I want to work out an exercise regime for my 16.2hh gelding?

Question

He has only just begun working in an outline so lacks muscle on his neck, he is quite unfit, and rushes in to jumps. I want to sort it out so i have a plan of what to do each day as i only have him for 6 months and want to get him going well pronto!

Answer 1

You don't want to rush anything, as that will lead to serious problems down the way. If your horse has been out of work for a month or more, you need to slow down and go back to basics and definitely start working on developing those muscles once more. You'll want to spend the first week or two just walking for long periods of time. Start out over an hour, and gradually increase to two hours or more a day, preferably over hills and variations in terrain. As the distance and time increases, you can introduce gradual periods of trotting. Start small, ten minutes of trotting broken by five to ten minute walk breaks. Gradually increase the time spent trotting until you're trotting for a solid hour. Trotting uphill is better than trotting on flat ground as it reduces the impact on the front legs. Whenever you're doing this sort of long distance trotting, it's important to change diagonal regularly to take the strain off each side of his body.

By week three or four you can start schooling him on the flat for about a half hour two or three times a week. Continue the long-periods of fitness work on other days. These schooling periods should initially focus on balance throughout circles and figures. Keep cantering to a minimum, focus on making him collect at the walk and trot and work on balancing him through his turns. Do lots of changes of bend and direction. In another week, you can begin to introduce more cantering to his long-distance work. Let him extend his stride without going into a gallop.

This initial stage of training, which lasts usually just over a month, is vital to your horse's fitness, health, and safety. To skip it risks injury. This stage also allows the horse's muscles to build and develop all over, especially throughout his hindquarters, neck and topline. It gives you as a rider a basis for beginning more advanced work.

When his fitness is in order, you can focus more on schooling sessions than long-distance work outs. Start short (as far as time is concerned), but gradually build up the length of these sessions. This is where you'll want to build gymnastic jumping grids and start working on jumping on a circle. You say your horse as a tendency to rush, so place poles before your jumps that encourage him to wait rather than fling himself at the jump. I work extensively with off track TBs, and they usually have this natural inclination to throw themselves at the jump rather than jump up from behind and round over the fences. You need to work on placing trot poles before the jump and jumping a line of poles and fences. Give him something to focus on after the jump so he can't go crazy and run flat out after landing. Work on halting after you finish your line of jumps. Practice your automatic and your short crest release, as this will give you greater control when in the air and after the fence. Remember to slow your upper body and be still towards the approach. Unconsciously ducking forward can encourage him to run through the jump.

Answer 2

Ok- 3 days a week (or 3 days in the routine) do some flat work such as dressage and work on bending and being able to lengthen and shorten his stride. 1 day- jumping- start with very low poles for his confidence (and his current condition) Even if you just do raised cavelletti. In the beginning, this should be the shortest day because it will demand the most out of him physically

1-2 days- do something fun- go on a trail ride, do some speed show type events, stuff like that. I ride 1st level dressage on my mare, and I will do barrels and poles every once and a while just for fun- she is slow and we do a collected canter the whole time, but she loves the change of pace.

The other days- let him rest- he needs 1- 2 days off a week just to be a horse :)

Start out week 1 or 2 doing only 20-30 min rides. When he feels tired- quit. Do not start demanding or pushing him more until he doesn't tire out so easily.

Answer 3

ok, i had the same problem with my 16.2hh mare
she was only ridden at weekends at her previous home for four months and was quite out of balance.
get the vet over to do a vet check to look out for any lameness and take the guidance from there.
with my mare
i did inhand walking for a couple of weeks 3-4 times a week for about half an hour.
then i rode her for about an hour (hacking and only walking) 3 times a week and inhand walked her twice a week (to stop her joints swelling and going stiff
now i'm riding her 3 times a week mainly walking, with the odd trott here and there, and one maybe two short blasts of canter per ride, and replacing the inhand walking with lunging.

the whole point of this is to bring her back into work gradually so as to not put her out and to bring back her naturall balance.

she is also turned out twice a week and put in the walker for 45 mins once a week.

good luck and i hope this helps.
xxx

Answer 4

For his.......

Neck: There is not much you can do but good old cantering in both directions so that he can build up muscles on both sides. You can take a treat and hold it to his girth before riding and make his nose touch it on both sides of his body-- stretching before you ride get their muscles ready to go! You can do riding excersizes like figure eights and serpentines to help also.

Unfitness: Daily work is all that is needed, get him workin! Trot him outside through puddles in the arena, through grassy areas, sand if you have it around... sand is a great workout for horses to go through... but dont work him too hard! Try to at least give him an hour workout each day but allow him 2-3 days off each week at first and when he is showing signs of becoming more fit allow him one day off ALWAYS. Make sure you are doing excerises and not jsut going around in circles... it helps the mind and body of both you and your horses.

Rushing: Make him halt about 4 feet before the jump. And when i say make i mean MAKE. (I had this problem with my horse) Then kick him on and make him go over it from the trot he is at (make sure you start out this way with the jumps lower because often times they will be going over them at a slow trot after being halted.) If you do not want to completely halt him, get out of your two point or half seat and just completely sit the trot and sit back, giving him half halts or pulling on the reins-- however you have to make sure you still release him when going over the jump.
*heres an excersize that helped us SO much*
Set up a line but take down the second pole... go over the first jump and immediatly try and halt him before he goes through the second set of standards ( remeber, there is no jump set up there, only standards) Once you have sucessfully done this put both jumps up and go over the first one again, this time halting again, exit the line DO NOT FINISH IT and start over....After you have halted in between the jumps about 3 times, go over the first jump in the line and halt, this time after you have achieved a halt continue to go over the second jump in the line-- no matter how close you are to it, horses can jump at standstills... just make sure the jump isnt too big and you dont pull on his mouth! RELEASE him! Do this excersize 2 times ( allow your horse breaks of course) and then let him do the whole line as normal, without any complete halting in between-- instead of a complete halt just half halt him where you stopped him before, and he should continue to get better after a few weeks!! This worked really well on my horse, mine was the exact same way... unfit, rushing, no muscle!! GOOD LUCK and email me for anything!!! [e-mail]