My horses are at home on about 2 acres. Due to the layout and the terrain, its not a great place to do trot sets and there is just not enough room to do canter/gallop sets.
We have plenty of trails nearby where I’d be comfortable trotting, (and I have) but I don’t think cantering/galloping would be the best idea there, considering there is a lot of pedestrian traffic on the local trails.
So those of you who can’t do much interval training at home, where do you go to do it and how often? Any general bits of advice?
I feel your pain! What level are you going? A lot of top eventers preach a low impact walking and trotting conditioning ride. Do you have hills? Hill walking can be a great way to get meaningful conditioning without stressing joints or needing a lot of space.
If you get to know your trails really well, you may be able to find a place where you can canter safely with enough view and picking a time of day when not many people are out. Hill work is also wonderful, if that’s an option.
Else you have to haul out, and I’ve done that too.
This is a good point. Someone once expressed surprise at where I chose to do my gallop sets, commenting on the fact that the area tended to have holes and debris. I had spent so much time walking my horse around that area that he and I BOTH knew our chosen path very well, and it was free of anything dangerous. She had just never paid attention, or always hacked those fields on a different route, and I set out to learn the lay of the land, if you will.
That being said, unless you’re getting ready for prelim and above or have a heavy draft cross, you can get a lot of fitness done by doing lots of long slow miles at the walk (an energetic, marching walk…not a lazy, plodding stroll), and trot. Getting some gallop PRACTICE in is nice, and I think vital to becoming a good xc rider (and a good xc horse), but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have a set gallop schedule if you’re going novice. Be sure to do lots of walking and go for nice long trots, and you should have more than enough fitness for your average horse.
Thanks for all the responses! I work 9-5, and the local trails are very popular all the time, but especially so when I’m not at work.
There’s a beach relatively close by as well as a couple of really nice parks that I could haul to… if I had a trailer. I’d been saving up, but alas, electrical issues in the barn + ulcer treatment and I’m waving goodbye to my trailer money.
Honestly, I see my horse topping out at novice (if that), but he’s a Standardbred so finding a place to let him gallop or canter out in the open would be super helpful to build those underdeveloped cantering muscles. I’m sure I can get him fit enough with just walk trot, especially since beginner novice feels like a stretch goal for this year. With my first stb, gallop sets were what really helped him develop a nice dressage canter.
Oh and for what it’s worth, there’s a kind of beaten up trail that people tend to avoid in the spring and the summer because there’s a nicer better groomed trail nearby, so this might be worth trying out.
For going Novice, you really can just focus on trot sets (10-12 minutes) and throw in a 2 minute canter set and you’re good to go! When you go XC schooling, do a couple courses where you practice galloping, getting your canter back, jump, gallop away, etc.
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