Training Day 3. Hill Work Continues

Blaze would rather lie in today instead of train!

   With the ground being SO wet and slippy at the moment we are really limited to what we can do in training. Once the ground hardens up then we can create a proper training regime which will included schooling and jumping sessions as well as one of my favourite techniques for helping to improve a quick recovery rate; You get your horse to exert themselves and then rest for the same period of time, exert themselves, then rest, making sure the time taken to do both is equal. To do this I ask Blaze to canter up a really steep slope and then walk back down it, canter up then walk back down. It sounds easy but it is really tough and 15 minuets of this is all we need once, maybe twice a week! Its a brilliant and super effective training technique, so much so that I saw it being used to train race horses on Kim Baileys racing yard!
   Until then we're making do with what we've got which in all honesty is still pretty amazing, Haughwoods IS the ponies back garden! So we're continuing with hill work at the moment. Nothing strenuous still as im still testing boundaries but we're finding the steepest longest slopes we can and Blaze is driving us up them.

What we have to climb and more

   Today (once she actually decided to stop snoozing and get up!) we focused less on gradient and more on distance. The road that leads from the entrance to our land and Haughwoods picnic area is 90% up hill, some parts steeper than others but it is a very long climb. Back in our competitive days Blaze could trot all the way up it, so im using that as a way to further assess her fitness and thats a gaol we will be aiming for as training progresses. For today i just asked her to walk up it, but power walk, asking that she really engages that big engine she has behind. She made it to the top with out any huffing or puffing! Next time ill be asking for a more active walk and them for her trot short sections, building it up very slowly. Slowly is the key here, no need to rush things, its amazing how fit just walking up hills can make your horse, being able to take it up a gear will just come naturally.

What we've climbed, its steeper round the corner

"Slow and right beats fast and wrong"-Pat Parelli

Once in the woods we were treated to some really pretty scenery as it was lightly snowing so everything was dusted in white. What goes up must come down so the next part of the ride was all downhill. This will work to our advantage, once her fitness improves and she can trot all the way up the hill the downward part will allow her the chance to rest and for her heart rate to go down, ready for when we hit the next uphill part which ill ask her to trot up (just like what we would do on an endurance ride)

Pretty in the woods

   By the time we got to the next uphill part Blaze was striding out, enthusiastic (I swear she knows when we're about to embark upwards!) waiting for me to give her the green light to take it up a gear. We trotted all the way up the hill, she needed a little encouragement nearer the top but we got there. It was a great work out as she was blowing out a lot, but continued to walk on nicely, after all, on a ride the only opportunity she'll get to re cooperate is during the walk, we dont stop for a breather, we're always on the move!

It just keeps going!

   I feel asking her to trot up this hill is acceptable in these early days. It is a slightly long one, but levels out half way so she gets a bit of a rest and she is able to trot and canter up this if she is feeling particularly fizzy regardless of her fitness so I know that asking her to do this isnt over exerting her.
   Its all about feel, feeling how much is too much and how much is just right, at the moment walking up steep slopes, and trotting up the odd one thats more of a gentle gradient is enough, she always lets me know when she is capable of more- thats how we managed to achieve so much whilst she was recovering from injury, she let me know in her own way that she could do a little more.

 
   Another good day training. Blaze is doing great and at the moment hill work is enough.