Trot Sets Vs. Hacking

[ACountingRider]

I was curious of others opinions or if any studies had been done on the differences of conditioning by trotting or by walking. It has always been a regular part of my conditioning schedule to add in trot sets throughout the week, depending on the horse I actually “trot set” almost every other ride, which of course involves trotting on the bit/flatwork but out in our hills and trails. I usually add a 15-35 minute walk before each ride.

My training level mare is coming back into work, and due to this and the extreme heat and hard ground I’ve spent a lot of time hacking. Granted I have lovely hacking trails that go up and down hills, cross small creeks, it’s just lovely and good for her brain too.

That being said. Could I trade my 20 minute trot sets for 45 minute hacks? Perhaps as much as twice a week instead of trotting. My main concern in our trot sets is that the ground is so hard, and I want to prevent as much concussion on my mare’s feet as possible. So, maybe someone can respond knowing that the a 45 minute walk would have the same concussion as a 20 minute trot so there’s no benefit. This mare is also prepping for a prelim move-up

I’m just curious

[NMK]

The main difference would be your horse would get lower cardiovascular work at the walk. Depending on your other cardio workouts, the benefit of hack vs trot (concussion) may be worth the trade. I would not take risks on hard ground. I might switch things up to find better footing, or to accommodate better weather, if this persists. My mare started three weeks ago for a T3D in October, just in case this sort of thing comes up during the summer. Which it usually does.

[beowulf]

the two address two different types of fitness.

interval training, which is what a trot set is, conditions cardiovascular strength and rapid respiratory recovery. the duration of intensity coupled with the appropriate duration of recovery should, after a few short weeks, yield a sharp increase in cardiovascular recovery after intense work. trot sets are enormously expensive from a physical standpoint when it comes to how much they task the cardiovascular & respiratory system, so should only be done in short sessions (IE 2m trot, 1m walk, repeat 5x) and only done a few times a week. unless you are conditioning for UL eventing (prelim+) there should be no reason for each ‘set’ of effort to exceed 5 minutes. interval training is great for sports that require extreme but short bursts of effort like eventing or barrel racing, but if you need something that requires staying power and endurance like hunting or endurance, you need to condition by hacks and roads.

interval training is something that is low-intensity on the limbs, so it is good when you have a horse that is not in the best physical shape that you want to ‘leg up’ for an event; however, a horse pulled from a field should not be doing trot sets until at minimum they are conditioned enough for a light ride in the ring.

interval training, if done on hills or out in the field, can help condition the topline and produce a “5th leg”, however, the short spurts of intense exercise followed by brief let-down is not going to condition the topline the same way as hacking.

hacking conditions the entire body but most importantly it conditions the tendons and ligaments. in the long format days it was not uncommon to combine hacking with “loading”, which is done to strengthen tendons and ligaments in the lower legs. hacking is much better for the horse to do over a period of time, and is considered “long slow distance” which is the best type of exercise to produce a horse that has a job that requires it to cover long distances at a middling speed. for prelim, you need to incorporate trot sets, not just hack.

hacking when done right, at a march and on terrain, will produce a very good topline.

if you are moving up to prelim you already have a baseline of fitness. one day a week should be an hour of walk hack only. 2 days a week should be dressage schooling (with a 15/20m hack before/after). 2 days should be interval training: for when i was preparing my guy to move up, we did 5m trot sets, 2m walk, repeated 3x on day one (tuesday) and on day 3(thursday) would do canter sets, 4m gallop/canter at ~400-475mpm (i played around a lot with adjusting strides and speed in my sets due to terrain) 2.5m walk. the rest of week can be for jumping. some people do not include a day off for their prelim+ horses. i think it should be dependent on the horse. some horses get a lot out of a day off, others need to be kept moving and an easy hack is a good substitute.

this has a good guideline but i’d argue it’s a little excessive for BN/N:
http://www.focusedriding.com/files/CONDITIO_bn.pdf

you will not get the cardiovascular fitness required from prelim efforts by hacking, so you do need to incorporate interval/trot sets into your weekly itinerary.

this time of year the ground can be very hard and unforgiving. a few times i have been known to do trot-sets in the ring instead of afield. you do want to condition/load the limbs because they will be going on hard ground at events, but it is a very delicate balance for sure.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

To give you and idea…my current Prelim horse who may move up this coming seasons does 15-30 of walking hacks on hills almost everyday…sometimes longer but typically the walk hack is on top off whatever else we are doing (jumping or dressage). When footing is good…his trot sets/conditioning canters are out on the hills too but when the ground is rock hard, we walk out on the hills and then go into the ring on decent footing to do the conditioning work. This particular horse is naturally very fit and very easy to get fit.

