Curious what everyone's programs are. About how many rides should a horse have that qualifies them as being legged up enough to start running barrels? 30 days? 

this may sound off but I’ve heard of a week for every month they’ve been off.....now for me, I go by how my horse is physically after a workout and how he looks. The vets I’ve used recommend increasing work in 5 minute increments about once weekly.

Have one that’s just come back from injury I built him up to 20 mins walking then added in trotting, trotted a few weeks, then added loping. I got set back some because of weather but made it work. I prefer to go by distance rather than time because if you go by time your distance will be different depending on if the horse is slow trotting vs long trotting etc lazy horse vs one who will move out..so for that reason I go by distance. I started walking in early November and in late Jan/early Feb we were up to about half  mile walking, 3/4- 1 mile trotting, 3/4-1 mile loping several days a week. He’s not overly tired when we’re done and his breathing returns to normal quickly and he looks fit, he went to his first show weekend before last.

i think it really comes back to knowing your horse, every horse is different and some need more time and exercise than others.

A horse turned out for "winter" (usually a month or two). I try to long trot one mile and then lope each direction a half-mile. A couple of weeks of that, I try to work up to a mile in each direction. If that is feeling easy for them and their minute/mile time starts getting faster (I track my miles since I might do loopy loops or "drills"), I might start looking for places to go but not massive patterns and I don't try to set land speed records. I like to slowly bring one back and build their air up on the pattern and decent ground. I don't have a great place at my house to cruise one through or breeze one, so I have to sacrifice a few runs and hopefully hit a D. Also, try to make sure that the couple of months of riding I am working hard at not missing any days to get to a "maintain" shape and air that way if life happens I am not having to play catch up all over again.