How much road work is too much road work for a 15yr Irish mare?

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wizzlewoo

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May seem like a simple question but how much road work per week do you think is enough or too much for a 15yr old Irish mare. She is fairly fit but not competition fit. For example is 2-3 hours mainly walking per day on roads 4 times a week too much with schooling on days in-between? What do you do with your horses? As I say sounds simple enough but I need to know if I have been unfair and over reacted to a situation?

Thanks in advance for any replies. :)
 
If you're just ambling along - which i assume you are if you're out for 2 to 3 hours on the road? then I don't think it really matters. I don't do schooling with my horse (well, unless in prep for a competition) as i don't have facilities other than my field when it's dry, so the majority of his work is road work/hacking. He is 21 and has been doing this since I've had him as a 4yo. It hasn't had any detrimental effects on him and we do a fair bit of trotting on the roads.

I personally think it's a heck of a lot better to do more road work than it is to going round and round in circles on a school surface (not so bad if on grass). Schooling on arenas puts a lot of stress and strain on horse's legs (tendons etc) in my opinion and people don't consider it enough.
 
As long as the horse is sound, fit and well - no problem with roadwork at all.

Most of my hacking is road work - with the odd bridle path, off road riding for variety - but still roads to get to it.
 
I would say its not the distance but the speed that matters. I ride for miles and hours with my older boy, we take it a bit easier on the harder ground though.
 
From the info provided I would say workload was absolutely fine. I would expect such a horse to be well conditioned with hard legs, but not wind fit. It would be ready to add in extra schooling sessions/fast work in order to become competition fit.

Basically, it's how hunters are/used to be fittened before the season.
 
Every horse is different :)
Recently most weekends I've been going on 2 hour hacks (on roads) mainly walking and a bit of trot. My mare has developed windgall which I believe is from the hacking. (boo :( ) She is normally schooled 4 times a week for 30-45minutes. Before I started riding her out for 2 hours I rode her 4 times a week with a hack around the block (30-45mins depends if we detoured :D) and she showed no sign of them. So now I am stopping the 2hour hacks to see if this has any affect on them!
 
As long as you have built up to the 2 to 3 hours gadually and not expected her to do it straight away from doing nothing then yes, she should cope with it well enough, she's not that old anyway. Just look after her legs, feet and back and make sure everything fits well.
 
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