[Jumperjessey]

My 11 yr old TB has had almost the whole winter off and he's so out of shape now I don't know where to begin. In shape, we were riding a lot and doing 3 ft jumps. He had lots of time off because of an injury and also just poor weather.

I'm not sure how to start working him again without causing some form of injury; not sure how fast or slow to start working him.

On a normal schedule we would ride 45 min - 1 hr a day, 4 times a weeks or so...

Anyone have a good plan or a link to a good plan for how to get him back into good condition again?! THANK YOU!

[AQHA Hunter]

What sort of injury did he have?

In most cases, you should just start out slowly with walking and trotting, mostly in straight lines. Increase the trotting a little bit each week, and work up to cantering after maybe a month or so, depending on how he's doing.

I'm just bringing my horse back into work. He was laid-off since the end of October due to bruised fetlocks. I am planning to lunge him 2x per week for about 15 minutes per session, and ride walk/trot 2x per week to start out with, and then start riding 3x per week and lunging 2x per week after about 3 weeks. As long as he's doing well, we'll start riding 4x per week in about a month, and slowly increase the amount of work.

If he had a soft tissue injury, I would not be doing the lunging, but vet said it was OK since he is recovering from bone bruising, rather than suspensory trauma.

[JustEnufFlash]

I'm in the same boat..well because of the weather though. Similar to what AQHA Hunter said, I'm starting with lunging a few times a week for only 15 minutes. Riding about 20-30 minutes maybe 2x (weather permitting) with lots of walk/trot/transitions and lots of walking breaks. Lots of leisurely walks around the fields/ woods. The biggest challenge for myself is not to ask for too much at once, it just makes them sour, and you always want to be able to end on a good note. Slowly build him up from 15 or so minutes once you know it's not stressing him out too much. I would def talk to the vet too to see if there are any types of exercises that might aggrivate his injury.

[NotFadeAway]

I would start with walking actually. Can you take him on trail rides?
Long walks adding short intervals of trotting and increasing the trotting gradually I think is a good way to go.

[JBandRio]

Need to know:

- type and extent of injury
- whether downtime was spent on stall rest, limited turnout (how big an area) or full time turnout, and on what topography (flat, hilly, etc)
- length of time off - "whole Winter" could be from Dec 21 on, or from early November

[boxofrox14]

Hey!

I've just started getting my quarter horse back into shape. The first day I just got on him and walked, worked on backing, flexing, kind of a reminder day. Did some light trotting. Basically I just watched for cues from him to see when he had reached his limit, head dropping, easing into a nice trot. Then when he got to where he wanted to stop I'd ask him for a few more strides and then stop him myself (so he doesn't learn to stop when he wants to)

The day after the next I did a warm up of walking and trotting as usual, and added some light cantering. I worked over the trot poles with him just to get him back into watching his feet. Again, I waited for signs from him.

I gave him the next two days off then started working him on the cavelettes lightly. I'll probably do this twice more this week.

I think the best thing is just listen to your horse and watch for signs he's getting tired. Remember you may want to up his feed a little if your getting him back into work!

Hope this helps!

[Bruce Wiley]

Confirm that, the horse is free of any health issues.
Get checkups from your Vet, Farrier.
Bring the horse back slowly, doing ground work.
You may want to consider limited his minutes in your working sessions.
You have to read how well he is doing before increasing, decreasing his work load.Every horse is unique, some horses come back faster than others.
Prepare the horse with proper warnups & cooling downs for each working sessions and go from there.
This is a good time to re establish control, respect, trust and your leadership.
All you have to do is be patient, leaving no stone unturn.
I hope this helps.