# Think more preparation needed. :( advise for next season?



## Starbucks (23 November 2010)

My lovely horse has done a mild check ligament injury on his third day with the Meynell and SS.  Think he's going to be fine, but won't hunt him again this season.

He has hunted a lot with Rockwood Harriers with similar fitness/preparation but I'm thinking bigger jumping, stickier ground and/or slightly faster pack has taken it's toll on him, so I want him super fit and as well prepared as possible for next season.

He had done a fair amount of fast work and was fit before his injury, but I don't do loads of roadwork - is that the key?

What kind of work load do your horses have leading up to/during hunting?

Thanks for any advice.


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## pipsqueek (23 November 2010)

Hmm a favourite one round here is the 'bacon butty ride' i.e slow hack (armed with hipflasks of home-brewed concoction) hacking to fishing lake at Barlow where they have great little cafe.  Good for getting horses fit, it stars off civilised and ends up rather the opposite get your trailer hitched up


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## Starbucks (23 November 2010)

Thanks!!  I think this maybe my problem, I'm good at doing lots of galloping around but not very good at doing the long, slow roadwork type rides!

Mum is moving down with us this week so I'm gonna get her packed off for a day with you guys.


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## pipsqueek (23 November 2010)

About time you slowed down Looking forward to seeing u out with hphx


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## joe_carby (24 November 2010)

Im another 1 for road work all ive done with mine is hack out on the roads and do hill work. 

Concussion introduced slowly is a good thing as (going in to geeky mode) when the cells get damaged by concussion when the repair themselves they repair them selves stronger. So if you do alot without really hammering them up and down the roads at the begininning it will cause tiny tears but this is a good thing because its the repair process that strengthens them. Its the same with muscle growth and tonus.


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## Amymay (24 November 2010)

Even the fittest horse can bugger a tendon or ligament out hunting - so I wouldn't beat yourself up too much about it.


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## tootsietoo (24 November 2010)

That's interesting Joe.  Is that from a vet?  Or have you read some research on it?  I'd be interested to have a reference if it is.  Cos I do worry about too much road work (it's about all I can do round here), so it would make me feel better to know there's actually some hard evidence that it is a good thing!

And as Amymay said, it may be nothing to do with your preparation, so don't beat yourself up.  Are the Meynell going to be nice and give you some of your sub back??


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## Starbucks (24 November 2010)

tootsietoo said:



			That's interesting Joe.  Is that from a vet?  Or have you read some research on it?  I'd be interested to have a reference if it is.  Cos I do worry about too much road work (it's about all I can do round here), so it would make me feel better to know there's actually some hard evidence that it is a good thing!

And as Amymay said, it may be nothing to do with your preparation, so don't beat yourself up.  Are the Meynell going to be nice and give you some of your sub back??
		
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Ive dropped down to a 6 day sub so Ive got 3 days hunting and a days gate shutting left to do on my mums horse.

Maybe just one of those things but want to be able to think it future that Ive done everything I can.


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## rosie fronfelen (24 November 2010)

Starbucks said:



			My lovely horse has done a mild check ligament injury on his third day with the Meynell and SS.  Think he's going to be fine, but won't hunt him again this season.

He has hunted a lot with Rockwood Harriers with similar fitness/preparation but I'm thinking bigger jumping, stickier ground and/or slightly faster pack has taken it's toll on him, so I want him super fit and as well prepared as possible for next season.

He had done a fair amount of fast work and was fit before his injury, but I don't do loads of roadwork - is that the key?

What kind of work load do your horses have leading up to/during hunting?

Thanks for any advice.
		
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plenty of road walking to start with building up to slow trotting, also plenty of hill work both on roads and off- hardens up the legs. We are blessed with open hills on our doorstep so getting the horse fit is not a problem- this is our method anyway,time is the thing- plenty of it!


