Fitness work is a crucial element of any horse’s weekly exercise regimen. Regardless of your chosen equestrian discipline, ensuring your horse is sufficiently fit for its job is paramount for preventing injuries and promoting longevity. While all forms of exercise, including hacking, schooling, and lunging, contribute to a horse’s overall fitness, specific exercises targeting athletic conditioning will significantly enhance stamina, agility, and recovery from cardiovascular exertion.
Top Tip: If your horse is returning to work after a period of rest, adhere to your regular early fitness program until canter work has commenced before introducing interval training.
The Principles of Interval Training
Interval training (IT) is a widely adopted method for improving athletic performance in both sport and racehorses. IT challenges and conditions a horse’s cardiovascular system by requiring them to complete high-intensity exercise intervals followed by short recovery periods where their heart rate returns to just above resting levels.
The adaptability of IT is one of its key advantages; it can be performed in various locations, such as gallops, the perimeter of a field, suitable bridleways, or even a spacious 40x60m arena. As with any canter work, it is essential to be mindful of the ground conditions and their impact on your horse’s legs. Deep, muddy terrain can be as detrimental as hard or rutted surfaces. Therefore, seek out sound footing with some give, whether it’s a synthetic or natural surface.
Top Tips:
To effectively manage your horse’s training, it’s vital to monitor the duration of each segment and the total exercise time. A stopwatch or a wristwatch with a timer is indispensable for adhering to your program. Incorporating hills into your IT sessions will elevate the intensity, thereby amplifying the fitness benefits for your horse. Cantering uphill also contributes to reducing concussion on your horse’s front legs.
The Science Behind Interval Training
The fundamental goal of a conditioning program like IT is to enhance your horse’s anaerobic threshold. This is achieved by training their system to work aerobically for the longest possible duration. The anaerobic threshold represents the highest exercise intensity a horse can sustain for an extended period without a significant buildup of lactic acid. Consequently, by utilizing IT to push the boundaries of this threshold, your horse will be capable of exercising for longer before reaching the point of fatigue.
Scientific research supports the efficacy of IT in conditioning a horse’s aerobic system, demonstrating it to be more effective than continuous work without rest breaks. A six-week study conducted by scientists at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine revealed that horses undergoing IT experienced a reduction in body weight compared to a continuous training group. Furthermore, these horses required fewer gallop strides to complete their training, indicating that IT offers greater benefits with less strain on the horse’s body.
Did You Know? Aerobic exercise, which involves oxygen being transported to the muscles for energy, is typically of low to medium intensity and relatively easy to sustain, such as trotting. Anaerobic exercise, on the other hand, is fueled by glycogen and fat rather than oxygen and leads to lactic acid accumulation. This type of exercise occurs during short bursts of high-intensity activity.
Top Tip: Prior to commencing any IT session, it is imperative to allow your horse adequate time to warm up. Hacking to the gallops or the field where the training is planned serves as an excellent warm-up. If conducting training in a large arena, begin with a short walk to help your horse loosen up.
Monitoring Your Horse’s Heart and Breathing
Understanding your horse’s resting heart and respiratory rates provides valuable insights into their exertion levels. Investing in a heart rate monitor, available online, can be beneficial for tracking heart rate during exercise.
To check the resting heart rate, a stethoscope can be placed where the girth would sit, slightly below the elbow on the left side of the body. Alternatively, locate the mandibular artery by placing your index and middle fingers under the jawline, below the cheek muscles. Once the pulse is found, count for 10 seconds and multiply by six to determine the beats per minute (bpm). A typical resting heart rate for a horse ranges from 30-44 bpm.
Your horse’s resting respiratory rate is approximately 8-16 breaths per minute. Measuring this can be a more accessible method for assessing recovery between high-intensity intervals compared to heart rate, especially if not using a digital monitor, as you can count breaths while mounted.
As natural flight animals, horses enter an initial recovery phase very rapidly after strenuous exercise. This means that as soon as you allow them to walk between canter bouts during an IT session, their heart rate will decrease relatively quickly. Monitoring heart or breathing rates allows you to gauge when they have reached a steady state before the next canter, aiding in progress tracking and ensuring you are not overexerting them.
Top Tip: Similar to any canter work, shortening your stirrups will help you rise out of the saddle, allowing your horse greater freedom of movement underneath you when traveling at speed.
Gauging Speed
Calculating your horse’s speed by dividing the distance traveled by the time taken will provide the speed in meters per minute (mpm). This is particularly useful for practicing specific speeds required for hunter trials or the cross-country phase of eventing. Many smartphone fitness apps and fitness watches feature GPS trackers that can record distance traveled, allowing you to use this data in conjunction with your stopwatch to determine your horse’s speed. If you have access to your own field or gallops, using a measuring wheel to mark out distances for your canter sets can help you learn optimum speeds.
Sample Interval Plans
Set One:
- Fifteen minutes walk (minimum)
- Three to five minutes trot
- One minute walk
- Two minutes canter
- One minute walk
- Two minutes canter
- One minute walk
- Two minutes canter
- Ten minutes cool-off in walk (minimum)
Details: Begin with a steady canter pace, approximately 435mpm, or the speed suitable for the cross-country phase of a BE80(T) event. Follow this set for three weeks, gradually increasing the challenge by incorporating more hills if feasible.
Following this initial phase, you can advance to a more intense plan, such as Set Two, based on your horse’s progress.
Set Two:
- Fifteen minutes walk (minimum)
- Three to five minutes trot
- Two minutes canter
- One minute walk
- Three minutes canter
- One minute walk
- Three minutes canter
- One minute walk
- Three minutes canter
- One minute walk
- Three minutes trot
- Ten minutes cool-off in walk (minimum)
The Cool-Down
Upon completion of your IT session, it is essential to allow your horse a steady cool-down period. This is naturally incorporated if you are hacking home. However, if training was conducted in an arena, allow your horse to walk on a long rein for at least 10 minutes to conclude the session.
Variety is Key
There are no rigid guidelines for IT; once you are confident your horse can handle the demands, vary the intensity by altering speeds. Introduce two steady canters interspersed with two at a faster pace. You might aim for BE90 pace (450mpm), or if your horse has comfortably managed an IT program, progress to BE100 pace (475mpm). Alternatively, if time is limited, shorten the sessions by reducing the number of canter bouts and incorporating slower trotting intervals between them instead of walking.
Engaging in your horse’s fitness development is a challenging yet ultimately rewarding endeavor. Seize the opportunity to fully enjoy your time with your horse during any IT session. Cruising along at speed should be an enjoyable experience for both of you and provides a wonderful escape from everyday stresses and pressures.
