I have always heard that conditioning wasn’t necessary until Training/Prelim.
After reading the Max Corcoran Heels Down thread, some suggested that conditioning/fitness is important even at the lower levels. I was wondering if anyone could provide an example of a conditioning regime for the average beginner novice/novice horse.
When I competed I ended up working towards 10 min trot sets, once each direction and 8 min canter sets 1 each direction. I did 2 or 3 min walk breaks between the sets in the same gait and 5 between trot and canter sets. It was probably over kill fir the level. It took maybe 50 to an hour total once a week. This was at BN/N. It made a huge difference for my horse and for me. One event, the temps sky rocked that week. He came off XC feeling like he could go around again venus the year before he felt really tired at the same event with much better weather. Other horses were having a lot of issues at that show. He has always been worked 6 days a week, so the only thing that changed was adding a day of conditioning a week. I think I worked up to it over a couple of months.
For me, it really helped my ability to stay in two point and be effective.
It depends a lot on: your horse’s breed, type, age, base level of fitness, soundness, turnout, your hacking situation.
Give us your situation so we can be specific.
A retrained OTTB may only need regular work 4-5 days a week to be fit enough. An older draft cross kept in a small pen may need to balance conditioning with soundness and do hacking and hillwork rather than trots and canters in the ring as “sets”.
So my horse is an older race bred appendix QH. He lives out and has no soundness limitations. He stays fit pretty easily. We do have access to some trails, but not well maintained enough for any trotting/cantering. We can also ride in the pasture that has gently rolling hills.
I have had several non Tb horses (wb and lighter draft crosses) and competed through the Training 3 day and Prelim levels. My horses live out 24-7 on a 70 acre field with terrain and I have easy access to hours of hacking on hills - so this regimen is easy to do for me and others may need to adapt. I think for bn all but the heaviest horses are fine with 4-5 days of work including a jump
school and a hack out.
My routine for novice is 3 trot sets of 5 mins each, 2 min walk recovery in between, followed by 3 canter sets of 3 mins with 2 min walk recovery. These are done on terrain. I don’t think working in the ring is an adequate substitute on any number of levels, and if you are an inexperienced pair I think riding at competition speed on terrain is something often ignored - find a way to make it happen and you will both be more confident!!
Not a competitor but a long-term observer, from what I’ve seen over the years the conditioning even at the lowest levels was needed as much by the rider as the horse. Even when the rider in question was a fairly fit teenager if they haven’t actually ridden the horse things can start coming apart halfway around XC or even during Stadium (especially if it had been kept fit by the trainer or working student).
Here are my general guidelines. Of course, age, soundness, breed, etc. are to be taken into consideration.
BN - 12-15 minutes trot, throw in a few canters up a hill when convenient
Novice - 12-15 minutes trot, 2 x 3 minute canter
Training- 15 minutes trot, 3 x 3-4 minutes canter
The rest period in between the trot set and the canter sets is however long for your horse’s respiration to return to normal, maybe 3-5 minutes.
The long slow trots are your base for fitness. At lower levels, there isn’t a need for galloping that will just be wear and tear on the horse’s legs.
One more question: what kind of frame/pace is appropriate? Should I be pushing for more of a connected dressage frame?
For those reading that have draft crosses, slow canter sets around the same pace as a working trot are significantly more useful that trot sets for fitness building. I’ve done it both ways. with my 50/50 TB/Perch.
If you keep the speed down, the concussive forces on the legs and feet are very similar. I read a study comparing that I ‘think’ William Micklem was involved in but I can’t find it atm
Personally, I do my conditioning very loose and chill. My current horse is a chronic shoe-puller so I connect him a bit more if he’s starting to forge.
This is very relevant.
Of the UL experience I have seen in UK, trot sets are used far less. Lots of walking out (increasingly being replaced by horse walkers unfortunately) is the basis with canter work on top.
