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Member
Posts: 10
| My barrel horse is a bleeder and I usually keep her in shape pretty well, but I was curious to see how everyone else keeps their bleeders in great running shape with strong lungs. I do a lot of long trotting up and down hills. What have you discovered to be a great exercise for your bleeders?
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Expert
Posts: 2122
 
Location: The Great Northwest | hey | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 538
Location: Central Texas | I have worn a big sqare path in the hay pasture where I ride one horse and pony the other. I used an app on my phone to track the distance. It's 0.25 miles around the square. I usually walk one lap for warm up, trot 4 laps (1 mile), and then lope two laps in each direction (total another mile). Then I do at least one full lap walking to cool down. I do increase and decrease the intervals sometimes, trot a little more or lope a little more. Sometimes I push them to gallop a full lap too. Only one of mine is a bleeder, but both get worked the same.
Edited by txcajuncowgirl 2017-08-11 10:43 AM
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 Expert
Posts: 1523
Location: Illinois | I used to keep mine in pretty heavy work. A good walk warm up followed by some general exercises at a nice easy working trot, moving off leg, circles, etc just to refresh and engage the mind. Then long trot for about 10 minutes each direction. Eventually I built up to 15-20 minutes each direction once fully legged up. I'd also lope for 10 minutes each way, at various speeds. I made sure to do short sprints 3 days a week, even if it was just down the side of the arena and only a couple strides. Mine was getting ridden for 1.5-2 hrs 5 days a week, I only had one horse so it was easy to spend the time. Now that I have 3 horses he doesn't get worked as much so I just increase his lasix dosage a little bit. The biggest thing I think is varying speeds in your workout, if you just long trot and easy lope you won't build up the lungs for that all out run. Vary your lope speeds, think of it like reining patterns, large fast circles and smaller slower circles or any combo you want. When the bean fields are clear I'll go out and find a good spot(always check ground in fields first!) and I'll just let him open up for a football field length twice a week while I can. He runs better when I breeze him, wake him up occasionally. | |
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Keeping Your Bleeder In Shape.