12/25/2025
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*** HORSE FITNESS ***
As with a lot of things in life, this should be common sense, but sadly isn’t.
As we head into the depths of winter, with daylight at a premium and the weather often not conducive to riding, I wanted to remind everyone that riding your horse or pony once or twice a week, does not mean he is fit enough to go out galloping and jumping for 3 hours, compete in 5 jumping classes at the local show, or do two lessons a day at a camp. It also takes time to build up fitness; galloping around a field every day in the week leading up to the event/show/camp will not mean your horse is suddenly fit. I appreciate this sounds patronising, but it’s something I see with my own eyes.
A horse doesn’t need riding every day to be fit enough to jump a couple of rounds, but he/she does need riding regularly (4-5 times a week) at a relevant intensity. Again, this doesn’t need to be for hours, but if you are going to go XC, or want to jump a couple of rounds of SJ, then your horse needs both cardiovascular fitness as well as strength and conditioning (muscle). For the lower levels, you can achieve this without access to gallops, as you can do canter work in an arena if it’s big enough. If you don’t have an arena, then hiring a big one to do some canter/fast work in once a week will be sufficient for the lower levels. I do interval training in my arena with my horses (25x55m). Granted, the canter speed is slow, but it’s improving their cardiovascular fitness, and they are always puffing well at the end of a 4 minute canter. Ensure your arena surface isn’t too deep if you do opt to do some canter work in an arena.
Hill work is the ideal way to improve your horse’s fitness without putting a lot of pressure/stress on joints, so I used to use steep hills when getting horses fit for the higher levels; jogging steadily up a steep hill is a brilliant exercise for fitness, but ensure the horse isn’t just towing you up on their forehand. If you aren’t sure if your horse is on the forehand or not, then do some trot-walk-trot transitions up a hill, as that will make him sit back and use his back end.
One of the many reasons that your horse will not be fit enough for any kind of jumping or prolonged exercise if not ridden during the week, is the strength of their back to carry the rider and saddle. I won’t turn this into a rider weight post, but the combined weight of a saddle and rider is never insignificant to a horse or pony, and they need regular training with that weight on their backs to preserve the correct muscle to be able to then carry that weight over jumps, or for prolonged periods out hacking. Kissing spines can nearly always be managed conservatively through correct back muscle, which involves the horse working correctly with the weight he is expected to carry for the more strenuous days.
Your horse will not maintain riding fitness in any way, shape or form because he “often canters around his field”! Yes, I’ve honestly heard that said.
To conclude, as this post wasn’t going to be an instruction on HOW to get a horse fit (!); riding a horse once or twice a week does not mean he is fit enough to go and have two lessons a day at a camp/jump in 3 classes at the local show/do any cross country. Fitness is a slow process and takes time, so if you’re wanting to do any of those activities over the summer, now is the time to start!
Feel free to share, but not to copy and paste as your own.
For those not interested in my waffle, photo is of Johnnie en route to a foot perfect double clear at Keysoe 3* 2021.
