# Riding to hard? Unsoclicited advice thinks so



## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

Well, I'm probably not a good one to ask because I've been known to ride for 5+ hours on the trail, several times a week. Of course that's mostly at a walk, but we do canter and trot on occasion. So 40 minutes, even with a good amount of cantering, doesn't sound like a long ride to me. 

But, I do remember reading in a magazine (I believe the article was by Clinton Anderson) about slowing your horse's canter, and he said to do what you are doing- canter until they want to slow on their own, then make them canter some more. :lol: Basically, when you ask for a canter, the horse should be wondering if he is going to canter for 5 minutes or all day, so he will relax and conserve his energy. So I think you are doing right in the concept of cantering until the horse is willing to slow down. I think_ lack_ of cantering and riding the brakes is what makes a horse excitable at the canter.


----------



## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

Everyone has their own opinions. Some may say your method for slowing her is incorrect, and some may agree. The bottom line here though I think is - is it too much work?

Depending on her fitness, no. As long as you've had a proper warm up and cool down, the horse should be fine. My aunt always said a solid 10 minutes of walking and stretching, another five of some trot and after that (15 minutes) your horse is pretty much warmed up to work as hard as you need them to. 10-15 minutes is a usual rule of thumb for cool down as well.

Your routine essentially sounds the exact same as what I do with my 3 and 1/2 year old filly, with possibly less canter work. She's usually ridden for 45-60 minutes and almost all of it is trotting, with quite a lot of canter transitions. She's usually soaked and puffing by the end. This is my routine for bringing her INTO fitness, a routine I think most horses at reasonable fitness can endure.

Your horse will usually tell you when enough is enough and it certainly doesn't sound like enough yet.


----------



## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

I would think it ultimately depends on how fit your horse is. Some horse's cannot trot for 15 minutes without breaking a sweat. Others can come back from a vigorous 2 hour trail ride completely dry. Only you can guage if your horse is overworked. My suggestion would be to monitor her resting heart rate before you ride. After you work her, monitor it again immediately after you work her. Her heart rate should return to her before workout rate within 2 minutes of stopping work. If she takes longer, she is not ready to be worked that long and may be prone to injuring herself. Nothing's wrong with a wet saddle pad and compliant horse. Checking her return to normal heart rate time is a good way of knowing you're working her within her limits.


----------



## SabreBaby (Jul 27, 2009)

I do not believe you are over working your horse by what you have described, and your method is one that many people use, so I don't think it's going to ruin your horse. I will trot my horse for miles sometimes because I know she can handle it. If you only rode your horse once a week, per say, that regiment might be a little grueling for him or her, but by the sounds of it, you ride frequently. When I first got my horse, she was extremely hot and always wanted to run. I had the worst time getting her to slow lope, but what worked the best for me was TONS of collected trotting. I found it a lot easier to control her trot than her canter, so I only trotted her for a good while, and when I felt that I had a nice controlled, collected trot, I began to ask her to lope, and when she'd pick up the gait, I would pull back ever so slightly on my reins. WOW. ha. Now I have the slowest loping horse I have ever seen. lol.


----------



## Zeke (Jun 27, 2010)

I wouldn't say it's too hard of a work out but if you're headed back to the stall while the horse is still breathing hard they need more of a cool down. 

I'm with MM, a good warm up and cool down and you should be fine.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

I have figured it out over the years that if you want a "slower" horse, you have to do alot of trotting and cantering...eventually they figure it out that it's SO much easier to go slower, and conserve their energy rather than bolting and running hard, especially since you are going to continue til they slow down anyway. 

My mare had a terrible habit of just rush, rush, rush...but not now...hahaha...once she was in a bit better than paddock condition, I would just do a lot of trotting; circles, coasting around the arena, some serpentines, etc...she eventually just started slowing down on her own, instead of breaking into a super octane trot every time! It's amazing how having a horse coast around in a gait and keep him going beyond when he is asking to stop, will give you a more balanced, and more even paced horse. And then we started adding a bunch of canter work, as well, once we had the trotting sorted out a bit. I still do a lot of trot and canter work, mainly because that's what's going to keep her in decent condition in the first place. 

