What fitness program are your horses on for competition? My plan is to do 3 or 4 combined driving days this year and CDEs next year. Right now, Vega is schooling dressage under saddle 5 days a week for about 45 minutes and then driving for an hour. When driving, she is up to about 25 minutes of solid trot work and we spend about 20 minutes walking trails. She goes in the walker for an hour and then has 4 hours turn out. Two days a week, she is turned out all day and lunges one of those days and is off work the other day. I am gradually increasing the trot work. Is this the correct track?
You might get better information on the Trail and Endurance Forum, where they work at fitness in their activities.
You need to know how to take Temperature, Pulse and count Respirations (TPR) on a horse. Then you need to take YOUR horse’s TPR just out of the stall as your base information for him. Then start taking the TPRs right after you work him, time how long it takes to get him back to “his normal” rates. I would make a log, so you can track his work, TPRs, how fast he drops to normal time after time.
Ideally, horse SHOULD be showing you his fitness, by dropping from stress of work, getting to normal, in a fast time like 10 minutes. His sweat is clear. You are using a thermometer to get his temps, since it is his body core that needs to be cooled with the respiration and blood flow under the skin. He is cooling WITHOUT help of hosing, sponging with water.
How many miles is horse covering when driven? Is horse being cantered at all? Sorry to say you CAN NOT condition well, if horse doesn’t canter or gallop. It forces air in and out of the lungs, removing body heat from the core of horse whether he wants to breathe right or not! Horse has to STRESS a couple times a week during these works. Doing consistently the same workout, is NOT BUILDING horse enough for harder work.
In my area, humidity is the hardest thing to deal with in competition. Humidity does not let horse cool easily. Hard working horse with temp of 102-104F in outside temp of 80F with humidity of 70% is a recipe for disaster if you can’t get him fit to compete and cool himself! Thumps is a real and present danger, when you compete hard at CDEs. Been there myself, NEVER want to deal with it again! That horse WAS FIT to trot 16 miles, I was working her, but not having cantered or galloped, she didn’t BREATHE to clear her lungs and cool her body when we stopped moving.
We totally changed our fitness program after getting this horse and admited our ignorance. This after skating a couple years of CDEs with the self-conditioning Arab crosses we had before. Arabs never reacted like this!! We did mileage with them, they galloped themselves when loose in the fields, so were fit and recovered well at Vet Checks. We then applied ourselves to learning more, better ways of doing fitness conditioning with these other body style horses.
Not sure if you are counting warm-up and cool-down times in your minutes of work. We are quite serious about horses NEEDING a good warm-up before starting to ask for bending, obedience to the bit. We have a paved road, so we walk the mile and a half to dirt road, which is warm up time. Have the same mile and a half to get home, which is a cool-down time after getting our mileage on the dirt roads. Horses have breathing back to normal, usually sweat is mostly dried off. Takes about 15 minutes to walk that far, with speeds varying from 5 to 7KPH. Has some rolling hills, so both up and down in the going. Joints are loosened up, horses moving smoothly, listening to the Driver. Similar warm-up in the ring, 5 minute walking each way of the ring, for 10 minute walk total, then 5 minutes each way easy trotting, for 10 minute trot total, overall warm-up total 20 minutes. Then we can start asking for true obedience, a bit of collection, and move on into harder work in the training session. They get about 15 minutes cool down after the work. I do that same 20minute warm-up and cool down when riding the horses. We see too many horses with leg “issues” from lack of “structured” warm-up times. Cold joints, older animals, NEED that time to get things smoothed out before asking for WORK or collection. Human athletes would NEVER jump into work-outs with cold bodies! Horses shouldn’t either.
When we do the mileage days, horses are worked over both distance and at speed, to push their bodies in developing their fitness. Doing ring work, going in a frame, doing collections, is also HARD work, so you may do less of work in measured time, than what happens on a mileage day. Your recovery rates in the TPRs will show if horses are getting fitter with shorter times needed, even in the harder work days.
