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Regular
Posts: 93
| We have a 1/2 mile track. With my old gelding I used to walk a lap, trot a lap, lope a lap with a short breeze..turn around and do the whole thing the other direction backwards to make 3 miles. That was our daily routine. My new mare and I are both out of shape so we have been trotting a mile and walking a mile to get back where we should be. Probably next week I'll add a half mile of loping. What is everyone else's workout routines? I went from OTTQH who was used to extensive track work to cow-bred mare. How much is TOO much? |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
  
Location: Arkansas | Bump |
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| Ride until you both get hungry and then trot back to the barn for a snack ..
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Regular
Posts: 93
| I guess no one keeps their horses legged up.  |
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 Lone Wolf in my pack of One
Posts: 2825
Location: North Texas | I like to look at it the way I do with my track kids. Mixtures of hard days, medium days, and what I call "survival days" (long slow distances)
So my week might look like this:
Monday
Long trot 1 mile
Short sprints (1/4mile or less) x 6 (walk in between, based on conditioning level)
Walk 1/2 mile
Long trot 1/2
Cool down
Tuesday
Long trot 1/2
Lope 1/2
Long trot 1/2
Lope 1/2
Cool Down
Wednesday
Repeat Monday, 1/2mi trot to warm up instead of miles and sprints x4
Thursday
Long trot 20 minutes
Friday
Slow work on the pattern
Saturday
Race
Sunday
Either off or pasture ride
With any kind of conditioning it's stress, recover, adapt. To actually continue to improve, you have to up the stress level (to actually achieve stress after adapatation). With horses that aren't being ran at a highly competitive level, it will be easy to continue to stress and adapt and maintain. Horses that are at or near genetic potential (professional rodeo horses) will need to vary things differently in order to achieve the needed level of stress to promote adaptation.
I like to give my time off on occasion (usually during basketball season--I coach) and do lots of easy rides and just let her do things that are fun but stimulating. If your horse seems continuously tired, even out in the pasture, you're overdoing it and need to allow for recovery. Recovery is just as important as the training itself. I adjust feed to account for heavier training weeks and lighter training weeks. I also try to overload when getting ready for a big race/rodeo and taper towards the end. The thing with cardiovascular work vs strength work is that you lose the adaptation quicker so you have to continue a certain level of training in order to avoid starting somewhat over.
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Lone Wolf in my pack of One
Posts: 2825
Location: North Texas | Sorry for so much rambling  |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | dkcowgirl - 2016-11-16 11:01 AM Sorry for so much rambling
I appreciate your rambling--very informative! |
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 Half-Eaten Cookies
Posts: 2075
Location: Fort Worth / Springtown | Marlene Eddleman McCrae does something like this:
trot for 7 min or 1 mile
lope for 5 min. or 1 mile
change leads,
lope another 5 min. or 1 mile
trot for another 7 min. or 1 mile
You have to build up to this regimen. I am watching her pole bending video and before even starting her work on the poles, she has already done her "4 miles"
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