I would say as long as you do a decent warm up, and especially make sure she is breathing normal before taking her back to the barn, there is NOTHING wrong with a good workout. Remember it's miles that are going to make the horse a good riding horse, not just going out and doing a tiny ride and putting him up.


----------



## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

I wouldn't think that it is too much, but it depends on the fitness level of your horse, make me run like that, and I might very well die. My horse on the other hand could do that easily. So it depends, how fit is your horse?


----------



## kevinshorses (Aug 15, 2009)

I am a big man and I actually did ride horses too hard a few times this summer. I rode a huge dun gelding from about 6 am until 6pm and it was not a nice trail ride. At one point (quite early in the day) the horse thought that hot and sweaty was the same thing as exhausted and he sulled up and layed down. He was not exhausted as I got him up quite quickly with a willow switch. I didn't intend to ride him that hard but he sure toughened up after that and never quit me again. 95% of riders will NEVER ride a horse too hard.


----------



## coffeeaddict (Jun 18, 2010)

I feel better about this now, thanks for the replies. I think she's pretty fit. We've ridden four times a week for the past couple months and just recently bumped it up to 6 days a week. Only because she seems to need it. She is out in the pasture 24/7, gets ridden frequently and she is still wired up and ready to go all the time. Sigh. Maybe she will be calmer before she hits old age, I only have another 13 years or so to go...

I cool her down until she's not breathing hard anymore, I never take her right back. I left the ring while she was still worked up because we were going to walk around the outside. 

I don't know why I seem to attract a ton of unsoliciated advice from this person but she is not shy about telling me how to work my horse. I think she's hoping I'll hire her. Though that's probably not the best way to go about selling yourself.


----------



## bronson3000 (Feb 5, 2009)

You know your horse the best and if you are seeing the results you are after, keep going. I hate this. There is a "coach" (have yet to see her with a student) at my stable who I was sharing the arena with one day and she came riding her huffing and puffing horse (met her once before this) right up to me on a walk break to tell me how my horse was travelling so incorrectly, and not even in a polite way. She had no prior knowledge of my mare and how far she has come from what she came like. Bottom line is, don't worry about it, if you and your horse are happy that is what counts.


----------



## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

coffeeaddict said:


> I don't know why I seem to attract a ton of unsoliciated advice from this person but she is not shy about telling me how to work my horse. I think she's hoping I'll hire her. Though that's probably not the best way to go about selling yourself.



I understand your thoughts on this, and at the time I would not like it either. But I think after I calmed down, I would appreciate hearing that I might be doing something wrong, even if I am not - as I am sure I will do something wrong sooner or later, and at that time I would want to hear it.


----------



## coffeeaddict (Jun 18, 2010)

AlexS, she didn't upset me, it's just become an ongoing thing and at this point it's a little annoying. 

Still, she did leave me wondering, so I posted this thread. So for that I guess it was a good thing she commented. Now I know. 

I love it when people at the barn offer advice, I usually end up using it. This person just has a certain way of saying things that rub me wrong.


----------



## corinowalk (Apr 26, 2010)

I am the first to say that a tired horse is a good horse. While I understand the trainers viewpoint, if it is working for your horse, I would keep it up. I know that your horse is definantly on the hot side. Hard work is good as long as when you get the desired effect (slow trot, canter) you reward her with less work.


----------



## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

coffeeaddict said:


> AlexS, she didn't upset me, it's just become an ongoing thing and at this point it's a little annoying.
> 
> Still, she did leave me wondering, so I posted this thread. So for that I guess it was a good thing she commented. Now I know.
> 
> I love it when people at the barn offer advice, I usually end up using it. This person just has a certain way of saying things that rub me wrong.



I understand, I just left a barn full of know it alls (who were all at least a decade younger than me, and so had at least a decade less of being around horses) and it was hard to deal with. They would ask if I was familiar with such and such and so I was honest and said no, if that was the answer. I was scoffed at and made to feel like an idiot. I plan to continue to admit to when I don't know something and I will not apologize for that, or fake something. 

