THERE are a number of benefits to getting your horse correctly fit ahead of the hunting season and it is not something that should be overlooked. Before you get started with fitness preparations check that your horse’s vaccinations are up to date. Your horse should also be wormed, get shod by a farrier and be seen by an equine denist.

There is always a risk of injury but having a horse that is fit and ready for hunting helps reduce the chance of injury.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER

Although there are general guidelines to getting your horse fit for hunting there are also different factors to take into consideration with regard to each individual horse. The first thing to consider is how fit is your horse to start with? Have they been completely out of work for a couple of months or have they been in light work over the summer?

Some horses naturally will get their fitness back quicker than others so bare the type of horse in mind as well. More blood horses will generally take less time to get fit. If your horse is coming back into work after injury you will most likely need to give them more time that you normally would in other to let them get back to full strength gradually. The age of your horse should also be taken into consideration.

FITNESS PLAN

A general fitness plan for a hunter will last between eight and 12 weeks, depending on the factors listed above. The first three to five weeks will consist of roadwork. This is generally all walking, starting for approximately 20 minutes and increasingly up to an hour. As your horse gets fitter you can include some hill work.

Road work should continue up until week six or seven and include trotting and hill work. The intensity and duration of work should increase as the horse gets fitter. Some canter work in the arena or the field, depending on the ground, can be introduced at this stage.

Around week seven or eight you should introduce more canter work. You can also include some jumping. Try to avoid doing all of your canter work on artificial surfaces – it is important for hunters to be comfortable on different terrain and ground conditions.

Interval training can be used throughout your fitness plan. Interval training is periods of work interspersed with periods of rest. As the periods of work increase, the periods of rest decrease. Interval training can be done with trot work and canter work.

If at any stage in your fitness plan you feel your horse is struggling and not reaching level of fitness you would expect at that stage, you should go back a step. Particularly in the early stages of getting your horse fit, it is important to take things slowly and give your horse time to build condition and fitness.