If you are planning a horse-related vacation this year and will be bringing your horse along to enjoy daily long trail rides, you have more to think about than just packing up and going. Your horse isn't like a car. You can't just take your horse out of the garage, dust him off, turn him on and go.
If you regularly ride only a few times a week or on weekends, and for a relatively short time compared to what you will be asking of the horse on your vacation, you need to improve his level of conditioning. Horses need formal exercise to be fit for what we ask of them.
As a bare minimum, your weekly mileage (literally - miles covered) needs to be at least double what you will be asking the horse to do on a daily basis. If you don't know how many miles you ride, plan on spending at least twice as many hours in the saddle per week as you will be per day on your trip. Allow six to eight weeks to work up to this amount. As an example:
Ready, Set, Ride
- Compare the time you spend riding now with what you plan to do on your vacation and adjust your horse's conditioning accordingly.
- Be sure to include pace as part of your conditioning program.
- If the ride will have hilly terrain and you ride primarily on the flat, then increase your conditioning by 20%.
- Find out what will be fed during the ride and gradually switch your horse to that feed to avoid gut problems.
Current level of riding: 3 hours/week
Anticipated time in the saddle on vacation: 7.5 hours/day
Target number of hours/week riding at home: 15+ hours/week
As you can see, in this example you would need to increase your time in the saddle from three to 15 hours/week, a difference of 12 hours. If you allow six weeks to accomplish this, you'll increase your riding time/week by two hours each week:
Week one: 5 hours/week
Week two: 7 hours/week
Week three: 9 hours/week
Week four: 11 hours/week
Week five: 13 hours/week
Week six: 15 hours/week
As an added bonus, your own thighs, back and rear end will thank you for making the increase gradually.
The pace of your riding is also important. If most of the vacation riding will be at a walk, walking and a little trotting is all you will have to do during conditioning too. If more trotting will be going on than you usually do, you'll need to make sure you also increase your trotting time.
Find out about the terrain as well. If it's hilly and your horse isn't accustomed to that, you will need to increase your mileage to get him fitter. Going up and down hills is much more tiring than traveling on flat ground. For a walk/trot pace, plan on increasing your target mileage by at least 20% if you can't work on hills.
So, in the example above, your target mileage would be 18 hours/week instead of 15. Therefore, increase the time by 2.5 hours/week instead of two. If you do have the opportunity to ride over hilly ground at home, but don't normally do it, introduce this gradually. Keep your total weekly riding time the same, but ride the hills one day a week for your first week, two days a week the second, three days/week the third, etc. until you are doing all your riding over hills the last week.
Feeding During Conditioning
As you progress from infrequent work to several hours a day, your horse's calorie requirements will likely go up 50-100%. You'll need to think not only about feeding him more, but what you will be feeding him.
