Equestrian Life Magazine September Issue 220 | Page 82

Abbey England
Part five

Stabled Horses

Fitness First
Fitness training is crucial to enable
your horse or pony to perform to the
best of his ability and to reduce the
risk of injury. Here Georgina Hunt
talks us through her schedule for a
competition ready team...

Georgina Hunt Series
Fitness First
Plan Ahead
Make sure you start fitness
training well in advance of your
first competition to allow enough
time to reach the required level
of fitness and to allow for any
setbacks. My horses usually
have their shoes off after the
Newbury show in September and
herd out together pretty much
undisturbed for 6 - 8 weeks.
After a break from the carriage
out in the field for a few weeks
I will hack the horses out under
saddle. They do very little work
as a team over winter; I mainly
lunge, use the Pessoa, introduce

trotting poles and include plenty
of suppling exercises for each
individual horse.
I bring them back in to light work
before Christmas as a team and
this will include some schooling
and also hacking out in the
carriage. When planning your
schedule make sure you keep it
varied and include hacking out,
not just schooling, so that horses
remain willing to work and don’t
develop behavioural problems.

Getting Started
Fitness work starts in earnest mid
February for the first event of the

season at the end of April. The
different phases of competition
all require the horses to be very
fit, especially the marathon.

the level of work is too intense
e.g. prolonged recovery postexercise, illness or injury, poor
performance.

They do plenty of trot work for
the first few weeks and then
we will include fast work and
introduce obstacles. Always warm
your horse(s) up properly to avoid
injury and make sure you cool
down as well, as this is equally as
important.

I also find it useful to keep a diary
of my fitness training so that I can
plan ahead further and monitor
progress. You can break down
your training in to three phases;
long slow distance, strength work
and fast/sprint work. Do not carry
out intense work more than twice
a week and always follow it with a
light work day. The horse must be
given time to recover following
strenuous training and to avoid
depletion of glycogen stores.

Most of the fitness work is
undertaken with the horses in
pairs, depending on the weather
we will train in the sand school
and then use the field as soon
as it is dry enough in the spring.
They also do occasional road
work so that they get a sustained
40 minute trot at 15kph.
During this period I closely
monitor the horses for signs that
their fitness is improving and that

Nutritional support must be
carefully planned to maximise
performance, keep horses healthy
and to maintain optimum body
condition. Seek advice from a
nutritionist if you feel your horse’s
diet could be improved.

Warm Up

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