Our Mentors Of Fitness, said the whole “conditioning system” involves TIME plus the various kinds of work. Time is for getting EACH part of the body truly fit. Muscles, ligaments, BONE each take a different amount of time to get fit, so there are NO shortcuts. Trying to speed things up is chancing soft tissue injury or bone problems, because you have not built the entire horse strongly enough. They said 90 days, from totally unfit, never-fit horse, to hard competition. No matter how much work is done, one day is only one day’s worth in a program. Horse body doesn’t count two outings as separate days of works!
Hilary Clayton has a book out which I think is called “Conditioning the Sport Horse”. Covers a lot of ground, for the type of work to get horses fit for CDE, Eventing, competitions with mileages.
Sorry this is so long, I tend to get carried away! We work very hard to get our big horses REAL FIT for CDE competitons, so they don’t have recovery issues. That bad scare with the Old Mare was one too many for me!! We “changed our ways” to be better prepared when we go out to play CDE.
Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for. Vega’s current schedule Monday through Friday is to work first under saddle. We always start with 10 minutes of walking. She has been working trot and canter under saddle for about 30 minutes. She does not have a cool down period under saddle per se as we go straight to harness and then I start with 10 minutes of walking with the carriage since she is using a different set of muscles. I do trot work until I feel her getting tired (about 25 minutes at this point). She is a very forward horse, so I know when I have to push a bit that she is at that point. I ask her to go about 5 minutes longer and then stop. I have mostly been doing this work in one of the arenas as she is still very green and I don’t always have someone to ride out with me. Once she is tired, I do venture out alone and we will walk the property for 20 to 30 minutes. If I have someone to go with me, I will do a brief warm up just to make sure and then will head out to walk the farm roads and do the trot work in the pastures. Straight from driving, she goes to the paddock for turn out. She either has Saturday or Sunday off with just turn out and the other day I lunge her just to stretch her legs. If we have training issues, I may work her on that day.
I will start logging TPRs … that is a great idea. In just a month of serious training, I can “see” the improvement in her fitness just in that she is working three times as long before clueing me in that she is tired. She is also offering me a slower working trot that she is holding very consistently. I do think she is one that I need to be careful of because I think she would work herself into the ground if it was asked of her.
Do you do your canter and gallop work under saddle or in harness?
How often do you do ring work versus road work?
If I don’t have access to dirt roads on the property (just have short sections of gravel roads or longer sections of asphalt roads), can I do laps in large pastures? Do you feel that one type of footing is better than another or do you prefer to vary the footing types?
OK, I have a spin off of this question. I know how to get my event horse fit- but it involves a lot of cantering. I have just started upping the work of our Haflinger with the goal of an HDT in July and CDE in August. (training level)
I would love to pony him off my mare on her less intense road work days and kill 2 birds with one stone -he could never keep up with her canter (and he doesn’t really need to go that fast or be as fit as she is, but she’s TB and he’s an M line Haffie - short and stout.) but I would think that ponying him on longer slightly slower rides (more trotting, less cantering) would be great fitness work for the driving demands. The route involves hills, and the 2 of them get along. He doesn’t seem to enjoy being ridden the way he enjoys driving, but I will have more options for him if I can either ride or pony him to condition.
Opinions?
Sorry to say you CAN NOT condition well, if horse doesn’t canter or gallop. It forces air in and out of the lungs, removing body heat from the core of horse whether he wants to breathe right or not! Horse has to STRESS a couple times a week during these works. Doing consistently the same workout, is NOT BUILDING horse enough for harder work.
I’m so grateful you wrote this as I recently learned just how true this is! Last two seasons my horse always like to throw in canter and it was a struggle to keep him to a trot. This year we’ve been working on finding a pace and working towards distance, and lately averaging up to 3 miles of solid trotting. His recovery has been fantastic, 5 minutes of walking and it was as if he was fresh from the barn, and I thought he was getting quite fit.
The other day, after only a half mile of trotting, I asked for a canter to change things up, and we went at a pretty fast pace for a little less than a half mile. Total non-walking drive less than a mile, and he was exhausted and beginning to lather, and I was shocked!
Showed me I need to start incorporating more canter work as it is an entirely different fitness requirement than trotting. I had no idea the difference was this vast.
Thank you so much for all of your great input!
