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You are an athlete. Your horse is an athlete. Your safety depends on you and your horse being in condition. Your horse's safety depends on you both being in condition. Lack of condition (yours or your mounts) leads to poor performance and injuries. Consider what you would do with your horse if he has a career (but not life) ending injury.
Guidelines for conditioning your horse:
- For basic cardiovascular fitness you must exercise your horse regularly gradually increasing his work-out in intensity and duration until he can work comfortably for 50-60 minutes at an average speed of 4-5 mph.
- On average: a walk is 3 mph, trot is 6 mph, and canter is 12 mph.
- Once basic cardiovascular fitness has been achieved, you must then begin conditioning for your specific sport. You must begin consistent conditioning for a specific sport 4-6 weeks before an event.
- Remember to vary your workouts to protect against repetitive strain. For example: two days of flat work/wk, 1 day of gymnastic jumping/wk, 1 day of jumping/wk, 1 day of trail riding/wk, 1-2 days off/wk.
- Longeing will not adequately maintain condition.
- In the off season, in order not to lose basic cardiovascular fitness, you and your horse still require a minimum of 3-4 days of riding per week.
If recovering from an injury, allow one month of reconditioning for every month off.
Recommended reading: Anne Kursinski’s Riding and Jumping Clinic.
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