Daft fitness Question

[acw295]

How would you know if your pony is fit enough to do a local cross country course before you entered it?

Rumour has it that there is a smallish event within hacking distance of yard in Oct and if I was feeling mad I might want to have a go

Molly's in light work since I got her 6 weeks ago - building up her fitness as she'd not done much for a while. Currently hacking 4x per week for 45min-2 hours gradually increasing amount of trot & canter. Plus schooling for approx 1hour per week and we are starting to throw in small jumps (under 2ft 3) when we hack or at the end of schooling.

She is always raring to go but sweats up very easily from excitement as well as lack of fitness (came home all foamy last night because I wouln't let her gallop in the big field, we've had some control issues ) - looked like she'd run the national but was only a brisk walk/trot hack for 45 mins on a sunny eve.

She's lost some weight through the exercise and her muzzle and I think I can see the early stages of muscle appearing - but how will I know when she's fit enough? I'd hate to push her and break her

 

[Toffee_Monster]

Molly sweats up easily even when at peak fitness and in summer and winter when clipped so i'm afraid you'll not stop that (apart from clipping in summer but i never fancied that)

If she recovers easily after a good canter (i.e. breathing back to normal after 5 minutes or so) then she will be fine, and her recovery rate is usually pretty good

Play it by ear, you wont break her
(p.s. i have a book on horse fitness if you would like it )

 

[katefarmer]

I'd find out how long the course is going to be, and start working up to it. Start with lots of trot, then some trot and some canter, then longer stretches of canter. By the time you get to the competition, I would think you should be able to canter about one and a half to two times the length of the course in one go - not flat out gallop, a nice steady canter. Then you'll have enough "petrol in the tank" for the fences.

When training, don't always canter in the same places, and even if you have a nice long smooth stretch to canter, sometimes walk along it, and sometimes canter just part of it, then trot or walk the rest. This will keep the horse thinking with you, and less likely to get too strong on a course. You need to train the mind as well as the body!

 

[Flony_Pony]

I would have a go with a bit of interval training. I think this may be the way forwards with Flo (after our ride today i realised how unfit she is compared to last year!) I think i might use the spinney field as its quite flat and go round and round it lol see what her recovery rate ends up like.

At least you only have 1 unfit pony, I have 2!!!