Fat, unfit horse -> fit! Am I doing it right?!

[Rubic]

So the highland I'm riding 3 days a week at the minute is quite chubby and unfit. He is a bit older (late teens) which I don't think helps either. He is very unfit and it has become much more noticable now that he is on my yard as we have a small (20x60ish) school in comparison to what he had before as he has to bend and be more balanced if he wants to go any faster than walk. He doesn't like having to go into the corners and tries to cut them horrendously!

Right now, when I take him in the school, we just do a lot of bending (serpentines, figure 8s, thread the needle) in walk to stretch both sides of his body out and try to bring his hind legs under him a bit more. Most of our work is in walk. We do transitions and only ask him for trot up the long side and come back to walk before the corners while we work on balance.

I try to take him out hacking as I know this will help with his fitness however I'm a little stuck with that as I want to try to avoid the road but to get onto the tracks nearby I need to negotiate a gate and I'm unable to get him close enough for me to open/close it and I can't get off as when I try to get back on his saddle slides right round (no withers on a barrel shaped horse:frown. I can only go out with people who are able to open the gate for me just now! I'm going to attempt it myself on Sunday when I have more time. I really want to take him on the track as it is straight and will allow us to do short bursts of trot then walk then trot (interval training if you like). Hopefully once his fitness is up the gallop field will be open and we can do hill work as phase 2!

So and ideas on what else I can do to improve fitness or does this seem ok for just now? Owner doesn't ride but I'm going to suggest he is lunged/long reined by her 3 more days a week to help as I know 3 days ridden a week isn't much in the grand scheme of things. (He is turned out by day in a muzzle and stabled overnight)

 

[notpoodle]

i'm no expert but the only way I got mine fit was to hack, hack, hack. Up the hill and down the hill, miles of trotting, walking briskly (eg not slobbing along on a long rein) .... could you climb on from the gate? a bit of schooling 3 times a week won't do much, unfortunately.

 

[Rubic]

i'm no expert but the only way I got mine fit was to hack, hack, hack. Up the hill and down the hill, miles of trotting, walking briskly (eg not slobbing along on a long rein) .... could you climb on from the gate? a bit of schooling 3 times a week won't do much, unfortunately.

I'm going to experiment on Sunday with gate opening and/or getting off and on. I can't really do it on a Mon/Wednesday as that is after work and I can be quite limited on time. I don't want to have to walk the 1/2mile back to the yard on foot when I could be doing something more productive, free-time in the evening after work is precious! On Sunday I have extra time to waste so will have a go then but the hacking is fairly new to him and he is a bit suspicious of things so I'm not entirely sure he'll stand close enough to the gate to let me get on!

Don't worry, horses very rarely get to slob along on a long rein out on a hack with me! I detest mooching along, I like to feel like I'm moving with purpose! I'm determined to get him fit as riding a chubby unfit horse isn't very much fun and he does love cantering so it would be nice to get him fit enough to be able to canter in our school and out hacking and not feel like he is about to keel over after!

ETA I know 3 days a week riding isn't going to do much which is why I'm hoping that with some gentle encouragement owner will lunge or long rein him another 3 days a week!

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Lots of turnout also helps. Our boys live out and even when Ziggy is really unfit for him he can still trot up all the hills and do some bursts of canter. I don't know how much your HiPo can get turnout, though :unsure:

 

[OwnedbyChanter]

Rubic you already now the answer to this but unfortuanly it is out of your hands. As with humans the only way to improve fitness and lose weight is less intake (which you are doing with the muzzle and hopefully he is not on any hard feed and only on soaked hay) and bigger out put but again you know that you can only do 3 days a week.

But you can do a fair bit in the 3 days. The suppling up is excellent but I would be more focused on the weight loss which will then help the suppliness just like in humans. Trot the long side walk the short at each corner do a 10-15M circle in walk. This will add 8 transitions to one circuit and work on softening getting him to really bend around your inside leg. Move on to canter the long side trot the short with the circle in walk, then to making the circle in trot.

The power is in the transition make them sharp and forward both up and down.

Getting the owner to lunge even once a week would help as well but I know that is not your call.

 

[Rubic]

It is so frustrating not being able to ride your own horse!!!:banghead:

I do enjoy riding other people's horses but I know there are limits to what I'm really going to be able to do. They do go out early-ish in the morning (depending on who is on turnout duty that day) and aren't in until around 6 so I'd say they get 10-11 hours turnout during the week and slightly less at weekends but we can't really do much more until the weather changes and they move to 24/7 turnout (also if I leave him out any later I won't have enough time to ride).

He doesn't get hard feed but hay isn't soaked. I'll suggest that but I'm not sure owner will want to soak hay. I'm hoping that owner will take the hint when I speak to her tonight and lunge him with a lot of transitions and hopefully that will help. He has lost weight already just from being muzzled so we are going in the right direction.