I do 30 to 40 minutes of cardio and 60 to 90 minutes of yoga, pilates, tai chi or some combination of the 3 everyday. It sounds like a lot. I guess maybe it it :lol: but there are lots of payoffs. One of the best things about it is what has happened to my dressage work and my relationship with my horse. I have been working at fitness pretty diligently for the last 5 years but this combination has really done it for me. It is hard to explain but now I can think about a correction and feel it reflected in my horse much more quickly. The connection is much more direct.
IMO, a lot depends on the fitness level of the horse. But in general, 1-2 hours of work a day is considered light to moderate work, unless they are in race training or something. Two W-T-C lessons a day is light for most reasonably fit horses-for many horses, two sessions of moderate jumping isn’t overwork. Working ranch horses work 4-8 hours a day, every day, but they are fit for their job. Granted for the ranch ponies there is walking included in that time and pleanty of it, but they work harder than most show or pleasure horses. I don’t live or work near ranches like that, so I couldn’t give an injury rate, but from what I hear from others, it’s lower than many sport horse farms have. I worked at a hack barn where the horses did about 3-4 hours of walking or W-T daily, abut six days a week and were not too tired to cut up in their paddocks at the end of the day. We had maybe 1-3 soundness issues a year, which included injuries from playing in the paddock and things like a girth gall or other non-lameness issues. The horses were fit and well-suited to the work asked of them.
It’s more about the horse’s level of fitness and his suitability for the job than the number or minutes or hours he works, IMO. A very fit horse can work harder and for longer than an unfit horse, and a horse suited to its work will have fewer issues when performing that work. A ranch horse might not be suited for jumping, and two hors of jumping lessons a day might be overwork even though he works for 6 hours on the ranch. A dressage-bred warmblood is less likely to stand up to the rigors of ranch work, though he can do two hour of GP level lessons a day. It’s relative to the individual horse, IMO
I disagree that ‘asking our horses to collect every day is wrong’.
I think asking horses that are to that point, to do SOME collected work during most of their rides, is GOOD. :eek:
The horror. But yeah. I’ve never seen anyone get any decent results and progress in dressage while training in occasionally. The more frequent the better, in fact.
With some reservations, yes. First - most horses don’t get worked ‘every day’(most are worked 6 days a week or less), and most horses aren’t ridden at a level in dressage where they are doing any collection.
There isn’t any collection til second level work. Most horses never do anything above first level dressage.
‘Accepting the bit’ and ‘being ridden on a contact’ and later ‘being on the bit’, do not equal ‘collection’. Collection is a specific balance and stride.
But even in the work of Grand Prix horse of the most active trainer, he only spends a part of his ride doing ‘collected’ gaits. He warms up in working gaits and frequently ‘refreshes’ in medium, working and extended forms of the gaits. His working gait may be different from a training level horse’s working gait, but it’s still his working gait.
I don’t feel that horses ‘learning something new’ can ‘work for twenty minutes’. I think that during a training session, a horse should usually do something ‘new’ about three times, possibly 3 times in the other direction, that’s going to be about it.
I don’t believe in ‘drilling’ when drilling means just repeating something with no plan and no good result.
I also don’t agree that horses always get difficult toward the end of a ride ‘because they are tired and sore’.
There can be MANY reasons why that happens - the rider is letting the horse get longer and longer and more unbalanced, the rider is not structuring the work correctly so the horse is relaxing in his work and he’s getting more and more excited, but rather often, I think this happens because the horse is getting more and more on the forehand.
My regular workouts are about 45 minutes, 5 days a week, weather permitting. Ideally, I have one day as a trail ride day where we do mostly LSD; I have one lesson; two schooling rides; and a day for hacking or jumping. Since this is winter, though, and I don’t have an indoor then it is catch as catch can.
When I do have lessons, they are an hour - intense work time and then walking or discussion breaks interspersed.
Long-term soundness is my #1 priority for my horse – to me that comes from fitness appropriate to the level which we are showing. I don’t go out there and try to play and do canter pirouettes or piaffe or somesuch other thing that is far far from where we are in our showing. I challenge myself with either a longer school or a more intense workout (cavaletti or schooling a movement the next level up). If we do well on a challenging task, we end it. If not, I’ve learned to do the best I can and move on to something that we are good at and have success with that.
Of course my goals are always to have straightness, be even and consistent in my aids, move forward, have accurate geometry, have the horse be quick off the aids, balance, etc…don’t we all want that?! 
I’m not purposely trying to build stamina - Paddy seems to have a lot of that naturally - but it is part of the general fitness/soundness program.
I don’t have a young horse but I think when they are starting out it is best to work slowly and appropriately leg them up - actually, not much different for a mature horse, I guess. Lots of walking, trail riding, long and low, basic transitions and figures, etc.
I increase the work (ride length / intensity) when I can sense that what we are doing is becoming easier. I also do it by the calendar (ride for xx period of time for xx days, increase by xx increment, etc.). I really like to use cavaletti for fun exercises and to increase the workload. Sometimes I do interval training and set my watch for trot and canter sets. I monitor respiration, sweating, and general attitude toward work.
