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.
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