Tell me about your “programs” for horses of this age please! (Assuming good fitness and a good foundation already).
Trying to strike a balance of consistent work (because mine thrives on it) and not making the horse bored/sour.
It’s hard to say without knowing what this 6-year-old has been doing, but a coming 6-year-old in my program would be in the same regimen as any other horse — jumping two or three times a week, two or three days of flatwork, and a day off. Maybe a Pessoa lunge in lieu of a flat day occasionally. My horses are never bored or sour, but they spend a lot of their non-working time outside and we also keep the jumps very small at home even if the exercises are quite technical.
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Our favorite answer, it depends on specifics not shared. Not all 6 year old horses are equal, they don’t all have the same genetics and experience. They are not at the same point physically, mentally and not destined for the same job in life. Some are already retired from a heavy performance career at 6, others haven’t started down down any specific career path.
To throw the great blanket of sweeping generality at this, 6 is a mature horse, vast majority already under saddle for several years. They should be treated as such with some common sense and patience about increasing levels of difficulty. But not like babies anymore.
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Unless the horse is unusually behind for its age, a 6 year old can be doing whatever your normal routine is for horses of that discipline. My horse at 6 was flatting 4 days a week and jumping in a lesson or training ride 2 days. Mostly doing 2’6 and under but starting to put together more complicated courses and doing some 3’0 jumping. He started in dressage so his flat work was always very solid from even a young age (and he has auto changes) and it was more about teaching him how to put together hunter courses than anything else once he got older. The fences kept him interested, but having started in dressage he didn’t find flatwork distasteful either. I always try to get my horses out of the ring sometimes and mix things up. That’s good for any horse. I’m not a fan of lunging but I do now ride in the equi core for fitness. Long and short, I don’t think you need to “baby” a 6 year old and do less work than any other older horse. Work on what the horse needs to work on as much as you would with any horse.
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Thanks guys. Long story short, I’d like to bump him up to 6 days of work/week to give myself more saddle time (he’s currently getting 5 days/week, which includes training rides). I just didn’t know if that was unreasonable. Sounds like it is not.
He only jumps 2x/week, and the jumps are no bigger than 2’6" at this point. The rest is flatwork, which is what he needs most (straightness and responsiveness to leg being our main issues).
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Go for it, he should be more then ready for a regular program of 4 flat days and 2 days of <2’6” jumping.
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And hopefully a fair bit of hacking outside the ring?
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Yes, hacking or trail riding is the answer to boredom and fitness and adaptability . You can practice your two point doing trot sets, great buns of steel workout for both of you. Also good for building endurance as you can easily ride for 2 hours or more on trails without the wear and tear of continually circling in an arena.
You can do all kinds of things like transitions and shoulder in and leg yields on trails. It doesn’t mean you just slouch along on the buckle the whole time.
You need to see how the horse responds. It took me years to figure out my Paint mare needs 5 days of riding maximum and then a day or two off to stay fresh and happy. Other horses would get unmanageably hot on this schedule.
IIRC, OP is in a region where riding out may not be an option for a few months. But when it is, it most certainly is flatwork day, just without the endless circles.
Yeah, I know. Is it not winter where most of y’all are?! 
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Hey, it was like 60 degrees here today—and is already down to 40! 
So now all that disgusting mud is just going to be frozen. Joy!
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Sadly, we don’t have much land outside the ring. About a quarter mile trail (currently unusable) and a long driveway….and you wouldn’t want to trot on either. Not ideal, I know, but this place has the best care around.
Trailer out? Good for the horse to go somewhere that isn’t a show.
If you don’t have a trailer, maybe you can schedule up with someone who does, whose horse could also benefit from hacking.
My horse is going to be 6 at the end of May, we are slowly increasing the demands on him. I ride usually 3-4 days a week, depending on my schedule. One of those rides is a jump lesson. If I can’t get out more, he is now at the point where I can let a good junior ride him, usually in a lesson. We have started introducing lead changes and his flatwork foundation is very solid. I base how often I ride on what the horse needs. I personally feel that most horses don’t need ridden more than 5 days a week in the ring. I equate a riding day for my horse to a work day for me, 5 is more than enough unless there is a situation haha. I am personally a big fan of riding out when possible, my horse does not entirely agree at this point haha.
I have dedicated the winter to trying to get to as many clinics as I can, which so far he has benefitted from immensely. At this point, we have done a dressage clinic, a jumping clinic with Joe Fargis, and a biomechanics position clinic. I also try to trailer off property as much as I can.
If I were you, I would evaluate what your horse would benefit from, and if you feel they would benefit from a 6th day, try to figure out what you can do that will be fun and different than just more ring work.
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What did you think of the Joe Fargis clinic? He teaches around here from time to time. Since our horses are around the same age/level, I’m curious if you thought his teaching was beneficial.
I really like him. I find him to be tough on the rider but kind to the horses. I’ve ridden with him a few times, so I had a baseline for him. He was the first clinician I took my mare to and for whatever reason, her pants were on fire that day, totally not her normal self, and he was great about understanding her greenness and helping her feel more comfortable. Gave me tons to work on with her. With this gelding, I had already done some clinics, so I knew he was likely not to get his panties in a twist (my weirdo horse LOVES being in a group lesson). The exercises Joe had us do for this clinic were hard to remember (lots of patterns and lines that crossed over themselves), but the focus was on getting the horse to get through the exercise (less help from rider), so basically my job was to remember where to go, his was to get us through it. He was very willing to make adjustments for greener horses. He always asks about what you and your horse have been doing and what your goals are, which i appreciate. I highly recommend him for a green horse.
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My 6yos are usually at the same level of work as my older horses from an intensity perspective. I’m comfortable riding them 6 days a week, though often it’s less just because of how I cycle through my group to get everyone ridden as much as possible around busy work days where I can’t ride them all. And certainly this time of the year it’s all arena work. Actually, my horses are ridden in the arena almost exclusively anyway. We do occasional hill sets on the trails, but rarely don’t have an arena component on those days too. I haven’t ever had a horse get arena sour. I suspect that has more to do with the type of work/training style than it does with location of the ride. And I will fully admit that I am often very rut-tish with my conditioning program because I’m trying to get 3 horses ridden a day around a full work schedule, which doesn’t lend itself to much creativity.
Obviously from a fence height perspective the work for my 5/6 year olds is a little less than the older horses. On average I’m jumping my coming 6yos regularly over 1.10m - 1.20m jumps with the occasional larger jump school thrown in. And probably 0-3 times a week (ranges from week to week depending on the weather and whether we’re prepping for the winter circuit or not).
My only real concession to the age at that point is that I quit in a jump schooling session earlier than I do with an older horse. Though I often (even with the high level/older horses) quit as soon as something good happens, which sometimes means 3 jumps and we’re done.
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