With regard to my own fitness, I ride 5 days a week, I do yoga 3-5 days a week, and I do a combination of aerobic work/weight training 2-3 days a week. Of course there are also my daily farm chores and dog-walking duties!!!
This is an interesting discussion. In general I think many people do not neccessarily overwork their horses as far as the length of time they ride but they do too much difficult work or constantly work their horse at the same level of intensity. My gelding is 18 and at this point my main concern is keeping him sound and happy in his work. I mainly use him for schooling training/1st level dressage, 2’6ish XC jumping, hunterpacing & foxhunting.
Our rides are regularly at an hour or more. However, I definitely regulate the level of intensity of his rides. If I work him pretty hard on the flat one day (on the bit, lateral work, lengthenings, shortenings etc…) then the next day I will take him out on a trail ride or hack in the fields w,t,c on a loopy rein and let him stretch out and relax. My general rule of thumb is no more than 2 two hard rides a week ( as far as flatwork/jumping). At least 3 of my 5-6 rides a week are always much lower intensity hacking on gentle slopes in the fields, doing hillwork or trail riding. Oftentimes these rides may be longer but they require much less from the horse than an intense flatwork session. My horse is usually much less tired coming in from a 3 hour trail ride w,t,c than after a 1 hour serious flatwork school in the ring.
IMO,there is the cardio-vascular aspect of exercise and then there is the soft-tissue aspect of exercise… I don’t think they’re on the same page, as in what’s good for c-v is good for soft tissue.
I think upper level work, elite level work, and what it takes to get there, really just breaks down the body over time. Moderate level work builds the body. Not that I have any science to prove it, but I do have my eyes and ears and touch, and I see a lot of broken-down elite athletes, human and horse, while also seeing moderately exercised athletes in better long-term shape. Retired ballet dancers, football players, all seem to have a lot of problems with arthritis, etc.
Peaks of intense activity is all OK by me, but there must be periods of rest, whether within the session itself or in the following days. The body builds itself through recovery on the day of rest!, not in the moment of exercise itself. LookinSouth’s point is very valid, I think.
People say, “oh, I know horses that go out and are ridden 50 miles a week and they look great!” Maybe they do look great and are great. But, would this category of horse be, as a group, able to work soundly if connected and put over the back? Or, do they look ‘sound’ b/c they travel in a compensatory way that protects the sore hock or the warm tendon and are ridden in a way that challenges the horse not at all?
Honestly, I don’t buy that an upper level dressage horse is all a-ok. You don’t know what is being said in the conversation with the vet, or what the rider is really feeling day in and day out, in the saddle, or what medication the horse is routinely treated with. There is a tremendous amount of veterinary intervention these days, and horses ARE being shown on medication. Vets are very sophisticated in titrating, and it’s just a matter on whose stall door the testers are going to knock.
It seems to me that what also should be considered is the quality of the work. Sixty minutes of the horses body moving poorly versus thirty minutes of correct body development is something that many riders don’t realize. They just keep working harder not better.
I haven’t read all the replies, but here is my two cents.
One can do just as much damage riding too little as riding too long. And one cannot use time as the only metric to measure work.
I rarely see horses that are worked a correct amount. Horses cannot be fit enough when riden for a small amount of time. Additionally, I find that most horses do not truly warm up to their best until 20-30 minutes into the ride. If the ride stops there, the rider misses his chance to get the best work and additionally never pushes the horse’s envelope. Work becomes stagnant and ceases to progress.
But work that is constant without variation stresses the horse!! Working for an hour with no break leads to physical and mental exhaustion, neither of which produces anything beneficial in the horse. But a “break” is not simply constituted as walking. If you are doing collected trot or difficult lateral work, a time or two around at a stretchy trot is just as beneficial as a walk break - and keeps the flow of energy continuous, which can be very beneficial. A round or two of a light seat canter or jumping a few fences can also be a “break.” The importance is to build elasticity. If you bring the horse together, you must also ride him out. The constant variation of work keeps any one muscle group from becoming overtaxed.
My horse is stalled and goes out overnight in a small paddock. Not anywhere near the quality turnout I would like. Additionally, with the weather lately, there have been periods of little to no turnout. I must, therefore, compensate. Warmups can last as long as 30 minutes simply to get him loose and supple, and I certainly must cool him down thoroughly to minimize muscle tightness.
I think the lesson is: Ride Smart. Ride Empathetic. Don’t watch the clock, but don’t forget it either. If you never ride for more than 30 minutes, you will most likely never get the horse’s best work…but if you work for an hour and a half solid every day into a lather, you will not get his best work either. Moderation is key in everything. My ride for one who comes straight in from a pasture will be different than one who has been in a stall for the past 12 hours.
I will say this. I have seen multiple horses have soft tissue injuries that occur at shows where the work is considerably more than at home. The idea of light work at home to “conserve” for heavy showing is a myth and is completely WRONG for the horse. The horse must be conditioned for the level of work he competes at. It is cruel to ride lightly for 30 minutes a day and then go to a show, school for an hour and ride two tests and expect him to remain sound.
Much of soundness is conditioned and is not solely a matter of luck but planning and precision.
