How to get Stumpy fitter?

[chickflick1066]

In two months, is it doable? I've got a sponsored ride on the 25th March, but it's 7 miles with 50 optional jumps. Obviously most is done at a steady canter but I'll be taking regular breaks etc..

At the minute, 40 mins of intense schooling mainly in walk and trot has her in a hot sweat, and 1hr30 of hacking with plenty of canters/gallops often has her dripping.

Bearing in mind she has a full coat as her clip has grown back and I don't wish to clip her seeing as she's out 24/7.

What types of exercise should I aim to be doing with her to increase her fitness? I guess I should ride her/lunge her more but I don't want to over ride bless her..

So..any tips - much appreciated :)

[jenren!!]

Lots of hills! I would be tempted to clip her though even if shes out 24/7 as it doesnt matter, as long as they're warm. She could be fitter than you think, just doesnt show it because of how warm she gets in her coat!

Start every schooling session with an aim - dont idle about and ride her as much as you can.

[chickflick1066]

Jen, I'm not the one currently schooling her...a pal of mine does a 15 min warm up and then works on bending/flexing, getting her softer in all three paces, etc so she determines the length of ride and content of the ride.

I could do the hill work though, hacking is my forte!!

I'm slightly concerned about clipping her though...

[NoviceNic]

Stumps will tell you when she is tired. I am always surprised when I school Captain. He acts as though he is absolutely shattered so I take him out for a warm down up the road and hey presto he is alive and on his toes again...:rolleyes: Little monkey tries to get out of any work...:p

[Pink's lady]

riding and lots of it. You really need to ride her every day if possible and work her hard at least 4 of those days a week.

It's easy to do not a lot out hacking. - I tend to just amble alone and have pottery 2min trots if that:o But to get them fit they need to to a lot more. Build up your trotting gradually and minute a day until you're trotting for 15mins. That is a LONG time to trot and you could easily cover a good few miles but it gets them fit.

Chose a couple of reasonable long routes and set out patterns to trot and canter. Each time go a little further unil your trotting most of it.

[eventerbabe]

"Getting Your Horse Fit" by Diana R. Tuke is a great wee book. Bit dated (was published in 1977) but full of useful info and a skeleton fitness plan.

I'd be inclined to do an interval type training plan. Lots of hacking. scrap the lungeing and limit schooling to start with. She must have a degree of fitness to cope with what she's doing just now so i'd bypass the 4-6 weeks of walk only and start hacking out doing walk with intervals of trot for a couple of weeks, then up the amount of trot and add in 2-3 minute bursts of cantering. Hill work is useful but i'd probably bring that in after the first few weeks.

[Yann]

The dripping with sweat bit will most likely be winter coat, not lack of fitness. A partial clip might be an idea, constant profuse sweating isn't that good for them and it might be an idea to add some electrolytes to her feed. Plenty of horses live out through winter with part, you just have to rug up a bit more and if the horse has access to forage in the field there shouldn't be a problem.
I don't know how much feed she gets but its also worth upping that in accordance with her workload, nobody trains for a marathon whilst eating ryvita:D