Road to the Tevis Cup Post # 17: Return-to-conditioning exercise

After a forced six-week lay-off due to smoke from wildfires, Fantazia is fat and full of energy. I am dying to get back on our steep, challenging trails. However, Fantazia needs gradual return-to-conditioning exercise that won’t compromise her lungs. Although there is little research on the subject, experts advise waiting at least two weeks, and preferably 4-6, after smoke inhalation or prolonged exposure to AQIs over 300. (see my post on (not) riding in smoke from wildfires).

That is, we should wait two weeks after the AQI is back below 150. October 11th was the first day it did not get above 150. That was after weeks of hazardous air (AQI > 300… in our case, we had weeks of AQIs > 500).

Fantazia our first day back in the saddle *after six weeks off*. She was good, if a bit of a spook-monster.

It’s now been nearly three weeks. I don’t think it’s a good idea to tackle the hills–Fantazia’s lungs would have to work hard even at a walk. Last week we started walking in the arena, up and down the driveway, and through (fairly) flat pastures. The first day we trotted, I kept it to five minutes each way in the arena, with five minutes of walking in between.

At that pace, conditioning would be very slow indeed!

We’re already missing the Sesenta Años Pioneer ride in Santa Ynez. I had been planning to ride in it (provided it wasn’t cancelled due to COVID-19), but it’s in two weeks. Not cancelled, but no fit horse either. I would like to ride in the Coso Junction ride, December 10-12. Six weeks. Will she be ready? I don’t know. Not if I don’t find a way to condition her as soon as possible, without damaging her lungs.

After some thought, I decided upon a new (to me anyway) return-to-conditioning exercise that should be easier on her lungs. I based it on an exercise my ju-jitsu sensei used to have us do. I still do it, in modified form. It consists of doing 55 push-ups and sit-ups, but not all together. Rather, you do 10 push-ups, jog in place (in the dojo, we jogged to the other side), 10 sit-ups, jog, 9 push-ups, jog, 9 sit-ups… and so on. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 summed = 55.

Fantazia’s Return-to-conditioning exercise

Our new return-to-conditioning exercise works similarly. (Note that I first walked for nearly 20 minutes in a variation on one of my favorite warm-up exercises).

Trot to the left 5 minutes
Stop, stand 30 seconds, back, reverse (turn on the haunches left) walk 90 seconds.
- take more time if needed to return horse to close to resting state
Trot to the right 5 minutes.
Stop, stand one minute. Back, reverse (turn on the haunches right), walk two minutes.
- Take more time if needed to return horse to close to resting state
Trot to the left 4 minutes.
Stop, stand 30 seconds, back, reverse (turn on the haunches left) walk 90 seconds.
Trot to the right 4 minutes.
Stop, stand one minute. Back, reverse (turn on the haunches right), walk two minutes.
Trot to the left 3 minutes.
Stop, stand 30 seconds. Back, reverse (turn on the haunches left) walk 90 seconds.
Trot to the right 3 minutes.
Stop, stand one minute. Back, reverse (turn on the haunches right), walk two minutes.
Trot to the left 2 minutes.
Stop, stand 30 seconds. Back, reverse (turn on the haunches left) walk 90 seconds.
Trot to the right 2 minutes.
Stop, stand 30 seconds. Back, reverse (turn on the haunches right), walk 90 seconds. She’s really feeling more energetic, hence less rest.
Trot to the left 1 minute.
Stop, stand 30 seconds. Back, reverse (turn on the haunches left) walk 30 seconds.
Trot to the right 1 minute.

Total time trotting: 15 minutes each way (30 minutes total). Our total walking time for the ride was 40 minutes, which included the aforementioned warm-up and riding down the driveway to pick up the mail afterwards.

Scaling up

Fantazia was–not surprisingly–not at all tired by this. Importantly, her respiration and heart rate hardly changed. Tomorrow, we will start with 5 and a half minutes and work down. I will add half a minute (each way) every 3-4 days. Eventually, I will add cantering, starting at three minutes and working down. We will also take it out on the road, once I can trust Fantazia not to get very excited or we are far enough away from hazardous AQIs that it doesn’t matter if she uses her lungs.

Benefits of this return-to-conditioning exercise

Fantazia after our return-to-conditioning exercise! — Fantazia after our return-to-conditioning exercise, day 1.

The horse will feel good all the up to the end

Horses can tell time. And they can count. If you regularly time your trotting or cantering–or do laps of the arena–they will learn when they get to stop. If you trot for five minutes twice, the next time you trot, your horse will want to stop–or come to a screeching halt–when five minutes is up.

On a lazy day, your horse will start slowing down well before the expected time is up. But not usually a full minute (or lap) before… so decreasing the time by a minute will ensure energy until the end. In fact, they will probably get more energetic as you get close to one minute. Fantazia became notably watchier and spookier when we were down to two minutes–a sign she was feeling good!

Of course, some people won’t like that added energy. But for my purposes, it’s a sign that I am not making possibly damaged lungs work too much.

Safer return-to-conditioning

The gradual scaling-back of time moving makes the exercise less physically stressful. Fantazia was relatively fit before the fires, so she is presumably more than capable of trotting 15-30 minutes straight. But we don’t know what her lungs look like after weeks of breathing bad air. Allowing her to rest between trotting segments ensures she’s not breathing hard.

This would also be true for other physical stress. Most injuries happen when horses are tired. If you don’t give them a chance to become tired, you are minimizing risk.

Note that interval training does essentially the same thing. I am a proponent of interval training for both people and horses. The general idea is to intersperse high intensity exercise with periods of rest that allow the horse to recover to near (but not full) resting heart rate. (There’s a lot more to it, but that would be for another post.)

Interval training is the best way to increase speed. It’s also a good way to injure your horse if you haven’t already put in the long slow distance. It wouldn’t work for my current purposes, because I want to avoid high intensity work that would mean aerobic stress. To increase her fitness, I will absolutely have to make her lungs work, but that will have to wait a few weeks.

For now, I just want to start riding and turning fat into muscle. Slowly. Without risk of injury. Without getting bored silly.