My horse has been out of work for a few months. What is the best way to work him back up to par?
Sass is a 14.2hh 7yr old Arabian gelding. He has been off of work for about 5 months, but not due to injury. Before his rather long vacation, him and I schooled up to 3ft and showed 2’6 to 2’9. He was just getting ‘on the bit’ at the walk and trot. But due to family issues, I had to take time off from the barn.
Today, I gave him the longest grooming of his life, which I’m sure he enjoyed, but I also started to bring him back to work. I hand-walked him up and down a 22ft long hill 20 times (20 up, 20 down) Now, I would like to get a professionals idea on what they would do, if they where in my position, to get their horse, or pony, back into work. I would really appreciate knowing your source, and barn website if you have one! Thanks so much!
And if I knew how to give 10 points, I would.
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Tagged with: 5 months • arabian gelding • long vacation • Par • pony • sass
Filed under: How To Get Him Back
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If it were my horse, which it has been over the years with the horses i’ve owned and trained, I would make it a slow process. First the first few weeks (about 2), I would handlwak (flat ground is find), then I would just ride at a walk for about a half an hour, just to get him moving. I would get him bending and relaxing down to use his whole body. After the first 2 weeks I would start riding trotting in small increments, trot the long sides of the arena for every other lap, walk the short sides, and the whole arena for the rest of the time. Slowly start increasing the trot work until your horse can trot with small breaks of walking for a good 45mins without getting exhausted. Once his muscles gain alittle more strength then slowly start cantering in small increments, like you did with the trot work. Make sure you have him bending and relaxing so he is using his WHOLE body while working, not just his legs and some of his back. Its great work for a horse to work on a circle to build his muscles back up, just circle at one end of your arena. Once your horse can work through his gaits without getting exhausted and overly sweaty, I would throw some trot/canter poles out and start working with those, it shouldnt be too hard for him to do the poles, so I wouldnt spend too much time with them (he could get bored). Just like you did with everything else, if he isn’t too tired with the poles, do some cavelletti/raised pole work. Dont try and do this all in one lesson or even two rides, spread it out over maybe a weeks worth of rides (one week of ground poles). Work on the cavelletti/raised poles for about 2 weeks (this is a rough estimate because every horse is different). Once you can do a good hour of riding your baisc gaits, some counter bending (bending his body to the outside of the arena) and true bending (bend to the inside, different bends get his body warmed up and stretched), ride him by spiraling in on the circle (SLOWLY move in on the circle, until is about a 10m, then slowly move back out), he can do ground poles, raised poles and cavelletti safely, move onto jumping. Take the jumps really slow though, DONT start him off at what you WERE doing, thats a big no no because his body isnt in shape to do this. Put up a small crossrail and trot over it. I would take 15mins to warm him up (do most of the warm up on a circle, change directions, spiral in and out, and then ride the full arena doing some bending. Once the warm up is done set up trot poles and trot over them a few times, then set up a small crossrail 18" is a nice height. Finish off your ride trotting over the crossrail. Work on the small crossrail for a few weeks (I do about 2 weeks), then move the crossrail up to about 2ft. (I’d ride this for about 2 weeks). Then start varying your fences, small verticles (2ft) and cross rails, only set up one fence though and just change it throughout the ride (start with the crossrail, move to the vertical), I’d ride the varied fences for about 3 weeks, and move up from there. Slowly move the fence heights up because pushing him could cause injury and another long lay up time. I would even call in my trainer for alittle help from time to time. Remember: this is a process that SHOULD NOT be rushed along, this should take around 3 months to get him jumping again (think if you had to recondtion yourself to jump again). It should take about 1 – 2 more months to get him jumping to the height he was jumping. Recondtioning takes a long time and rushing it can cause injury, it never hurts to take a long time to bring him back into it. And Remember, the flatwork should NOT be done in one or two lessons, dont cram, spread it out.
good luck
im not an expert but i’ve had about ten years of experience (almost 11) and if it was only a few months (4 or 5 months) just keep up what your doing and then ride him for about an hour or 2 slowly everyday for about 2 or maybe 3 weeks.
I am not an expert but I think that if you can…work him gradually up….it will take some time but you can get him better than before…. for the first day take it slow….the next go like 10-20 minutes longer than before and once a week add a new "lesson" to the teaching…..say over ground poles and work those for a week at a walk then the next week go to a trot over them….. start out hand walking and gradually get him used to actual riding again……If you need more help e-mail me!
Start slow. Go out for little walk trot rides for a week. Then gradually go to the canter and jumps. Don’t start out so high. He will probably be a little fresh at first because of all that bottled up energy. Enjoy your relaxing rides and don’t push it too far too fast.
You have found one ! I am 12 and im a expert on horses and no joke a professional, You would want to start slow maybe like 30 minutes a day for about a week and then gradually start going up and always reward your horse let him out afterwards, if your horse(s) is being kept in a barn and not allowed to eat sweetfeed for an example, let it out for a while they will think thats awesome and be good . Another tip is after you reach the top where your horse is trained and maybe you take it on a long trail ride like realy long dont give it water let it walk around and cool off before you feed or water it !! Also dont load a horse in its trailer if its rlly hot or sweaty.
well basically you pick them back up slowly.
everyday starting with 10 minutes pick up the workout.
the first day you would do 10 minutes of all walk.
the second day you would do 8 minutes walk and 2 minutes trot.
the third day you would walk for 10 minutes and trot for about 5.
the fourth day you would walk for 15 and trot 5.
and so on…
as soon as you get up to the full hour you can start cantering again.
but you also have to start with the 2 minutes of cantering and the next day you would do 5 minutes canter and etc.
i know it would take a lot of time but it is for the good for your horse.
plus it would be easy to pick up on training working with headsets and stuff.
thanks.
I hope i helped
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