Getting a pony fit

Native Lover

Native Lover

Native Pony Fan
Jul 13, 2009
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Lincolnshire,wheres the hills?
stores.shop.ebay.co.uk
Do any of you have fittening regimes for you horses and ponies you would care to share with me . I would like to get me and Eva fitter for the hacking we are now doing...At the minute we are mainly walking on the road as I know it will harden her legs off... I will continue with this for 3 weeks hardening her legs before we do any faster work together.

But I have never had to get a pony fir before and now I want to have her so she can cope with longer rides out at speed... By the way no hill work as I am in Lincolnshire and it is flat ;-)
 
Thanks for posting that article Jessey. I was interested to read that the basic starting program that is recommended for 2-12 months before you even start fitness training proper is to prepare the horse to cope with "45 to 60 minutes of easy exercise at a walk, trot and canter, at an average speed of 6 to 8 km/h". That's quite a good pace and (thinking of the horses at our yard now) probably more than a lot of pleasure horses do on a regular basis. I also found it interesting that the author doesn't recommend horses being 'turned away' at the end of the season as large peaks and troughs of fitness can be detrimental to long term soundness.

Another article which might be useful is this one, the link is on one of the Endurance GB websites

http://www.mimi.me.uk/24883.html

I like to use the amateur's interval training method - walk with little bits of trot to start with. Trot until the horse starts to get hot or tired then walk again. Just before the horse has completely recovered start to trot again until horse is getting tired/hot, etc etc. At first the periods of trot will be quite short but it won't take long for the horse to be able to go further and further without getting tired. When you think the horse is fit enough you can progress to add in some canter using the same method (if you're lucky enough to have somewhere to go where you can canter). I think this is also excellent exercise for the rider!

Hope you have lots of fun!
 
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we trot. a lot. otherwise the method Bodshi describes, as well as a lot of hillwork. if you just want 'hacking fit', rather than eg. fot for endurance or something, just get on and ride daily :) making your hacks longer each time x
 
Bodshi, that's a good article, wish I'd seen it months ago, I looked on EGB but obviously missed it, it's pretty much what we've done but all laid out in laymans terms on one page :rolleyes:
 
Jessey said:
Bodshi, that's a good article, wish I'd seen it months ago, I looked on EGB but obviously missed it, it's pretty much what we've done but all laid out in laymans terms on one page :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It's actually on the North East group website, and it isn't even very easy to find on there - needless to say I have it saved in my 'Favourites'! It's a shame it isn't on the main site really as I think most newcomers would find it really helpful.
 
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I am not really thinking of fittening right now, she has only been hacking three months. But what we are doing must be contributing.
She does something 6 days a week.

Usually hack followed by polework, hack, lunging followed by long reining, hack, jumping and flatwork, hack.
It really depends on where you are, I am hills in all directions, this is great.
 
It will definitely be contributing, I found keeping a diary of what I was doing made it easier to assess how much we had done (it was not as much as I thought when I looked back over a month) which then allowed me to decide what to up and if we were ready for something.
 
I love my GPS as I can keep track of the mileage, we have 14 miles a week for the last three weeks. Nothing I know but she she has just started a fourth hack.:)
 
I love mine too, for me and the horses, I've got a garmin, with heart rate monitor, got it for a steal on ebay and use it daily
 
Mine has that monitor and option for a foot pod. Its not accurate speed wise which is a shame. My previous Garmin didn't need any pod.
The cob doesn't wear trainers so I have no where to place it anyway.
When I first got it it beeped at the one mile and we both jumped. :)
 
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I am very old and therefore old fashioned!! We always start with a fortnight of walk work, followed by a fortnight of walk and trot work on the roads, and then introduce canter.

An endurance rider at my yard says any horse can do a 20 mile ride straight out of the field. She has had several high level Arab endurance horses, so that shows really we are far too soft on them! I do however believe in road work and I certainly believe that they do need to do a couple of weeks trotting on roads to harden their legs up.
 
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I am on week one of mainly walking hacks now almost out for about two hours on an evening will keep this up for 3 weeks then beginning her trotting.. She is fairly fit in the field as she lives out and the run around.

After the first week of hacking she is hardly sweating now when she gets home :) so another two weeks of road work then I will start trotting work and see how we go.

I would love to do some endurance type rides :)
 
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