|
Barbara, If you ride dressage that is the best you
can do for your horse to start. If you don't currently ride dressage it
would be good for you to get a good instructor to help you. That
would be a good (the best first step). After spending time in the ring and
on trail doing that I would take him out on gentle hills and just walk up
and down, just asking for him to work the same way as in the ring, neck
flexed, back up and butt under him, keep your butt off his back so he is able to
do what you are asking him to do. Go up as well as down, in this same
position (two point, again someone can help you with this if you don't know this
already) Asking all the time with your legs for him to constantly bring
his hind legs under him for balance. Don't ask for this for more than a
few minutes at a time because it is tireing if he doesn't have the correct
muscles to work this way. A horse may be able to run 100 miles and still
be weak when asked to work properly with his butt under him, but it is a lot
easier for them once they learn it and it saves a lot on the front end. We
have all seen these horses that just roll down hill faster and
faster!! It is because they don't have the muscle to stop and slow
down and they are headed for a nose dive. That is what my horse used
to do, only he really DID the nose
dive. Next step would be to do
this up steeper hills, same way. Don't for get your ring work, lots
of circles, leg yeilds, shoulder ins and haunches ins. These
will all help his balance and strength. My horse goes from a 50 - 100 on
one weekend to a second level dressage class the next weekend. They
compliment each other. The long distance gives forwardness to dressage and
the dressage gives strength and agility to long distance. I don't go
to very many long distance competitions cause they are expensive but I can see a
real differance in my horses endurance when I do get a chance to go.And I get a
lot of compliments on the way my horse looks from people who new him from when I
first had him. Even his previous owner gave me a compliment this
summer.
It is a lot of work but it is worth it, In
Maine we have winter to contend with so that is when I do most of my dressage
work in the indoor arena I rent monthly. In the summer I am outside
conditioning more but I still do ring work on the off days so that I am working
differant muscle groups each day.
So after King (my horse) was confident on the
hills walking and strong enough to carry the position the whole hill, I then
would trot up and down the same way, by now you BOTH should be strong
enough to do this. You will be surprised at how quickly you will get
tired until you are stronger (that is the way your horse feel as
well)
Next I would take him up into the mountains where
we have ledges and rocks and hills that are like OD only two miles long instead
of 22 miles at a stretch. I ask him to trot up and over these and
down when it is not ledge but only dirt and rocks.
Then when he was good at that, I would take him
again on the gentle hills and canter up and down. ( I only did this until
he was comfortable doing it but rarely do it now, as it is not good for the
front end to canter to much on the down hill.)
As a result of all this work, my horse is good at
making time on the hills on rides. We are not fast so (don't think
fast is the answer to anything) we just keep the same tempo and rithem most of
the ride with a gallop now and then to break up the board moments.
You should see real results in a couple of months
with all this work.
You cannot condition every day for long distance
but you could break it up into dressage every other day just to work differant
muscle groups. Another thing that really helps is cavellitti
work, again you will need someone who knows how to space the jumps
properly. Even ground poles will help a trippy horse.
One more thing that really helps is body work,
TTeam etc., Message Theropy, all these things help the horse to listen and read
his own
body.
Hope this helps
Vicki
| 