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## rosie fronfelen (24 November 2010)

tootsietoo said:



			That's interesting Joe.  Is that from a vet?  Or have you read some research on it?  I'd be interested to have a reference if it is.  Cos I do worry about too much road work (it's about all I can do round here), so it would make me feel better to know there's actually some hard evidence that it is a good thing!

And as Amymay said, it may be nothing to do with your preparation, so don't beat yourself up.  Are the Meynell going to be nice and give you some of your sub back??
		
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Regarding trotting on the road,when i was with the guards in Leicestshire to get the hunters fit we trotted for miles, up hill and down to no detriment to the horses legs and i wiould never argue with the staff sergent, and i am talking of a couple of dozen horses at a time.


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## tootsietoo (24 November 2010)

All sounds good!  So jealous of your hills Rosie.  They make such a difference, you can get a lot more work in in a shorter time with a good hill or two, can't you!


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## CrazyMare (24 November 2010)

My mare has been off work May through to end of September, and has been back in work 8 weeks now. We are just about to start doing a little jumping again.

I don't canter/gallop her that much as she is too OTT, but have just notice this week how fit she has gotten, very quickly. I can only attribute that to the miles of walking/trotting she does on roads/hills/arena. I would say she will be ready for a quiet days hunting (2-3hours) just before Christmas, with more of the same work, and maybe a day or two on the gallops.

I really think the long, slow, steady work is the key.


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## millitiger (24 November 2010)

yep, Joe is right- slow, steady roadwork causes microtears to tendons and muscles which make them stronger.

you can google it quite easily to get references 

Mine always do loads and loads of slow roadwork, very rarely do any fast work at all.


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## tootsietoo (24 November 2010)

I will google later millitiger and see what I can find.  thanks.


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## JenHunt (24 November 2010)

it was an old horseman's trick to do miles of roadwork and more recent research has justified the thinking behind it. We always do many many miles of roadwork all year, but especially in the run up to hunting. It paid off today when I had a 2 mile trot to the meet as I was running late!


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## Darkly_Dreaming_Dex (24 November 2010)

Vet said to me that his opinion why so many horses do "a leg" these days is lack of roadwork and too much work on a surface. We go up the gallops at least once a week and do roadwork 4 times a week - have a lovely long hill to trot up  My older cob did his check ligament quite badly in 2007. He had 6 months in the field followed by 3 months of roadwork only. He is now hunting/jumping etc and the leg *crosses fingers* hasnt flared up once


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## Tharg (25 November 2010)

So would slow road work be a good walk or a slow trot?


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## JenHunt (25 November 2010)

either or both, even a good active trot is no bad thing - I don't mean the stomping trot you'd do out hunting, but a good swinging trot all the same.


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## joe_carby (25 November 2010)

tootsietoo said:



			That's interesting Joe.  Is that from a vet?  Or have you read some research on it?  I'd be interested to have a reference if it is.  Cos I do worry about too much road work (it's about all I can do round here), so it would make me feel better to know there's actually some hard evidence that it is a good thing!

And as Amymay said, it may be nothing to do with your preparation, so don't beat yourself up.  Are the Meynell going to be nice and give you some of your sub back??
		
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Im training yo be an equine physio so i have to do alot of studying to do with muscle, tendon and ligament damage and repair. 

All i do in the run up to hunting is hack as boring as i find it the more the better and you cant involve too many hills starting off steady walk asking them to move on abit then once they can stride out and not be blowing at the top thats when you can move up a gear and trot. 

The more i study the more i realise the good it does. my current routine is for my horse which whips in twice a week is as follows

monday-day off
tuesday 45min hack half trotting half walking making him work out of his back end and in self carriage.
wednesday -hunting
thursday- steady hack check hes happy comfortable sound the same hack but alot slower.
friday -same as tuesday althought dont make him work quite as hard.
saturday - hunting
sunday -same as thursday

monday is the only day im not hunting either the next day or the day before and i always like to ride the day before and after hunting to make sure my horse is feeling well and happy.

alot of people give the day off after a show or hunting but if they have tweaked something its another day where its gone un-noticed and i only have 1 horse and want him to last so its important to me to spot anything before its started.


