thank you so much for this reply! we do long cater sets 1x a week, a long hack out doing lots of hillwork 1x a week, the rest is arena work. i train all of my dressage horses as if they are eventers 
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yes, her muscling is very good
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Thatās interesting! Thank you.
So do you find her pooping out primarily in dressage work in the arena, or does she start losing steam when out of the arena too?
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I think a lot of it is her confirmation. She is long and long in the loin so when she picks up her belly/rib cage it very much tires her out. I am just wanting to make sure she has nutritionally what she needs
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^ Rats! The image?/video? is blank, though the numbers are running.
If you think her problem is partly conformational, though, I wonder if you could build in extra strengthening work to address those specific issues? Maybe with a trainer whose area of expertise is biomechanics?
You might find that upper level dressage is beyond this particular horse, but you might also discover ways to work around her idiosyncrasies.
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You have to click the three dots on the right and download it to your computer in order to view.
I am not skilled enough to evaluate the horse in question and comment about upper level dressage, but this might be the case here. I certainly think itās possible to improve fitness in any horse, regardless of the conformation or the discipline.
thank you so much for this reply! we do long cater sets 1x a week, a long hack out doing lots of hillwork 1x a week, the rest is arena work.
Iād be curious to know what this looks like in writing. E.g. what are long canter sets - how many, how long, etc. A long hack out - walking, trotting? And how long is long?
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Because of how the lungs work, trotting builds fitness better than cantering does. So, I would spend more time trotting - REALLY trotting. I would work on interval work with the canter - donāt just canter for an hour. Do canter transitions, both with the trot, and within the canter.
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the video doesnāt work for me either (and Iām not going to download it, sorry!). Can you post just a conformation-type pic, even if itās tacked up?
āEngaging Your Horseās Coreā is an excellent book you might look into.
If lifting her back tires her out, then sheās not as fit as her other muscles may make it appear she is.
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Thank you. I still canāt open it, though - apparently because my computer doesnāt like Quicktime.
Anyway, I agree with the rest of your post. Any horse can be made fitter, just as any person can, and I agree that it would be nice to see the details of the current program. First Iād wonder if thereās enough core and back strengthening stuff included, and how itās being integrated into the larger program. (Is all dressage done in the arena? Can some of this be done in an open field or even on a trail? How long is each session? How about pole work? Hills?)
And then, yeah, you could think about whether the horse is getting enough protein, etc, to actually build the muscles she needs.
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JB, I guess it matters what your final goal is for the horse. Ours canāt get fit enough for driving competition without a āfairā amount of canter/gallop work. It is the striding. The canter/gallop stride FORCES the lungs to fully empty, pull in new cooler (than body) air each stride. Trotting can be done for miles, does not get them fit if stress (hills, water crossings, sand) are added. Once they quit trotting they are not self-cooling with deep inhaling/exhaling. Body has not been trained to do that, with hard aerobic and anerobic works. They easily can go into thumps if only conditioned with trot work. Talking from a discipline where trot work is the most used gait.
I get that such works for the horse are hard work for their riders too, standing or sitting the canter/gallop is HARD on you! But for a more rounded fitness, they need canter and gallop works. I donāt think once a week is enough. How fit would you be doing walking, a bit of jogging for 4-5 days, then trying wind sprints for a few miles once a week? Add in that once a week is not building fitness in the tendons, ligaments, bone, so all that Dressage (drilling) work may cause leg issues because legs never get very fit.
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My 17.1 1/2 KWPN was 1650# on the scale at the vet hospital. 87" blanket and size 5 shoe, but not an old fashioned, heavy looking horse at all, nor overweight!
Correct, but thatās part of what keeps the canter from being the kind of fitness work that trotting can be, where the horse has to actively work his diaphram to breathe. Trotting forces a different kind of fitness, and if a horse isnāt āfitā despite ālong canter setsā, he may need to do more trot work
But I didnāt say only do trot work. I just said ādo more trot workā, and do interval with with the canter, donāt just canter for the sake of cantering, as the current āwe do long canter sets 1x a weekā isnāt working.
Maybe Iām not explaining things well enough, but hereās a good layout of the differences. In short, the breath work of trotting is more tiring because it uses more muscles. So, put more work into the trot, for now, and see what happens. I didnāt intend for my comment to mean donāt canter.
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JB. Sorry that no canter or very little canter in getting fit, was the way I read it.it . My point was in using all parts of the horse body in gaits, speeds, horse gains overall fitness. Body developes self regulated cooling, ability to return to resting rates easily. No one part of legs is fit, letting other parts get strained in work.
And actually the canter/gallop work lets the trot muscles rest a bit, before changing back to trot again.
I would spend more time trotting - REALLY trotting. I would work on interval work with the canter - donāt just canter for an hour. Do canter transitions, both with the trot, and within the canter.
More time trotting. Different canter work.
Cantering/galloping for stamina is one thing, and very beneficial.
Cantering to develop more strength is another thing, and very beneficial. Pushing into the canter uses different muscles than being in the canter, more push, more lift.
Yes, sometimes just doing MORE is what 's needed. But sometimes you (also) have to do different.
