So finally the snow is thawing and now we all have to face getting our horses fit again having inadvertently given them all a few weeks on lite work!
Remember that horses need a week of walk for every month they have off a very general guide, but some horses will need more walking, others wont do walk work and need to move on faster in order to keep them calm. the golden rule of horses is adapt the rules to each individual horse.
Several of my clients are under the impression that they now need to start from scratch with their horses fitness after this lay off, that is not necessarily true. If your horse was reasonably fit before the enforced inactivity he will only need a few easier hacking days to get him going again. Once you have built up your horses work over the next two weeks, doing a little more each time you work him, you should be ready to carry on where you left off.
Have fun and at this time of year think about getting your horses leg fit(long slow work on harder surfaces, mostly walking on roads, and careful trotting on gentle inclines) and then once warmer and going is better, you can focus more on getting overall fitness including the all important "gallop" fitness for you eventers out there (incorporate slow cantering on flat and then gentle hills and then. Start to increase endurance with basic interval training, canter a few minutes untill horse is slightly blowing, then walk, let horse recover his breath and repeat the exercise. Over time you can run more cyles and longer cycles of this pattern, Its that simple.
