How To Get Your Horse Fit for the Event Season
Whilst we are all wading around in our wellies battling through the thick of winter, it’s easy to get complacent about the upcoming event season. But as the event season looms, now is the time to start preparing your horses so they are fit and ready to tackle the three phases on the day! Getting a head start now will mean you have plenty of time to get your horse up to peak fitness and ensure they’re feeling their best at the same time.
Building fitness in horses can be a lengthy process, and you want to do it right to reduce the risk of injury. Eventing is a testing sport for both horse and rider, particularly the cross-country phase! If a horse isn’t fit enough to sustain galloping and jumping around the track, they’re more likely to pick up an injury as they tire and stop using their bodies correctly. That’s why a fitness plan to get them fit and raring to go is vital, and now is the time to start! We teamed up with our sponsored riders to find out their favourite fitness tips and tricks to share with you.
Why do horses need to be fit for eventing?
Eventing is a physically demanding sport for horses, not just on the cross-country course but throughout the duration of the event. Horses have to sustain peak performance from the first centre line in a dressage test, remaining supple and collected, on to a course of show jumps where their strength and scope will be tested, finishing off with the fast-paced and incredibly complex cross-country element (for a short format event). Horses from grassroots levels up to the top international events will have to contest challenging, undulating terrain, water, ditches, and combinations out on the course so a high level of fitness is vital to ensure they can get around safely and confidently.
When a horse isn’t fit enough, they will alter how they use their bodies to help them get through each course. This leads to injury and over exertion and can have some catastrophic consequences for your horse! That’s why fitness should be a top priority, even when the event season is still a little way off.
A horse’s fitness can be split into two categories:
- Conditioning
- Schooling
Luckily these two go hand in hand, and all training in one category will directly assist training in the other. Conditioning will maximise performance and maintain soundness whilst schooling will develop their athleticism. Here are some fitness exercises to ensure you’re targeting both with your fitness work.
Hacking
Hacking is something that most of us do week in week out, but did you know that hacking for long enough can drastically improve your horse’s fitness and condition? If you’re fortunate to live in an area with lots of hills, make sure you’re incorporating these into your fitness routine!
Hacking and hill work in all gaits, starting with walking long and low, is a great way to build a horse’s stamina and get them used to being ridden continuously for longer periods of time. Start with long and low walk work to get your horse using their backs and engaging their hind end. Then progress to trotting, including trotting up some hills to really get their heart rates up and their legs working. Then sprinkle in some canter work and you’ll be flying! Make sure you practice going down hills in trot or canter too (once your horse is fit and balanced enough) as you’ll more than likely have to contest a lot of hills at an event!
Pole Work
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, pole work is your best friend when it comes to building strength, condition, muscle, and suppleness, needed for ALL three phases of eventing!
Using poles to get your horses fit will benefit in both the dressage and the jumping phases. Using trot and canter poles on the floor will help to build body condition and suppleness. Jumping exercises with lots of poles will also help in training stamina as well as elasticity and adjustability vital for a smooth cross-country round. Pole work is a favourite tactic of both PolyJumps’ sponsored riders Jennie and Jess when it comes to getting their horses into peak condition.
If you want to really challenge your horse, Jennie likes to raise poles to give her horse a super intense work out that will really hit the condition-work hard. Try and incorporate poles into your workout at home at least once a week, if not more! As your horse builds strength and stamina, increase the difficulty of the tasks so their fitness is continually growing. Just make sure your horse has a good base level of fitness before you introduce complex pole work exercises or jumping grids!
Want some ideas of specific exercises you can do at home? Head over and check out our blog all about pole work for strength and suppleness!
Canter Work
Canter work, or fast work, is the number one way to build fitness and stamina for the cross-country course. When incorporating canter work, horses are pushed from aerobic exercise to anaerobic exercise and it’s here where a horses fitness increases. Horses need to ‘blow’ to get fitter, so this is a pivotal part of your training for an event.
Canter work should only be started when a horse has a good base line of fitness and can sustain even short bursts of fast paced activity to reduce the risk of injury. Interval training is the easiest way to use canter work to build fitness. This is where your horse canters at a fast pace for X number of minutes, followed by a shorter recovery period to allow the heart rate to come back down again but not reach resting status. The fast work will move the horse from aerobic to anaerobic exercise, initiating energy to be produced within the body.
The easiest place to do interval training is on the gallops, but if you don’t have access to this then it is perfectly doable at home in the arena or even out hacking in a field! Sponsored event rider Harriet utilises her hacking to incorporate lots of canter work into her fitness routine. Cantering is also a great way for riders to practice at the speed they are required to travel for the level of event they are entering. It’s important for riders to get comfortable cantering and jumping out of the required metres/minute (m/min) before they head out of the start box. For example, a horse competing at BE Novice level should be cantering for 3, 5-minute intervals at 450 m/min interspersed with 3-minute walking periods.
Training Aids
Using training aids to assist fitness work is a great alternative to being in the saddle every day. For example, lunging with a training aid to get the horses hind end engaged is a great asset to a fitness regime, and helps to take the pressure off if they’re feeling a little fresh after their winter holidays! You can even incorporate pole work into your lunging routine to give them a really good workout.
A water treadmill is another super, low-impact way to build strength without pounding their legs on the gallops too regularly. It also has other great benefits for tendon and ligament sustainability and works the harder to reach muscle groups.
There’s no time like the present to get event season ready! If you’re ready to get going but missing some all-important components, head over to PolyJumps and take a look at our wide variety of poles and pole work accessories to help you get started. If you’re not sure exactly which ones you need, get in touch and one of our team will be on hand to help you out! Best of luck.