my fast/ gallop work is done at some local fields, i do most of the warm up in walk really, walk for about 15 mins adjusting the walk, bit of lateral work on the boundaries of the field then have a trot and a rolling canter, adjusting up the gears again. Theres then a bit of my route which i have to walk so i walk this an pick up trot for a down hill stretch, then canter on the flat then work up the gears around the edge of the field if she's feeling good i'll open her up a bit more, but i never go foot right down. i might then repeat from the walk in middle - just depends what we are aiming for.
if i'm doing canter work at home, i hack over to our back fields, walk and trot then canter 1 minutes on 1 minutes off round a hilly field, 1.5canter/1.5walk, 2canter/2 walk 2 stretchy trot and walk home on a long rein.
A vet wrote a book about getting a horse fit - can't remember the name, sorry. He said that before galloping you have to increase the pace a bit, which makes the horse's heart go into exercise mode. There is a phyisological reason for this.
Like racehorses go up to the gallops and trot round for a while before galloping.
In other words, never go from a walk to a gallop without a bit of a warm up first. Why horses canter steadily down to the start of a race?
The warm up for the horses at work consist of - 15mins walk to gallop, steady lob up 1x, lob down, bit of a quicker lob 2x, lob down, stride on 3x, lob down, fully lengthen on a wok day 4x, lob down. Walk home 15mins then 15-20mins on the horse walker after.
Over at the other yard where everything is on site they go on the walker for 20-30mins then trot a few laps of the round gallop, lob a few laps, lob up the gallop, lob down, then start increasing with each repetition of the gallop. These guys are on the walker for a good 30-45mins after exercise as they dont have the walk home.
I only gallop on our local hired gallops. Fig is tooooo buzzy to do it anywhere else!
He's plenty fit enough otherwise; so I walk half a circuit. Trot the other half. Light seat canter. Walk a moment. Pop him into canter. Then let him build himself up. I let him take over once I'm happy he's loose and soft. I don't put any pressure on to go faster than he dictates.
I then let him canter down half a circuit. Trot then walk at least once round. Short canter, then go again.
I usually let him gallop round 3 times in total. It's more fun than anything else for him. I usually walk for 15-20 mins after and we time it so they can go back out in the field once home too.