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## JenHunt (25 November 2010)

joe_carby said:



			alot of people give the day off after a show or hunting but if they have tweaked something its another day where its gone un-noticed and i only have 1 horse and want him to last so its important to me to spot anything before its started.
		
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ditto this, I've always hacked out the day after hunting, but I like to 
a) take the opportunity to ride a clean horse from the stable (as I never do otherwise!) and 
b) give him the chance to tell me he's sore under saddle if he is, even if he appears sound in hand. IME they're more likely to have tweaked something in the back than legs if you've been jumping out hunting from sticky ground, or generally stiffened up and got a tad cold when you've been lined out or something.
c) gives me a chance to check I'm not sore either!


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## spotty_pony (26 November 2010)

I am taking my boy out on one more Hunt Ride this weekend and then next weekend will be our first meet of the season. I've been getting his 'hunting fit' since August! He was already reasonably fit anyway as we regularly do did lots of long and steady hacks (sometimes up to three and a half hours!) which includs hill work, road work and canter work in the fields. I increased the amount of fast work we did out hacking gradually. We can now canter for about a mile without getting tired and we did a 25 mile hack last month and we could easily have gone further! I took him cubbing in September as this was a good indication of how fit he was and he coped very well, and was still full of energy after three hours! It also gave us a bit of jumping practise. I went on a Hunt Ride in October which was fantastic fun and included lots of long, fast canters and we jumped a variety of hunt jumps. I am taking him to another Hunt Ride this weekend to give him a good run out in a group and hopefully another good jumping practise before our first meet next weekend. I have no doubt that he is more than fit enough as I have been preparing well in advance.


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## RunToEarth (27 November 2010)

To be honest, you can have the world's fittest endurance horse, it isn't going to make a hunter. The difference I have found with the RH Sarah is that you always have plenty of stops, and quite a bit of trotting and road work, and nothing seems to need to run for that long. 
Whereas (and I'm guessing you've found the same?) there seems to be a lot bigger country where I am now, a lot bigger fences, not as many stops, and cover miles and miles of fastwork. 
I wouldn't say you were doing anything wrong, not everyone who hunts does roadwork, and by the sounds of things you got him pretty fit, maybe it was just one of those things. Remember Russel? He used to hunt full days and leave his chestnut horse to "keep itself fit" in the field between days!


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## joe_carby (27 November 2010)

he still does haha


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## RunToEarth (27 November 2010)

Always used to make me laugh, he once gave me a lift to the fountain meet, I mentioned on the way there that I had only ridden Oshk 4times that week and not done a great amount of fast work so might just do half a day, Russ just replied "Jonty hasn't been ridden for 2weeks, but he runs about the field all day long, and I'm staying until it's dark!"
Did you get out today? We were frozen up!


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## spotty_pony (28 November 2010)

Who is Russell? I think I might know him.


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## joe_carby (28 November 2010)

no we were meant to be at foxhouse so wasnt ever going to be much chance of it been soft enoug up there i went and had a day with the beagles.


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## pipsqueek (28 November 2010)

Remember Russel? He used to hunt full days and leave his chestnut horse to "keep itself fit" in the field between days![/QUOTE]  oops well that just about sums up Fable's fitness regime!  Not ideal I know but unavoidable due to being at work all week/ dark when i'm finished & no school etc.  Get her properly fit before the start of the season tho and seems to tick over hunting saturdays and exercising herself out in the field inbetween... out 10hr per day, and they do run around...quite a bit..!  Well she is 20 in April and fit as a fiddle, have done 15 seasons on her, she is the horse in my sig, pics taken end of last season!


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## RunToEarth (29 November 2010)

I doubt it sj_superstars, aren't you east midlands? 
Joe- I was home this weekend it was very hard ground- probably best you didn't go!


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