This is interesting to me too - the Haffie really doesn’t canter often, and at Training level he is not supposed to canter in harness. His canter, frankly, sort of sucks. I am all for cantering/galloping -it’s fun - and it absolutely works the horse differently than just trotting.
I will discuss this with my coach - it’s been a long time since I’ve conditioned a heavier horse, and I want him to be fit enough. Ponying him on the hills will be more work than he has done, so perhaps that is a start, and later on I can add in some canter work.
Do you do this in harness or under saddle? Both?
When I started conditioning Standardbred racehorses, our goal was to gradually ask for Long Slow Distance work and then add speed/anaerobic conditioning. I moved that attitude over to my pleasure driving horses (I’m starting my OTSTB gaited trotter into Limited Distance Riding/Distance Driving, with goal of CDE possibly in our future) I’m basically using a racehorse schedule combined with more riding training. Here is my schedule:
I start off with driving 1 jog mile and 30 mins riding. My guy is multi gaited so I work also on his rack/fox trot and try to keep his trotting to harness.
I gradually build up his jog miles in harness until I have him comfortably jogging 7 miles with a less than 10 min recovery time for pulse. I will then start “training him down” in harness. I will do a training mile where I am asking for a 3 min trot at one mile. I will do this 2x a week for example on training mile on Tues another one on Friday. I will gradually train him down to a 2:35 mile and do a double header or go two trips (this means 2 training miles spaced apart for recovery) Once he is comfortable going two trips in 2:35 I know his level of fitness is good enough for 25 mile LD
The canter is our biggest issue, he will pick it up under saddle but is very difficult between the shafts. I know this is mental he did race for 9 years so this will just be a future goal we work towards.
You can interject the canter in for your anaerobic work and mix up the gaits during your jog miles. My jog miles are not just straight jogging, we have obstacles we go through, cones, and road work.
Our riding work consists of lots of transitions in gait so his muscle memory is good and his muscles can recover quickly and efficiently. The best part of all this cross training is that the horse is not bored and is always fresh for training. I’ve yet to see a sour multi discipline horse.
I only work in the arena once or twice a week. Other than that we go out in the forest.
I would encourage you to drive in your pastures. You can work on all the things you want to work on and not be in the arena.
I would also caution you to have someone on the carriage if you want to do canter work. Marathon carriages are designed to have a person on the back as ballast and to keep you upright. But canter work is great for the horses. It’s great for their wind… and it’s fun 
But please have someone on the carriage with you when you do it. If you haven’t cantered her in the carriage before, I would do it in the enclosed arena first.
ETA that I have Warmbloods. Actually, one of my pair was at your place in training with Drew when he was there!
I alternate our training drives. I do one day a week of walk for an hour. One day we do a long, slow, relaxed trot for up to an hour. One day we go stronger for less time. One day we gallop around and just have a blast. One day we work on dressage in the arena. We mix it up.
As we get closer to event time we will do a long, easy trot for 20-25 minutes, then walk for ten minutes, then go strong for 20-25 minutes. That is what we have to do at a CDE and I want them to be able to do it with wind to spare.
That’s just what works for us here at our place.
ETA I also drive German Warmbloods. Actually one of my pair was at your place in training with Drew when he was there.
I would also caution you to have someone on the carriage if you want to do canter work. Marathon carriages are designed to have a person on the back as ballast and to keep you upright.
Oy! More incredibly true words! haha. During a fast canter on a wooded track, something flushed in the woods and my horse spooked and gave a little leap sideways… Just as quick he jumped back and continued on as if it never occurred… BUT my carriage, with no one on the back, started to fishtail like mad from the sudden zig zag! At one point I had the sensation that we might roll! But I urged him forward and he pulled us out.
But I have soundly learned my lesson! That loss of control of the back end of the carriage would not have happened with someone on the back step.
Carrying dead weight in the back is not hard, common with drivers I know because you can’t always find a person to ride with you. Also helps condition the horse to a heavier load, like what he will be pulling at the CDE with required Groom/Navigator. We have weight plates bolted to the bottom of our Marathon vehicles, carried all the time except in competition. They are plate steel, and in four pieces. Not real difficult to put on or remove. They equal about 200#s, not huge weight, but not insignificant either. They are in place to help braking, keeping a load over the rear axles, as carriage was designed work best while it carries weight back there.
