Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

How much hill conditioning is needed to do LD rides?? We live near St Louis MO and there's several rides we can attend with decent hills and there's trails nearby we condition at with decent hills as well.? But I'm curious as to how much, how fast, and how to really condition for hills without doing any damage to a horse's stifles.

My horse is recently off and we've determined it's likely his stifle, particularly his LH.? The sound of his rear hooves striking the ground is "off" and not even, but not bad either.? He is delaying in bringing his LH foot forward, slightly dragging his toe.? Heavy massage and range of motion stuff is indicating he is a bit sore.? 

I really want to seriously reconsider how to go about conditioning/riding steeper terrain/hills.? I do ride with a friend but perhaps we're going too fast, too much for my particular horse and his current conditioning level.? We generally ride on weekends as we haven't found the time this year to ride during the evenings without doing road rides which I'm reluctant to do thinking it's too hard on his joints and such.? There is a click in his stifle when the leg is raised/lowered if that means anything.? He is about 12 years old.

Also, how much rest should I give him before going back to some hill work?? Of course I'll be "checking" him before taking him out again but looking for a ballpark idea here.

Thanks once again and wanting to do the "right" thing here,
Val + Tori