However my trainer is a know it all, and I love her for being like that, as I trust her, and in the past year, every question I have had, she has been correct about. So in my mind, she can be a know it all, that's fine, and that's why I pay her.


----------



## Snookeys (Sep 23, 2010)

Oh gosh. I've had my fair share of people telling me how to work my horse. I recall once I rescued a thoroughbred gelding. I'd trained him on the ground and ridden him some, and he was doing fantastic. I switched to another barn so I could have access to jumps, a nice arena, etc. When I got there, I remember the barn trainer (a young woman probably half a decade older than me at the time) watching me work my gelding over some Xrails on the ground. She scampered off and told someone I was going to ruin the horse. I didn't have fancy tack, I didn't even have proper BOOTS at the time, and these people were the exact opposite. So of course I was looked down upon. A month or so later, I wanted this chick to ride my horse and tell me what she thought. I know, weird, but I kind of wanted her to say "Hey, you've done a great job!" She rode him, and he did his nice collected trot and canter, he arched his neck, he was soft, he cantered over the Xrails flawlessly... I remember thinking "Awww, my horse..." and then she said "Wow! He's got lots of potential! Look at all this stuff he does naturally!" I was livid. She'd completely disregarded the fact I put TONS of work into the horse and figured all the stuff he was doing was "natural"... UGH.

end rant. Sorry guys. Haha.


----------



## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

coffeeaddict: It sounds like you are doing a fabulous job with your horse. Keep it up. Just continue to take that know-it-all's advice with a grain of salt, as you have been.


----------



## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

beau159 said:


> Just continue to take that know-it-all's advice with a grain of salt, as you have been.



Agreed, sounds like we all encounter them.


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Coffeeaddict, I remember you had a post about whether or not your mare could be trained to lower her head and round into the canter or whether her conformation would make that difficult/impossible. So, I think you are working her with a thought to progressing along , little by little and taking it slowly because she does have a shape that will make it harder for her. So, I think that letting her run HER way for awhile in order to reach the point where she starts to go YOUR way is a great way to start her training. After time she will be more and more willing to go YOUR way from the get go. I think the only concern is that if she is running really unbalanced and strung out, to allow her to do that on and on and on (with no plan to improve) could be detrimental to her in the long run. But you HAVE a plan, so not to worry if other folks don't know what you are doing.
As for working her too hard? PSSHHHT! Horses are so much stronger than most of us ever realize. Getting her really huffing and puffing is good for her;cleans out her lungs and gets those endorfins flowing. Good for you!!!


----------



## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

40mins of walk/trot transitions and a bit of canter isn't bad, obviously if the horse has been out of work for some time then it is excessive, but for a horse that gets ridden a few days a week 40mins is not too bad. 
Only comment I'd make is to ensure you give her at least one walk break during the session. Just like if you're studying hard at school, you need a break to rest your brain, otherwise your mind starts to wander, and you can't focus on the task you're meant to. Same goes for a horse, if you drill them for the whole ride, it's pretty likely that you'll lose their concentration. Warm up, then walk for 2 mins on a long rein, then start to ask her to come up a bit, do your first lot of exercises and once you get them to a relatively good quality, give another 2min walk break on a long rein etc. 
It just makes them happier to work 
And always remember cooling them down with a good, active long rein walk is VERY important!!! She shouldn't be puffing/breathing hard when you get off. Walk until she stops puffing, THEN get off


----------



## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

nope not too hard at all. 

If we (stan and I) were doing indoor dressage I used to give myself an hour to warm up and spent most of the time doing transitions and latteral work to get him listening to me and concentrating on me otherwise he decided that the white boards were going to eat him. Then we would do the actual test and a 20 min cool down afterwards. He only ever needed quite so much indoors, he was fine with 20 mins if we were outdoors. Anouther dressage horse I used to ride took a good 40 mins of walk work before you could get sense out of him in any other gait (if you didnt go through his walk work then his trot was crooked and he used to refuse to do anything other then canter sideways) so quite often he was warmed up for in excess of 2 hours before his test.


----------

