Work/feed to increase stamina.

tabithakat64

tabithakat64

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Fudge is hacked out twice a week (45 minutes to an hour with lots of hill work, trotting and soem lateral work), schooled once by an RI for 30 minutes and either lunged or schooled again for 20 mins.
He's fed ad-lib hay and two hand double handfuls of Happy Hoof with a calmer in) turned out for 15 hours a day and stabled for nine hours, he is unclipped and rugged up.
He's reached his target weight of 490kg and is healthy but is generally lacking in fitness/stamina and has stopped eating his feed
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Any advice regarding feed and ways of improving his stamina during the limited time I have would be much appreciated
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Long slow canters will really help with his stamina.

However, if he's stopped eating - you need to investigate that further. Have you changed his diet recently????? It could be that his lack of stamina generally could be due to him not being well - especially taken in to consideration not eating.

I wouldn't do anything until I had ruled out illness I'm afraid.

Also, if he's not clipped - is he getting electrolytes as a matter of course? Could he be dehydrated. He must get quite hot under his coat....
 
Thanks for the reply, he does get warm (I cool him down properly) and has unlimited access to water. Should I be using electroytes?
I think he is just bored with the Happy Hoof as he was examined by the vet 3 weeks ago. He's eating his hay and in previous years he's been on a scoop of slim & Healthy, a scoop of Happy Hoof and and scoop of speedibeet at this time of year, but as he was overweight I have just slightly increased the amount of Happy Hoof he is having to hide the calmer.
 
Ah ok makes sense.

Have you thought about clipping him?

But start some canter work - that really will help. Personally I would always feed electrolytes to an unclipped horse in work - but that's just me.
 
I didn't really think he was doing enough work to warrant clipping especially as I always take the time to make sure he's cooled off
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I have already decided I will give him a neck and belly next year as he will be schooled more often and does get sweaty.
I will start introducing electrolytes and some canter work (I don't canter much at all at the moment) Thanks for your advice
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What is the calmer your feeding him for??
Is it that your calming him too much, does he need it for a nervous disposition or temprament?
 
He's on calm, cool and collected and has been on it for 6 months now, It was recommended to me as it's meant to help with irrational behaviour and help control spooking. He's not a 'nutter' he just seems to over spook if you know what I mean. He is much less spooky out hacking as I've put lots of work into making him so but am not sure the calmer is really doing any good what so ever, so I could just take him off of it.
 
It may be worth a try maybe its working too well. If your quite happy that hes fit and well on himself. Obviously theres loads you can do on the excersice side for fitness and stamina but maybe take a look what you are feeding him, do you think he may benefit from feeding a slow release feed like the spillers response range?
 
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