The extreme heat is another issue. To me…horses do better in the cold than the heat. You have to slow things down when it is that hot. So most of us do reduce the conditioning work in the heat and would instead do a longer walking hack to try and maintain fitness. The walking will help you keep your base fitness but it is a balance as the sport will ask more. And a lot depends on the individual horse.

[Libby2563]

@beowulf

trot sets are enormously expensive from a physical standpoint when it comes to how much they task the cardiovascular & respiratory system, so should only be done in short sessions (IE 2m trot, 1m walk, repeat 5x) and only done a few times a week. unless you are conditioning for UL eventing (prelim+) there should be no reason for each ‘set’ of effort to exceed 5 minutes. interval training is great for sports that require extreme but short bursts of effort like eventing or barrel racing, but if you need something that requires staying power and endurance like hunting or endurance, you need to condition by hacks and roads.

Your post was very informative! This is probably a really dumb question but can you clarify whether/how “trot sets” are more taxing than flatwork in the arena with similar or more time between walk breaks? Is terrain the main difference (but you say sometimes when the footing is bad you do trot sets in the arena)? In trot sets are you seeking a higher intensity/heart rate than flatwork in the arena would produce, and if so, how do you accomplish that? Hills would help I imagine, but if those aren’t available? Trot as forward as the horse can go without losing balance?

For example, in dressage sessions I don’t see many riders taking a walk break as often as every 2-5 minutes. (But perhaps their breaks are longer than 1 min, and that’s the difference?) How does the fitness produced by interval training compare to the fitness those horses have?

Please pardon my ignorance!

[enjoytheride]

I ride with endurance people and our trail riding is a great deal of trotting and cantering with walk breaks in between. A trot or canter up a hill produces lots of intensity. Trail rides, even with lots of trotting, are relaxing and refreshing for my horse and help improve bravery.

So, I’m not sure why you can’t move your trot sets to your hacking location and accomplish the same things at once.

[tabula_rashah]

Not an eventer, but as an endurance/CTR rider I do an awful lot of conditioning. I generally ride my competition horse 3 days a week: 1 short ride about 8 miles which is a 1 mile walk warm-up, 6 miles of work maintaining averaging 7-8mph (I’ll up this speed slightly as the season goes on) trotting and cantering as terrain dictates and walking only where necessary, then a 1 mile cool down at a walk, second ride of the week is another short ride about 5 miles, mostly walking with some big butt building hills, and the third ride is a 15-20 mile ride with the mile warm up and cool down and averaging 5-6 mph for the rest- hills and varied terrain as much as possible. Occasionally I might throw a 15 minute brain ride in and work in the ring. A good bit of our trotting is done on rolling gravel road but we have put the years of slow work over hard ground in and her legs are always tight and cool. If we’re actively competing, she’ll get at least 1 full week off per month. I think @EnjoyThe Ride 's idea is good- incorporating the two would be ideal

[bornfreenowexpensive]

@Libby2563

Your post was very informative! This is probably a really dumb question but can you clarify whether/how “trot sets” are more taxing than flatwork in the arena with similar or more time between walk breaks? Is terrain the main difference (but you say sometimes when the footing is bad you do trot sets in the arena)? In trot sets are you seeking a higher intensity/heart rate than flatwork in the arena would produce, and if so, how do you accomplish that? Hills would help I imagine, but if those aren’t available? Trot as forward as the horse can go without losing balance?

For example, in dressage sessions I don’t see many riders taking a walk break as often as every 2-5 minutes. (But perhaps their breaks are longer than 1 min, and that’s the difference?) How does the fitness produced by interval training compare to the fitness those horses have?

Please pardon my ignorance!

It’s not a dumb question. They work different things/goals. I generally do not consider trot sets critical in legging up an event horse. They really are more warm up for canter sets. Some people trot a lot for conditioning but when I do that it is typically more conditioning for me (in two point). But generally trotting for conditioning is more about cardio. So I want my horses stretching over their back but I’m not as focused on building their core (with transitions etc) but more just getting the heart rate up with a good working trot. So less mentally taxing for them. Ideally done on hills and outside but you have to balance saving their legs and feet.