Other folks carry “stuff” they have around the place. Feed sacks, dog food, buckets of sand, whatever they have that will fit their vehicle, can be tied in place to stay put on the drive.
Good suggestions from CDE Driver, and I would be real careful getting your green horse cantering much with vehicle. You can slip in a few strides at the end of a work when she is REAL TIRED and ready to stop. The whole “feel” of harness flopping, vehicle jerking on her is VERY DIFFERENT than how it feels when trotting. Some vehicles DO NOT canter well!! Might pull crooked, hop around, get NOISY, so THAT can be scary to a horse too.
The deal with cantering harnessed, is that “it happens” to everyone, may be unplanned. But rather than get excited like folks USED TO about cantering in harness, you stay CALM, relaxed, ease horse back to trot, and continue on. Not making the canter strides a big deal, keeps things calm, horse CALM, so no one is upset or frightened. You work up to letting horse do a few strides, slow down again, to learn the feel of moving so differently and staying IN CONTROL of the outfit. We work at learning to canter when asked, at the END of our workout, with tired horse who is GRATEFUL to slow and stop as asked!! Makes it all more natural, easy to control, horse is doing as asked in cantering and slowing when you want.
We kind of mix up our long distance days, with walking, then trotting both fast and slow miles, cantering on the road when they are obedient and no traffic around. Ours LIKE the view of road ahead, so you can’t let them be strong AND canter, they have WAY too much fun then! And when we do canter on the road it is towards the end of the drive, all warmed up, a bit tired. They MUST keep going until asked to stop, usually a half up to a full mile, as they get more fit. They ARE ASKING to stop before that goal, but since it is for conditioning, we want them going certain distances at certain speeds to insure they ARE building their bodies. They are HAPPY to slow down to walk, lots of good, heavy breathing to get the inner body cooled down as they walk along. We also canter/hand gallop them harnessed in the arena, which is pretty big so they are not constantly bending tightly.
We drive Multiples, almost never do a single horse, so we do things that Singles drivers would not.
At this point in your green horse training, I would ride the canter or gallop, to get enough done to improve her conditioning. You don’t want her rushing her training driving stages, before you have learned how to do the other parts VERY WELL, keeping her obedient and enjoying things. Do a walk around on the ground you plan to drive, check for rough places, holes or rocks, so you can do your drive safely. Sometimes mowing a track keeps stuff more visible, can be marked with km, to aid in practice of timing your horse’s gaits. You learn what a 6K walk feels like or the faster trots.
I just want to echo a bit of what GH says:
The deal with cantering harnessed, is that “it happens” to everyone, may be unplanned. But rather than get excited like folks USED TO about cantering in harness, you stay CALM, relaxed, ease horse back to trot, and continue on. Not making the canter strides a big deal, keeps things calm, horse CALM, so no one is upset or frightened. You work up to letting horse do a few strides, slow down again, to learn the feel of moving so differently and staying IN CONTROL of the outfit. We work at learning to canter when asked, at the END of our workout, with tired horse who is GRATEFUL to slow and stop as asked!! Makes it all more natural, easy to control, horse is doing as asked in cantering and slowing when you want.
All of this is 100% true. I started with cantering my horses in harness just on the long lines, so they would get the feel of the harness. The first time I asked a horse to canter, I figured on just doing it to cover the “I know it’s going to happen sooner or later” scenario.
I was had always been under the impression that driving horses do NOT canter. Then, as I watched advanced CDE and educated myself, I was like, hey, wait! They’re cantering… I thought that was unheard of. lol.
So I figured on the “what if” scenario… what if I’m driving along one day and my horse spooks and bolts - is he going to get more scared because he’s now cantering and not used to how the harness & cart feel when cantering?
Figured, I better canter them in order to get them “used” to that. So, about 3 years ago, my life of cantering a driving horse began. And - I have to warn you — you will quickly discover that it’s the most awesome thing. EVER.
I have days where I’m quite tempted to do 100% canter drives, especially when they are on their game and rocking & rolling on the trails. 
