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The Importance of Fitness

Fitness in the Equine Athlete.

Currently competition season is upon us in the performance horse world, the racing spring carnival is well underway also. We are seeing more and more subtle lameness issues occurring in our performance horses that we have not previously been seeing. A lot of the history that we see is that horses have had very little work due to the weather in Victoria, and with the weather attempting to improve more and more people are increasing the work load suddenly as the competitions suddenly come upon us.

We are seeing a lot of back soreness, that we feel is due to weakness. We remind people that we have to think about basic fitness in the equine athlete, remembering that some exercises can be very stressful on the horse i.e. lateral work, shoulder in, flying changes, and jumping. So we need to consider is the horse physically strong enough yet to cope with this work load. Basic fitness is often an area we under estimate along with muscle fitness.

The soreness seen is often subtle sacro-iliac soreness, along with tension of the back muscles. Many horses have been showing resistance to going forward combined with sensitivity to palpation of the area.

What can be done to prevent this?

We recommend that work is slowly increased, which is often hard as horses have had a lot of time off and feel fresh and keen for the work. Slowly add all the exercises in. It will probably take about 4-6 weeks before lateral work can be introduced. Aim to start building fitness so the horse is strong enough and fit enough to cope with 30 mins work before starting the lateral work.  When introducing anything only ask for a little a couple of times a week and build this up. Continue to work on aerobic fitness at the same time.

This is also a good time of year to check the saddle fit as often the horse may have changed shape and mild changes can add pressure along the spine.

Well this is enough for now and we hope people continue to enjoy their horses and slowly build on the fitness of their equine athlete.