GETTING FIT
This is a guide to bringing a horse up to
competition fitness, after a holiday.
Bringing a horse back after an injury may
need more time at various stages.
You should consult your vet, as to what is
needed for your horse.
The main thing to remember is that all
horses are different, so a flexible approach, finding what is best for your
horse is essential.
The first few weeks will be roadwork –
start with about 30 minutes and build up to an hour a day.
The horse should be ridden forwards and
allowed to carry his head in a natural out line.
Short spells of trot can be introduced
towards the end of the second week.
You should now be hacking out for an hour a
day, including longer periods of trot. The amount of trot you do will depend on
the individual horse.
Be sensible – if he is struggling, go back
to walk.
He should also be encouraged to work in an
outline to help develop the correct muscles.
Do not allow your horse – or yourself- to
slop along on a long rein.
This will not improve your horse’s fitness
any more than simply turning him out in the field.
Short schooling sessions can be introduced-
about 20 minutes2 or 3 times a week after a shortened hack.
Use circles and serpentines; encourage the
horse to work from the leg to hand
Lunging is added to the weekly program.
Again, it’s important that the horse is
working from behind into a correct out line.
We use the Pessoa lunging system, which we
find, encourages the horses to work in a correct outline and build up the
correct muscles.
Keep the sessions to about 15 – 20 minutes
in walk and trot.
Roadwork continues for about an hour a day
with plenty of trotting.
To avoid possible injury trot on an even
surface.
While lunging to add some variety to the
work and encourage you horse to look where he is putting his feet you can lunge
over some poles on the ground.
They need to be placed 4.5 – 5’ apart.
Introduce short canters into your schooling.
Make sure you are riding forward into an
even contact on both reins.
Your schooling sessions can be up to 40
minutes.
If you have good even going you can canter
out on your hacks.
If your horse is a bit lazy it may help to
canter alongside another horse to encourage him.
It’s a valuable exercise to loose jump
your horse over small grids.
This will give you a chance to watch his
technique over a fence and he can make mistakes without the rider on board.
It’s quite strenuous work and will make
your horse blow.
Jumping with a rider on board: keep the
jumps small and build up to a simple grid as you did with the loose jumping.
The grid work can be used to help iron out
any problems.
For example, if your horse jumps to the
left, place a pole at the left hand side of the jump with one end placed on the
jump and the other end on the floor. This will guide the horse to jump in the
middle of the fence.
The amount of hacking can be reduced and
used as an “easy day” in your work programme.
By the end of week seven he will be ready to
go out and compete at what we call ‘training’ shows - local dressage and
jumping, along with XC schooling in preparation for your first event.
Having competed and continued training
through to wee nine by the end of this week (week 10) you should be ready for
your first affiliated event.