At the lower levels you might do shorter shorter but more reps, increasing the length/duration as they progress. And not in the arena!!! What is all that about?! If ground is good then out in the pasture, up & down hills. When it’s hard or boggy then on the gallops.
There is a growing trend towards incorporating swimming and/or water treadmill - pros & cons to both.
FWIW I have a 7yo big chunky type who has taken quite a lot of effort to get conditioned and fit - he is just about to start our novice (1.10m) with a view to 2*S in a couple of months. He hacks (your trail) most days, probably does a hard 20-30 mins in the arena 4 times a week in addition, every 3rd day probably does an unstructured short canter session in pasture and then every 7-10 days (depending on competitions) will do 2 x 8 mins canter sets.
when the ground gets hard and we have to knock the pasture cantering out, I may well take him for a weekly water treadmill session.
We don’t all have access to these tools. I certainly don’t have access to gallops or water treadmills. So, I’m limited to the arena, the side of the road (busy and only really useable on Sundays due to fast moving logging trucks) or a 10 acre field. When the field and road are unsuitable, the arena it is!
And if this is common place in the US you may well just have answered the question on the other thread about the horsemanship/conditioning/wastage at UL.
i don’t have gallops and water treadmill on site, we need to travel to them. Gallops are easy enough, choice of a handful within 30 minutes. Treadmills becoming more accessible, my local one is within an hour.
I am a believer in conditioning, even at the lower levels. For your trot or canter sets, the most important thing is to keep the recovery time in between work to 2 minutes, and aim for 3 sets of trotting and 3 of canter/gallop for each session. You can increase the minutes of trot and canter as the horse gets more fit, but for BN/N a maintenance fitness day would like look this: 10 min walk warmup, 6 x 3 trot, 4 x 3 canter (last set at competition speed), 10 min cooldown.
I’m in Canada at the butt end of the world for eventing :D, so I wouldn’t make any sweeping generalizations regarding horse wastage at the UL. I was commenting regarding expectation of resources for the lower levels. We often have less resources, less ideal climate and/or terrain. We have to make do, for the good of our horses’ fitness and our own.
The fitness issues I see at the LLs while jump judging are more rider than horse issues - halfway through the course and they’re sitting all the time. I was always taught that formal conditioning isn’t necessary through T (these are generally TB and TB cross people, so IDK about draft x types), as long as horse and rider are on the same page while galloping.
There’s two big challenges with the draft x types.
I’ve ridden draft crosses for years and I can ride a TB for double/triple the time and still be less physically tired.
There are different types of fitness, and one of the real needs at lower levels is the fitness in the horse’s body core to carry itself and the rider in a coordinated and safe manner through all of the terrain, as well as dressage and sj. To me it’s not enough just to trot, or walk or canter, it’s doing it in a way that is helping develop the horse’s core (and the rider’s). LL riders are hopefully as conscious of this as are UL riders.
I am a believer in trotting out for all levels- for a LL horse, just 20 or 30 mins. Low impact and good for cardiovascular fitness. If you have good hacking, do it out there, using your terrain! If not, do it anywhere you can- dirt roads, the pasture, around the farm, etc. It gets them moving forward and going somewhere outside of the ring, and for riders who don’t ride multiple horses a day, it improves your fitness and feel for riding over the country.
That said, I do quite a bit of canter in my flatwork, and little trot- the horses are connected and working properly while trotting out, so no need to drill it in flat schools. Whether or not the horses do fitness work at the canter depends on their personal fitness needs- LL horses might do none or might do some hill canters once a week, while the UL horses do proper hill gallops mixed with distance canters.
I would think, at the very least, a LL horse should be able to canter for the duration of what would equal his cross country course, at the speed required for the level, and still maintain a normal return to resting heart rate. It’s very easy to check. Find your horse’s resting heart rate. After the workout, within 2 minutes of the workout, the rate should return to the resting rate. Any longer than 2 minutes and you have a horse who is out of condition for what he is being asked to do. The longer it takes to get back the normal, the more work you have in front of you.
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