Bringing back into work from being at grass

L

Laura+Phantom

Active Member
Jan 25, 2004
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I am about to start bringing my 2 ponies back into work, after having a while off (8 months to a year) :eek:

I'm just wondering how gradual to take it, as they live out at grass 24/7 and trot and canter about with each other, they aren't complete couch potatoes, surely the '1 week of walking for every month off' rule wouldn't apply?!

Just wondering what people's thoughts are on how long to ride out for initially and when to introduce trot again...they will be raring to go, i'm sure!
 
Don't know about timings, Laura but I think it's safe to say that their back muscles will have gone a bit slack from not having to take the weight of a rider, regardless of how much hooning they have been doing.... I'm in a similar position with Roo - he's just about to re-commence work after a period off. :)
 
Ah yes, good point, thanks. Think I will start small (half an hour walk hack) and gradually build up then. It's hard to get motivated when you have to start again from scratch, i'm finding!
 
I'm doing a similar ish thing at the moment Laura, with Mont. He's not been in regular work for a while, and I also wanted to address some of the spooking stuff a bit more.

What about starting back by doing a ton of in hand walking initially? Wearing tack? Desensitising to various sights/sounds/smells? I've been doing work with big plastic sacks rubbed all over him, over tarps, picking up and carrying stuff, chasing plastic bottles I'm kicking, following dragged objects - anything I can think of really. It's got me back in the mood to do a ton of stuff with him, and seeing how quickly we're improving the spooky stuff is really motivating.

Have started walking him through narrow spaces, over uneven ground, underneath high poles, between high colums of stacked jump blocks. All that ground stuff seems to have paid dividends in our ridden work too. We're doing 20 - 30 mins a couple of times a week now, yesterday, most of that was at the jog. We even did some canter poles :D We never even used to canter in the arena, because of the spooking.

He's a changed character, I'm much more motivated, and we're both getting gradually fitter - can highly recommend it:D
 
i had honey off for 2 months from hunting fittness... she lives out 24/7 and retains her fittness rather too well :rolleyes: (she still thinks she's hunting fit and should be galloping everywhere!:eek:)
i've done this:
1 week in hand walking on roads - approx 40mins
1 week ridden walking on roads - working up to approx 1hr
1 week ridden walking on roads inc odd short trot - up to 1hr
now on my 4th week i'm beggining to add longer trots on roads.
i plan to have her fit enough for a 45mins basic flat work clinic on the 15th march.
 
Brill ideas there montana, thank you, I think that would do an awful lot of good with Phantom!

Posie - that gives me a good idea for hacking length/speed, thank you!
 
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