New Horse; Includes discussion of Conditioning

[MuleRyder]

@jenjudkins 23538 wrote:

BTW, before and after photos for Reno. These photos were taken about 15 months apart.

Those pics are worth a 1000 words Jen- nice job-good looking horse

[Big Horses]

I like him too, Jen!! We’ve got one here that would be a nice match to him.
John

[Mark Cowdrey]

For those who use sleds or weighted boats and a routine for physical conditioning, what might a conditioning schedule look like? I think I recall that human weight lifters do better if they don’t lift every day (see Townie by Andre’ Dubus III, great memoir). Do you switch up days of aerobic and anaerobic exercise, do both on the same day, how often, or what? Just trying to get an idea of what to shoot for if I had nothing else to do.
Any thoughts on how feed (what, how much, when) works into the equation would also be helpful. I realise that is a whole other can of worms.
Thanks,
Mark

[carl ny]

JMHO; Do both, aerobic one day, anaerobic the next,and then a day off. just as an example. When my son was in 4-H he did barrels and poles.his exercise program was; running patterns in the ring one day, a good long trail ride the next(and I don’t mean on a groomed trail),then a day off,and start all over the next day. the horse was in excellent condition, he could race him all day at a competition and he didn’t even breath hard.

As for sled or log,depends.If you are conditioning just the body,use the sled. I you are conditioning the mind and body,use the log. You can use the sled and treat it like a log,hook,unhook,positioning and all that stuff.Or,you can use the log and actually get a little work done while your at it.

Like I said at the beginning, JMHO.

carl ny

[Andy Carson]

@Mark Cowdrey 36580 wrote:

For those who use sleds or weighted boats and a routine for physical conditioning, what might a conditioning schedule look like? I think I recall that human weight lifters do better if they don’t lift every day (see Townie by Andre’ Dubus III, great memoir). Do you switch up days of aerobic and anaerobic exercise, do both on the same day, how often, or what? Just trying to get an idea of what to shoot for if I had nothing else to do.
Any thoughts on how feed (what, how much, when) works into the equation would also be helpful. I realise that is a whole other can of worms.
Thanks,
Mark

I like a sled because it is so easy to increase the weight slightly as the animals(s) gain condition gradually. This is hard to do unless you have a graduated set of logs differing from each other by, say, 100 lbs. That’s alot of logs…

When I was doing this, a heavy day consisted of maybe a dozen of so shorter pulls in the range of ~100 yards. I liked to wait until the heavy breathing was over before asking to pull again. The whole workout didn’t take very long, and the weight has to be substantial to challenge them over this short amount of time. Concrete blocks or some other type of weight is nice for this work, because (at least in my experience) they move up in the weight they can pull this way very fast. Especially at the beginning, you might be adding 100 lbs more every time you head out. The goal was to make it hard enough that my horse would not be able to do another full pull if I asked for it, but to never ask for that last pull. The horse is truly tired the next day, so the next day was either a long pull or a rest day.

On long pull days, I rode on the sled with a few blocks and we headed out cross country on some wide trails. I did this partly because I think it is nice to get the horse a chance of scenery and partly because I get bored going in circles with light weight. The goal was to pull for a couple hours or more at a walk with few while taking as few of breaks as possible. I did break at the top of hills, though. Obviously, this job required a much lighter weight. Weight gains for this type of work were also quite slow and gradual. It might take weeks of consistant work to add 100 lbs to this type of workout. The horse is also not nearly as tired the next day, so you can do a heavy day or another long pull day.

Of the two, the long pull days are probably more useful, as they give you more time behind the reins and help the horse relax while working. I think the heavy days are good too, though, because I think they teach the horse what a really heavy load feels like and lets it know that it can pull something really heavy.

I hope this helps, Mark, and is what you were asking for

[carl ny]

That’s a very good routine,short hard work one day,long easier work the next.
Builds muscle and stamina.

carl ny

[Mark Cowdrey]

Andy,
Yes, that is a good outline, generally what I expected but nice to have a few specifics. Sounds generally quite similar to the outline Carl laid out.
Thanks to both of you.
Mark

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