The Importance of Conditioning
Many of us think of conditioning as "getting in shape" or "being fit", but there's a lot more to it than just that. General training helps strengthen bone, ligaments and tendons. It can decrease the likelihood of injury during an event. Conditioning also allows for improved cardiovascular tone which leads to increased heart muscle and lower heart rates during exercise. Respiratory changes also occur, allowing for better oxygen uptake and distribution.
However there is also a psychological component to training as well. You and your horse become more confident in your capabilities and anxiety decreases. You begin to trust each other and learn strengths and weaknesses. As you train, you become one unit as opposed to just horse and rider.
But how do you get there?
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My Horse is Out of Shape!
Slow and steady wins the race - that's the old adage anyway. It's not only sometimes true in racing, but it's always true in returning horses to work who are out of condition or returning from an injury. This could mean that you have to start with hand walking, just to get the horse moving a little bit. Slowly increasing the amount of time being hand walked can strengthen muscles and help damaged tendons or ligaments stretch before going back to full on work.
Generally, if a horse has been stall bound due to injury, we recommend starting at 5 - 10 minutes of hand walking per day and slowly increasing that by 5 minutes each week until 30 minutes of hand walking is obtained. This gets you in shape, too! Once 30 minutes has been reached, the horse can be walked under saddle for 5 minutes in addition to being hand walked. The time under saddle can then be slowly increased in the same manner.
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He's going the distance...
Most people have been to the gym. Or at least tried to go to the gym. When we get there we climb on the treadmill and push "Start". And then we get off and say "What was the point of that?"
The point was aerobic conditioning. In this type of conditioning, we try to go at slow speeds with low intensity. The idea is to be able to go for a longer period of time since exertion is decreased. We often do this at the beginning of a conditioning program. Later, it can be interspersed with other types of conditioning. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Aerobic conditioning is sometimes referred to as endurance training. When training, your horse should be working at a trot or slow canter.
This may last for several weeks before you can move on to other types of conditioning, but it its important to make sure your horse is in good shape before moving on to more strenuous work.
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He's Going for Speed!
Once your horse has some strength and endurance, it's time to up the ante. It depends on the discipline, but this is the point in time where you begin to breeze/gallop, start jumping fences, or increase the weight behind pulling horses. This type of training should be interspersed with with slow-speed conditioning and rarely should you exceed 80% of maximal effort.
High intensity workouts should not be done every day. Depending on the discipline, they can be done up to every 3 days, or as little as every 10 days. These workouts increase the level of anaerobic conditioning - the body's ability to produce energy without oxygen. Anaerobic conditioning is good for short term energy bursts, but it is not something you can maintain for extended periods of time. This is why it is important to have a good level of aerobic conditioning prior to working on anaerobic conditioning.
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Current events at TPE!
July will be a busy month for Twin Pines. Dr. Kornatowski has been invited to speak at an AAEP meeting (our national organization) in Okahoma City, OK. He'll be departing in the middle of the month for 5 days. Dr. Leighton has also been asked to speak at an event being held at Shadowrock Equine in Oneonta, NY. They are putting on a client education seminar the last weekend in July and Dr. Leighton will be speaking about basic equine health, including topics such as nutrition and dentistry. Wish us luck in our travels! |