I’ve started a couple horses cantering for the first time, and my personal preference is to do it both towards the end of a drive AND up a hill. (I’m not talking a mountain side, here! - just a rolling hill that will encourage canter and discourage bucking), and I also introduce it probably a little differently than most people would. I do what I feel is best/works best for myself and each individual horse I’m driving, based on how well they respond to cues.
For example, the first time I asked my QH to canter - knowing he responds well and had done canter in harness on long lines - I asked him to canter up our driveway (which is a short hill) and he went right away and right to the top (then walk) - so maybe 10 strides to get to the top.
The haffie I drive for a friend, he is a little… dull… in his responses, so I just wanted him to understand that I was asking for something different. As long as he engaged into a canter when I asked, I didn’t care if he did 1 stride or 20.
I also suggest a BUCKING STRAP. I think it’s a little funny that you can’t use a bucking strap on a pair when you have twice the chance of being nailed in the head, but there’s no way to attach it. On a single, at least you can use it, and if you’re driving a horse that can reach your head, I’d recommend one.
My minis, ponies, and the cob I drive, I don’t use a bucking strap with, but my big horse, I do. And it’s come into play on at least 2 or 3 occasions. In fact, just the other day we were cantering on a trail, along a long flat stretch, rounded a corner, and he decided how much more fun it would be to start bucking and run off the trail for a few strides. Thank goodness for the bucking strap ! Got him re-organized and back on the path at the canter with no problems.
I can’t wait until the day when I can canter a 4 in hand! whoooo! Watch out!
I absolutely love cantering my pony in harness. I agree that it is addicting!
Rebecca
I remember! I just wish Drew was still here at the farm. Haha … he was teasing me that it only took me 5 or 6 years to make my dream happen.
Thanks, all! We are doing trot work in one of the fields and it is going great.
I am not too worried about cantering in the arena as I have been letting her canter a bit when I am working cones (or trees) and turning tight as she can really “sit” on her haunches and be handy from the canter. I just want to get more miles on her before I do it outside, so I know what her reactions are going to be before I add a new dynamic.
I am not using a bucking strap, but maybe I should be. She isn’t really one to buck. Not saying that she wouldn’t but she hasn’t yet. If she is fresh, I have to worry more about her spooking or bouncing around in the shafts. She can go from being in front of the carriage to beside the carriage facing the wrong way in a blink which is seriously intimidating, but luckily she doesn’t also bolt and will settle enough for me to step her back over. Unfortunately, the fitter she is, the more “up” she is. The qualities that make her so fabulous to drive also make her exciting to drive. LOL
We are going off the farm the first time in 2 weeks. Yikes!! We took her to a schooling show last weekend and rode her with her driving bridle and that was a great experience for her. We will see how it goes with the carriage next time.
I’ll share a typical week of work for our ponies that both ride and drive ~ it may help since you’re coming at it from both of those perspectives as well. In addition, my husband and I both come from an eventing background, which certainly helps with regard to conditioning.
Our goal, and an important thing we’ve found with our ponies–who are both 1/2 thoroughbred and pony smart (the other half is Welsh)–is that we constantly have to keep things different. That approach helps us fashion an appropriate schedule.
Looking at a 7-day spread, 2 days are dedicated conditioning days:
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Riding day: On these days, we take both ponies up to the local horse park and do interval training under saddle–trot sets, walking, and canter sets plus gallop sprints, with hillwork included in all of this. They both love the ability to have a good gallop and “blow” themselves out. Some days, we’ll do lower intensity canter/gallop work and instead school over the cross country jumps…which they think is just SUPER fun!
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Driving day: Again, we typically utilize the local horse park, with its stone dust trails and nice hills. The work we do with the carriage is a bit lower intensity, and there is this great app from Nike for runners that we use to track our drive in kilometers, so we can tell our average speed per kilometer and the distance we’ve covered overall. Most of this driving is trotting, but toward the end, we’ll add in a couple of good canters/gallops–usually uphill as you get more “bang” for your buck with a good canter up a hill. But we don’t add the hillwork until they are adequately fit on the flat.
