Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Truman said:

> Sand is pretty much good training for just about any conditions.
Sand is not particularly good training for building bone density to
handle hard going, nor is it very good conditions for teaching a horse
to be careful about where it is putting its feet.

Personally, I wouldn't take a horse that I had only conditioned in sand
and do a bunch of trotting down a paved road.  Lots of trotting down a
paved road is something you have to work up to by doing a little bit of
trotting down a paved road, and then a little bit more and a little bit
more.

Same is true for crappy, holey, rocky and uneven footing.

Sand is good for building muscle, a pretty good cardiovascular workout,
and if done judiciously, good for strengthening ligaments and tendons in
their normal range of motion (i.e. not laterally).

Additionally, working in flat sand does not do anything for building the
ability to do lots of trotting down hill, no matter what the footing,
but especially if the footing is hard.  The only way to train for
trotting down hill is to trot down hill.  Trotting down hill is an
isometric exercise, and there is no way to simulate it, you have to do
it.

Downhill work in the sand will do it though.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)

"Le meilleur que je sais les hommes le plus que j'aime mon
cheval."--Catherine the Great



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