Fitness Schedule - Help?

[jtkorth]

Hey guys, so my horse has been off riding since the beginning of August (nothing that happened to her, I’d just been busy) and now I broke part of my foot and have a leg cast until the very end of November. So she has about 3 months of hardly being ridden. Recently I’ve been thinking of a fitness schedule for her and I was hoping to get peoples’ opinions.

She’s pasture boarded year round, no stall at all. She’s a 6 year old Paint/Arab and she’s been in almost perfect shape before (maybe a little chubby) but now pretty much all of her muscle is gone.

Here’s what I came up with, let me know if I should make changes (speeding the process up a little bit, changing ride times, etc.)
I’ve made a post somewhat like this before but I wanted to make a new one that just involved what I came up with
Thanks so much

Here is a picture of her when she was in her best shape, this one is from the same day as well

Schedule:

Before I’m able to ride:
1 week hotwalking, no tack, 10 minutes in each direction, every other day
1 week hotwalking, with tack (saddle/pad/girth/splint boots), 10 minutes in each direction, every other day

AFTER I’m able to ride:
Ride every 2 days (2 days riding, 1 day break, and so on)

Warmup: 10 minutes of walking around XC course
Cooldown: 10 minutes of walking around XC course

2 days: 30 minutes walking
2 days: 35 minutes walking
2 days: 40 minutes walking
2 days: 45 minutes walking
2 days: 50 minutes walking
2 days: 55 minutes walking
2 days: 60 minutes walking

3 days 60 minute ride with 5 minutes of trot
2 days 60 minute ride with 10 minutes of trot
2 days 60 minute ride with 15 minutes of trot
2 days 60 minute ride with 20 minutes of trot
2 days 60 minute ride with 25 minutes of trot
2 days 60 minute ride with 30 minutes of trot

2 days 60 minute ride with 15 minutes of trot and 5 minutes of canter
2 days 60 minute ride with 15 minutes of trot and 10 minutes of canter
2 days 60 minute ride with 20 minutes of trot and 10 minutes of canter
2 days 60 minute ride with 20 minutes of trot and 15 minutes of canter
2 days 60 minute ride with 25 minutes of trot and 15 minutes of canter
2 days 60 minute ride with 25 minutes of trot and 20 minutes of canter
2 days 60 minute ride with 30 minutes of trot and 20 minutes of canter

The way I was thinking was I could do the walking at the beginning, and get slow work done because there’s no doubt I’m going to have to re-train her to do some stuff and it’s always easiest to start with walk
And then with the 3 days, after the actual thing started, I would do 2 days of one exercise, take a break, do another day of the same exercise and then a day of the next exercise, take a break, do another day and then move onto the next exercise, and so on.

Should I give her more time to be doing each exercise/would it be a bad idea to be moving so quickly? Should I not be doing so many breaks in it? Or should I shorten how long the rides are?

I’m sorry if this is kind of complicated, I don’t mean for it to be.

[Dani]

I would start with a 20 minute ride at most instead of 30 because you’re going from 10 minutes each direction on a hotwalker (20 total) to Warm-up + Cool down + Ride (50 minutes total and the added weight of a rider). It seems like a pretty bug jump. Granted, she’s not coming off of injury so there probably won’t be an issue with a bit of a jump in work like that.

[jtkorth]

[QUOTE=Dani;8909509]
I would start with a 20 minute ride at most instead of 30 because you’re going from 10 minutes each direction on a hotwalker (20 total) to Warm-up + Cool down + Ride (50 minutes total and the added weight of a rider). It seems like a pretty bug jump. Granted, she’s not coming off of injury so there probably won’t be an issue with a bit of a jump in work like that.[/QUOTE]

Ohh, no for walking rides I was just planning on the set time of walking, with no warm up or cool down because that’s just additional walking. Like, I guess I just meant that the 30 minutes would include 1 lap around the xc track, and then time in the arena, and then another lap around the xc track. 1 lap usually takes us around 10 minutes to do anyways.

[Dani]

Well in that case, the program looks pretty solid.

[SnicklefritzG]

Two days of riding followed by a rest day or an easy day sounds very sensible. It works very well for Carl Hester

Starting with 15-20 min. of walking sounds like a good base. From there it’s about doing a gradual increase to avoid getting sore or tired. How gradual depends on how fit the horse was to begin with. If your mare has had a few months off but is outside 24/7 and moving around a lot, an increase in walking probably isn’t going to be difficult for her.

Once you start the trot and canter work, your horse’s response will tell you whether to increase more gradually or continue as you’ve set out in your plan. Increasing the amount of trot by 5’ every two days seems like a lot, but if you are doing it in shorter segments, it might not be a big deal. My advice would be to just see how it goes, is your mare out of breathe, etc. after you introduce the trot and canter. In the beginning you may find she needs more breaks, as in canter for 30-60" before needing a break. Over a few weeks or shorter you’ll find she can sustain it longer before needing a break.