Advanced: Conditioning Schedule

So show season’s coming! Woohoo. Your horse is still moderately fit because you’ve been all dedicated and have ridden through most of the winter, but he’s not *really* fit. Let’s be honest, rides have been fairly short and maybe four days a week instead of six.

You’re hoping to event at training level this summer – your horse has to be able to jump a 3’6” stad course, 3’3” XC @ 450mpm (courses tend to be <8 mins), and do 1 st level dressage. And really, the last few months, you haven’t done much more than lope around the ring and over a few cavelletti.

To compete safely without risking your horse, you’re going to have to properly condition him. There are many many books on this topic that can provide far more detail than I have room for here (see References – esp Conditioning Sport Horses). But in general, it works much the way you’d expect. Interval training for cardio (ie walk for ten minutes, trot for ten minutes, walk for ten minutes. Walk for ten mins, trot for twenty, walk for ten. Gradually increasing the trot and decreasing the walk. Then sub in canter.)

Now since we’re assuming your horse has been at least in quasi-work we’re going to skip the first few conditioning steps (such as the ones in brackets above :) The schedule below is just a sample, obviously it will need to be altered to fit you and your horse – and some of the activities will change order depending on where the shows are (ie it’s a good idea to school ditches/coffins before seeing them on course!), but this will give a basic idea… Remember too that you should be conditioning yourself as well! You should be able to jog @ least the length of the XC course you expect your horse to run. (This is particularly useful when you find yourself with insanely tight times and have to “walk” your course at a run! Not that I’ve ever had to do *that* before of course :).

This sched is based on two conditioning days, two jumping days, and two dressage days in every week.

(ok so my blogger is being very weird and putting a TON of blank space in here for no apparent reason. Please scroll WAAAAYYYY down to see the schedule -- n if you know how to fix this, feel free to comment that info! :)

Conditioning and Show Schedule
Date	Competition	Conditioning	Jumping	Dressage
March Week 1		10W, T10x2, C 400m/m for 2 min		leg yield in trot
March Week 2		10W, T10x2, C 400m/m for 2 min x 2	individual fences, working on rhythm	20m circles
March Week 3		10W, T10x2, C 400m @ 400m/m x 4 + 2 min @ 400m/m	gymnastics - 4-5 fences. Low	15m circles
March Week 4	Stadium Clinic off-site	10W, T10x2, 2 min @ 400m/m x 2	short course 6-8 fences, approx 3'	trot lengthening
April Week 1		5W, T12x2 2 min @ 400m/m x 3 - 1 gallop instead of canter on 2nd conditioning day	individual fences, rhythm, bigger: 3'3-3'6	H/T and T/H trans
April Week 2		5W, T15x2, 2 min @ 400m/m x4	simple combination in&out	canter lengthening
April Week 3	CT	5W, T15x2, 2 min @ 400m/m x2, 2 min @ 450m/m x 2	XC school - ditches, small banks
April Week 4		maintain: 2 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 2 min @ 450m/m x2		relax suppling
May Week 1	Dressage clinic	2 min @ 400m/m x 3 + 4 min @ 450m/m x 1	Low jump < 3' on a circle. Rhythm, bending, leads	practice test movements improve movements from judging @ CT
May Week 2		2 min @ 400m/m x 3 + 4 min @ 450m/m x 2	XC school - bending lines	W/C and C/W trans
May Week 3	SC	2 min @ 400m/m x 3 + 6 min @ 450m/m x 1	Related distances, particularly 2 strides	relax suppling
May Week 4	First HT	Relax - hacking. Only 1 conditioning day, same as above	Gymnastics - bounces	15m circles with directional changes
June Week 1		4 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 6 min @ 450m/m x 1	banks and ditches	relax bending/ rhythm
June Week 2				shoulder-in, travers
June Week 3		6 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 6 min @ 450m/m	XC school -- steps	Review test movements.
June Week 4	2nd HT	Same as above		stretching, lengthening
July Week 1		6 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 6 min @ 450m/m x 2	Rollbacks & Stadium courses, max height (3'6")	lateral work: shoulder-in/leg-yield/traverse
July Week 2	3rd HT	8 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 6 min @ 450m/m x 2	XC water school, jump into water	bending/ relaxation
July Week 3		Relax - hacking. Only 1 conditioning day, same as above		review lengthened stride in trot and canter
July Week 4		8 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 8 min @ 450m/m x 2	XC Coffins
Aug Week 1	4th HT	Same as above	Combination school bending/ broken lines	W/H and C/W trans
Aug Week 2		8 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 8 min @ 450m/m x 2. Substitute 1 min @ 600m/m in last 8min set 1x on 2nd cond day	XC - steeplechase fences	Shoulder-in, Travers in walk
Aug Week 3		Same as above		stretching
Aug Week 4	5th HT	8 min @ 400m/m x 2 + 8 min @ 450m/m x 2 + 2 min @ 600 m/m	Skinny fences	Review anything necessary
Sept Week 1		Maintain: Same as above	Review anything necessary	stretching, transitions in canter
Sept Week 2	OHTA Champs

Now my schedule ends here at champs, but realistically I'd probably do at least one more full HT (potentially an upgrade if all has gone well) and prob a CT or SC to wind down at the end of the year; then I would gradually bring my horse down with lots of fall hacking so that both of us are ready for winter.

Remember also that feeding should be adjusted along with conditioning (another Thursday's topic!) and that shoeing, shots and such should be timed appropriately.