Horse Fittening

[littlehorse]

Does anyone know how you tell when your horse is fit enough for XC. I have limted accesss to hacking and I have been doing laps of a 60x40 arena and timing it. Will this be sufficient fitness as we ll as walk and trot hacking to do a small Xc event?

[ilovecandy]

I would say probably not. You would need to do a little regular galloping as this is aerobic activity - I would imagine that the speed you can get up in a school. would be largely anaerobic. Also going as speed around and around a school is probably not great for your horses legs as the corners would be very tight! Have you been doing any jumping? How big is the XC course you ll be going round and how far? Also the breed of your horse will be a factor - if he's quite blood then he'll cope better than a cob type who would need to be fitter.

[Absolute_shambles]

I really think you should try and get out and do some roadwork and build his fitness up in a variety of ways, XC is demanding and you never know what damage you might do with the limited fittening you can do in an arena. It might not be all round training you see.

[Snipper]

HIll work is important for fittening too.