Adapting conditioning and training to fit a specific horse is almost always necessary. There is no true one size fits all when it comes to horses. It’s especially true when you are also dealing with special circumstances in the rest of life. Job, family, health, weather, pandemics… they all play havoc with whatever “ideal” conditioning and training regime you devise. All have forced me to adjust my horses’ training and conditioning plans constantly over the last two years. Now, however, it’s mainly my horse–Jazz–who is demanding different treatment. My training ground–the foothills of the Sierra Nevada–and the summer heat also play a part.
Jump to:
Jazz’s conditioning needs
The terrain: hills and more hills
My goals for Jazz, at present
Jazz’s conditioning needs
Jazz has a lot of natural talent. I haven’t taken his pulse properly with a stethoscope, but I guesstimated his resting rate at around 38 bpm when I got him, out of condition and in a new place. His lungs are massive, his trot is amazing, and his lope/canter ground-covering. He is 100% sound–he cruises down hills too speedily for my taste if I let him. I don’t! It’s not that he’s being naughty, he just believes in letting gravity carry him. He sweats perfectly, not too much, not too little, but just right for optimal cooling.
Above: Jazz breathing hard after an series of steep grades. I made him stop so I could record this video. He had been walking steadily up.
It’s only now that I am realizing how compromised Fantazia was from the day I brought her home. Her stoicism and love of the trail covered up for a lot of issues! One of the main ones, from the beginning, I now believe, was insufficient sweating. I am taking Jazz up the same hills Fantazia and I rode up, and where Fantazia would need to stop, Jazz simply walks steadily up. Despite having none of her experience. Looking back (and at videos), I realize that Fantazia was not sweating properly that first summer. Jazz gets a beautifully even body-wide sweat going on right away.
So far, we’re only walking up hills. I did the same thing with Fantazia and Beroni, but with Jazz I’ve changed my method.
My usual building routine
To increase condition, you have to add either distance or speed. (True for humans and horses!) Which one you increase depends on your goals and where the horse is in its training regime. Ever since I trained racehorses, I’ve increased the load to move from one plateau (distance 1 or D1 at average speed 1 or S1) to another in the following way.
- Decrease distance and increase (average) speed to S2.
- Increasing speed for speed-focused events involves interval training and many different speed distances, but I don’t do that for endurance as a rule.
- For endurance I just aim to increase the average speed and falling back to no more than 75% of D1. The exact decrease in distance depends on the trail.
- Increase distance at S2 until horse can do D1 at S2 comfortably.
- Increase distance to D2 at S1.
- Build speed at D2 to S2.
- Decrease distance and increase (average) speed to S3…
And so forth. With endurance, I haven’t really tried to increase speed much. Fantazia was a speed demon once she felt fit enough. I was always holding her back, and could trust her not to outdo it at home. (Not at rides. I always held her back at rides, except on hot afternoons when she overheated.)
In fact, with Jazz, I am focusing even less on speed.
Adapting conditioning and training to fit Jazz’s current needs
Because of Jazz’s natural ability, I am more hesitant than usual to increase speed. It’s important to remember that it is far easier to ruin a talented, athletic horse than a slower, weaker, less talented one. This is mainly because it’s faster and easier to condition the cardiovascular system than bones, tendons, and ligaments.
With Jazz, I am focusing on increasing distance rather than speed. We’re walking 90% of the time when we’re on the trail. The only time I’ve let him trot, we did less than three miles and only 853′ total elevation gain. Less than 20% of that was trotting. Mostly, we just walk up steep hills. I use the arena for trotting and cantering/loping.
Fortunately, we’ve got lots of steep hills. In the picture below you can see one of our steepest climbs. It goes on another 1500′ after the top, to the right in the photo.
The terrain: hills and more hills
Because of the very hilly nature of my training ground (see my post on riding hills), I almost always train slowly compared with many riders. It never made Fantazia slow on the flat, so I am not worried about needing to trot fast to condition Jazz. We live in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills. It’s all steep and rocky.
See my posts on Prequisites for riding the Sierra Nevada and How to calculate the grade of hills.
Yesterday Jazz completed his longest ride yet, entirely at the walk. We climbed from 793′ to 2,721′ in one hour, 17 minutes and 3.66 miles. Total elevation gain was 2,585′ for the entire 8.35 miles (2:41 moving time, 2:55 total).
Of course, we also have to go down hills. I lead Jazz down some of the steepest parts, but frankly, that’s not always a good idea. He’s not good at respecting my bubble, and I can (and do) slip easily on the hard-packed dirt.
Jazz walks down most hills fast. (See this video!) He doesn’t try to trot. He just lets gravity hurry him along. It can be a bit unnerving, but it’s a lot more fun to ride than Fantazia’s careful snail pace. On very steep hills, Jazz tries to go back and forth, which is the intelligent way to go down. However, it makes leading him very difficult. He hasn’t yet learned the trick of sitting down and sliding in soft dirt.
Going downhill is also physically challenging. If you doubt it, go walk down some steep hills. My boyfriend and I walk all these trails as well, and I find going down much more difficult. It’s also hard for horses. It forces them to collect and use a lot of muscle power. It’s hard on joints. At some point I want to blog about going downhill. I have some questions for the experts first though.
My goals for Jazz, at present
Originally, I had planned to have Jazz doing my smaller, 5-mile loop at a trot by August. Now I am aiming for a longer, slower ride that goes up and around the nearest peak by mid-August. Depending on how I go, it’s 10.5-12 miles and 3,000′-4,500′ total elevation gain. I’ll plan to do the short path, around 10.5 miles and 3,200′ total ascent.
If he can do that, he can easily do an LD by fall. I’m tentatively aiming for the Quicksilver Fall Classic on October 1st. Depending on how he does that, we’ll aim for Sesenta Anos and do either back to back LDs or possibly a 50. After that, Cayuse, Having almost frozen to death at this beautiful ride last year with Fantazia, I am looking forward to going back!
Long term? Tevis Cup 2024. Unless things go sideways, Jazz should be able to do that easily. But of course, that might change. I’ll be adapting conditioning and training as well as ride plans according to Jazz’s progress and Real Life.