Hunter Trial Fitness

[TicTac]

My daughter is thinking of entering a small Hunter trial at the end of April. ( 2ft 6" ) Her horse is unclipped as he refuses to be parted from his polar bear jacket and is only ridden at the weekend at the moment. I usually lunge him twice a week for 1/2 hour each time which includes pole work and loose jumping.

We cannot clip him as he is terrified, he has a heart murmur so intravenus sedation is an un necessary risk and he fights the oral sedatives like sedalin ( we have had him 6 years and tried most things!) He is starting to moult so hopefully by the end of april a lot of his coat will have gone. What would be the best fittening program to get the horse ready for this event? Your advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[Katie__Connie]

Well at my yard we do lots of uphill trotting road work and a couple of good canters (obvs in field) each week to get them fit for hunting or competing etc... but some people think its bad for the legs to do a lot of fast road work... so its personal opinion really... but thats just what I do

Hope the hunter trial goes well

 

[loobylu]

Wouldn't worry about the clipping. Won't do him any harm as a one off to get soggy although by April I would have thought his coat would be fairly well shed. A rug might help a little.
For 2'6'' I would want him to be fit enough to cope with a good fun hour's hack with trotting and cantering. However if he is a bit stuffy/backwards thinking you might want to try to do a bit more planned trotting/cantering.
Have fun!