17 Tips To Keep Your Senior Horse Fit & Happy She may suggest a full workup to ensure that your horse is physically able to get back in shape. What are the effects of advancing years on athletic performance? But it is necessary and important. Keep track of what you are doing by wearing a watch during each ride and keeping a journal of the work so you can be methodical in how you change it. And remember that some tricks, such as teaching a horse to paw or rear, may appear when you dont necessarily want them to. Designing a Training Program for Your Horse - Horse Network ?If the horse is very out of shape, that might mean several weeks of walking before you start light jogging.? says Mero. Start Slow. As the horse starts to age it is likely to show obvious signs of getting older by the grey hairs around the eyes, ears, forehead and muzzle Common age related disorders Arthritis Liver and kidneys Cataracts Sarcoids and melanomas Degenerative joint disease Loss of body condition Pure Veteran Mix. Not that some horses cant handle it, but at that point I think a horse has earned a retirement of lighter use. Caring for old horses - Features - Horsetalk.co.nz equine news Boost your horses fitness with interval training, Event tickets contract and incorporation of terms, To increase his exercise capacity and the time to the onset of fatigue, To improve his overall performance endurance, speed, strength and skill. Begin with some lunge line work for . Tones and improves functioning of muscles, tendons and ligaments. Reversibility adaptations that take place as a result of training will begin to reverse when your horse stops training. To begin with, this should be long, slow distance (LSD) work, which improves your horses endurance and oxygen uptake. Please let us know a convenient time to call you on, (*All time slots are available in CDT zone.). The more you know your horse and pay attention to him, the more accurately youll be able to answer those questions.? To help personalize content, improve performance and provide a more secure experience for our customers, this website uses cookies. Even the slow work can build muscle for your horse. Instead of training a lot of new concepts, youll focus on maintaining overall fitness, but with a caveat.Im not advocating working a horse thats very arthritic, in pain or lame, says Mero. A great way to measure your horses fitness is to use a heart rate monitor.