Posted 2015-08-02 4:13 PM Subject: Conditioning your horses
What is everyones conditioning program?? What all do y'all do? how long do you leg your horses up before running them? i bought a mare that is so fat, my vet said it is starting to effect her breathing, he said she needs to build her stamina up. So with a horse like this would you lope more instead of just long trot? how long would you expect to ride your horses everyday while legging one up.?
Posted 2015-08-02 4:46 PM Subject: RE: Conditioning your horses
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The first thing I would do is dry lot the horse and cut back on the feed. If that does not take some of the weight off I would have the horse's thyroid tested. I would start really legging them up after some weight loss. Some riding certainly isn't going to hurt.
Posted 2015-08-02 6:22 PM Subject: RE: Conditioning your horses
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Posts: 6750 Location: Oklahoma
I usually get my students started with a 20 minute routine and they can add 5 minutes each week getting up to a 45 minute workout - Which usually ends up to be about an hour once you do some extra relaxed riding.
Walk 5 minutes Trot 5 minutes Walk 5 minutes Lope - just a few laps around the arena (I usually start with about 3 laps) Walk 5 minute Lope - just a few laps the other direction around the arena (I usually start with about 3 laps) Walk / cool out / end the session.
I will continue the walk / trot / lope repeatedly and you will start building stamina. We also breeze the horses once they have built some some wind.
If I have a horse that will "volunteer" some exercise while in a pasture by themself- I'll turn them out while I work another horse. That gives them some extra exercise. Some of my horses will lap the pen / buck / kick. . have a good ole time and then trot the fence line. I figure they'll stop when they get tired.
Pay attention to your horse and their breathing. You'll know if you need to do 10 minutes of walking instead of 5. Some live in the country and have "mile sections" they can work and they keep track by "miles" instead of minutes. I don't, so I keep track of "time" when I work mine.
My horses are never as competition fit as I want them to be, but when you're dealing with the weather and challenges of everyday life. . I do the best I can. They're feed bucket fit .. they sprint to the feed bucket and they're also turned out on the pasture, so they get a lot more movement. We also try to hit the trails. . up and down hills helps. . any exercise for our horses and us is good. Good luck.
Conditioning your horses
