hunting horse fitness

[whiteclover]

Those of you that work 9-5 how much do you exercise your horse in the winter? Also how fit does a horse that hunts need to be? Just pondering if I buy one with the dark nights and working during the day it may be difficult keeping a horse fit.

 

[JenHunt]

Ron hunts twice a week up to Christmas, and then as much as possible after. He normally is out until about 2pm. He is also hacked out once a week and then either a half hour schooling or an evening SJ class to keep him listening. He's turned out 12hours every day regardless of the weather. That's plenty for him but he's 17 and is good at keeping his fitness (they lark about in the field constantly!), plus our days aren't that fast mostly and I find that if we do more than this his weight drops off

 

[whiteclover]

Jenhunt - The hunt I went with do quite a bit of galloping.

 

[JenHunt]

you might find that you'll need to hack out one more day a week then, but it will depend on your horse!

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

In a normal year I work 9 - 5.30 and hunt 3/4 days a fortnight.

Hack out in dark before work on Mon, hunt Tues, day off Weds, hack out Thurs & Fri, hunt Sat and day off Sun.

Am about to have a baby so not sure how it will work this season!! Already hugely jealous of people out cubbing. Have been out on foot but not quite the same...!!

 

[Miss L Toe]

The most important thing is to put in the work while it is still light, get your hunter doing two hours a day, that will get him fit.

 

[pinklilly]

If you can get the horse really fit now, once you are hunting regularly it's just a case of keeping them ticking over, so long as you have decent turn-out you don't need to ride every day.