 miles in walk, 1.9 miles of trot (that was trotting on every verge/suitable ground) and 0.1 miles of canter. It took us just under an hour and a half.

 

[Lucky Snowball]

Typically my first horse does a fast hack - lots of cantering up and down hill and jumping on the moors about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.. Horse number two does roadwork, 1 hr, mostly in walk but lots of very steep hills. Number three goes in the school for flat or jumping.

 

[pistolpete]

On the share pony it’s usually four or five miles mainly in walk. One or two long trots if ground good. We don’t trot on tarmac either. One long canter if ground ok. Maybe a minute and a half. That happens four times a week.

 

[MuddyMonster]

Most of my riding is done out hacking. I ride on average 5-6 days a week and generally 4-5 of those days a week are hacking. I must admit, in the summer I often only go in the school once between my lessons ?

Other than hacking I mix it up with monthly flatwork lessons, polework & (small) jumping.

I do a mix of rides from about 3 miles up to 20/25 miles (ish) regularly. We have lots of off road hacking which helps hugely.

Some rides are more fitness based with a specific goal and some are just with the aim.to spend time enjoying pony's company & enjoy the countryside together - we love pub and picnic rides!

In the winter I tend to do 2 shorter rides in the week by head torch, 2 medium or long hacks at weekend and 1 or 2 sessions in the school.

 

[Inda]

I ride her 4 days a week on average. Usually hacking with about 90% off road for 8-12km. She’s sporadically in the school with me for polework and a little working equitation. There’s a Le Trec class coming up I want to try.

She’s used in an advanced dressage lesson once a week as she’s good at it but I have very little interest, we’ve learned novice tests but never competed as work always fell on the test days.

 

[scruffyponies]

I guess a typical weekend hack would be similar to OP's; sometimes more, sometimes less. Rides are usually fast, since we're just larking about. We also have alternative shorter routes if we're in a hurry or the ground is rubbish. Plenty of trotting and cantering on tarmac... it keeps their feet trimmed.
Mostly they stay in the field during the week, but it's 12 acres with boggy bits, steams and uneven going, which keeps them fit. It's hard work just to walk across, let alone run around in.

I would say they are ticking over rather than properly fit atm, but they had no problems with a fast and hilly 11miles at the weekend.

 

[Tarragon]

Well, it depends! Last summer I was getting a pony fit enough for a 100 mile LDR across Exmoor and worked hard, making plenty of use of hills riding 6 or 7 days each week. Where I keep the ponies we are lucky enough to be able to ride on the farm, and there is a really good long hill on open turf. The farmer said to me once (he had had horsey daughters) all you need to do to keep your horse fit is to walk up that hill and down, then trot up the hill and walk down, then canter up the hill and down.
Now, I only have an older pony that doesn't need to be fit and an unbacked youngster!

 

[Antw23uk]

My horses legs would be shot to bits if i did all that on my routes and with the ground so hard at the moment. I hack a few times a week, bit of trot, a rare canter if ground is nice. Im very precious about legs though and mostly im a happy hacker.

I did see a video of two riders on a canter through the woods the other day but the path looked, and sounded, like tarmac with a thin layer of leaf litter/ mud over it and off they were, cantering away! i resisted the urge to comment, none of my business!

 

[Peglo]

On average I probably only ride 3 times a week. Mostly hacking in walk but i try to get as many canter/gallops on tracks/beach when I can. We have box’d out at least once every 2 weeks recently for SJ, lesson etc. I’m very conscious of over doing it with her but she is starting to feel so much fitter.

I would love to have somewhere we could canter for more than a couple of minutes.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I ride 4/5 times a week. A mixture of hacking, schooling, jumping and most weekends competing. Our hacking is mainly road based. There are only a few areas that are ok for a canter but I'm super careful with his legs so the ground has to be good, which it currently isn't. If I need to do faster work I hire the all weather gallops but he is plenty fit enough for what we are doing.

 

[fidleyspromise]

I ride 2-3 times a week and about 5 miles minimum up to 8.
Today was 11 mins in trot and probably a minute in canter with an hour in walk.
Hack the other day was all walk but those are rare.
We're directly into woods from yard with decent tracks to trot on and also have the beach we can hack to.

 

[Petmurf]

Usually ride 2/3 times a week, sometimes more. Mainly hacking as arena isn’t finished it but have some schooling lessons on grass as well.

Mainly walk on hacks with lots of hills, quite a few bridleways to trot and a couple of grass hills to canter, hacks are normally 1.5 hrs long, our shortest circular route is 50 minutes in walk.

Do a few farm rides as well, 6 mile one tomorrow morning.

 

[Maryann]

I usually ride about 4 times a week, mix of hacking, anything from a 2 mile trundle to a fast 15 miles, jumping approx 90cm in lessons and competitively and schooling (field in summer, arena in winter). It doesn't feel like much but he is fit enough to get Grade 1 at lower level endurance rides and appears to enjoy his work (although I suspect he just likes standing around looking at other horses and doesn't mind the other bits).