We typically ride/drive each pony 5 days a week, so the other 3 days include:
3/4. Dedicated dressage days–one day driving and one day riding (or two days driving if we have a CDE coming up): The dressage work complements the conditioning work because it also focuses on strength but in different ways. We’re focusing on the Intermediate level this year with both boys, so a driven dressage day–once warm-up is complete in a soft, looser outline–includes working/medium trot, collected exercises at the trot, lengthened trot work, canter work, interspersed with walk breaks in between each element we’re schooling and, especially after collected work, “stretchy” work at the walk and trot to stretch out the topline.
Riding is similar–I’m focused on ridden dressage with my pony and we are competing at 1st level and schooling 2nd, so it gives us plenty of things to keep each ride a bit different.
- A “hack” day, which is just a ride out at the walk, normally out in the farm fields that surround our farm. We ride out together, and try to keep the boys on the buckle and relaxed (they are young and have their moments!). It’s a day that is all about all play and no work. Just a happy time out and about.
If I decide to do a jump school or lesson, that replaces either a dressage day or fitness day, depending on how our schedule for that week is working out.
The things that are common about every day of work are:
>> We always walk for at least 15 solid minutes (or more) before and after each ride/drive.
>> Our focus is on maintaining relaxation and positivity…you may have a day where your horse or pony is just full of it, unfocused, or you’re not at your best; these are days were it’s a good idea to keep things simple, ask for little moments of improvement, avoid frustration at all possible costs, and end as soon as you have some good moments.
>> When in doubt, switch in a long lining day. Like the days described above, some times the best thing to do is go back to the basics and have a good school on the long lines to emphasize forward, bending, and listening. Not that we don’t do that under saddle or when driving, but since our guys start out long lining before doing anything else, coming back to this on a regular basis helps “reset” their brains and build confidence.
For example, canter is always introduced on the long lines, and once they can canter on contact and in balance on the long lines, then they graduate to doing it riding and driving.
I hope that helps give you some more insight! I’m a big believer in “saving” our ponies, so we increase work as we’re coming up to an event, back off a bit the week before, and then give them down time afterwards and maintain in lighter work. It is not possible to keep them at “peak” indefinitely, and healthiest for them to have time to relax and let their bodies rest.
And it’s great to do as many different things as possible! As an example, our ponies do a little bit of everything…in driving, they do both pleasure driving and CDEs, and when we feel its helpful, even some carriage racing (we approach it as a way to school hazards and in arenas with a lot of atmosphere, people, and noise…they were great when they did it at the PA Farm Show this year).
Riding-wise, they do ridden dressage shows, jumping lessons, and fox hunt. I just did a Jim Wofford show jumping clinic and had a blast! My goal this year is to finally make it to a horse trials…my health the past couple of years has kept that from happening.
So have fun, don’t hesitate to try new and different things, and, if possible, do find someone who can accompany you on your drives for both safety and the ability to get out and about.
P.S. I do understand the concern about fitness and “more horse,” but I see too many people use this as a reason to not get their horses fit enough for the job. I don’t know your horse’s breeding, but, for example, with our guys thoroughbred background (and having ridden thoroughbreds a lot due to eventing), we know the best way to keep them quiet and focused is to give them their “blow out” gallop once a week under saddle. It is amazing how much that settles them and keeps their brains in the right place for dressage work and other activities.
I also find focusing on how to channel the energy into productive work works much better than either keeping them less fit or pursuing activities to “tire” them out before riding or driving, such as lunging (because that ultimately creates more fitness). Short and sweet work is very effective ~ gallops uphill mean we do less galloping overall, collected and lateral work that makes them really use themselves accomplishes a lot with relatively simple exercises. Channeling the energy into productive work makes them focus–physically and mentally–maintains fitness and keeps them happy.
Great post Kelly.
Thanks! Super food for thought!!
Last week, we changed up Vega’s schedule. She schools dressage under saddle one day a week, gallops in the fields under saddle one day a week, drives out in the fields two days a week, and drives in the arena one day a week. She is barely blowing after 20 minutes of trot work, so fitness seems to be coming along very well. So far, so good!
Great post Kelly. I use a similar system (also from an eventing background - still own an advanced/three star horse) except that I am not currently riding either of my ponies. I do all my work with the carriage.
I am amazed at the number of drivers who don’t canter their horses in harness.
