Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Conditioning for dressage

From: Dawn

Hi Jessica, I have a couple of questions.

The first is in regards to conditioning for dressage. I have my horse at home after a winter of riding 45 minutes 5-6 times a week. I gave him some time off because of an injury, but I have not really gotten back into the habit of riding every day. Partly this is because I do not have the facilities at home to make it easy, such as a good arena, or safe trails. I was wondering how much riding would be a minimum to keep a horse at a fit level for basic dressage work, and any suggestions to increase my motivation to resume the satisfying and

Hi Dawn! I'm answering your two questions separately.

First, if you can ride your horse every other day for 45 minutes or so, you should be able to keep him reasonably fit PROVIDING that he also has daily turnout, preferably in a large field where he can move about freely. If you really WORK during your schooling sessions, you can do a lot in a relatively short time. Forty-five minutes of concentrated, focused dressage will put more muscle on your horse than two or three hours of unfocused, random riding.

I know what it's like to lack good facilities -- and I think that ALL of us know what it's like to get out of the habit of doing something every day! I also know what it's like to lose your motivation, and to wonder why you're doing something that you used to enjoy.

Don't worry about your horse -- if he was fairly fit before his time off, and if he gets regular exercise now, you should be able to get him fit and keep him that way without too much effort. I don't think that this is really about his fitness or his exercise program, though! It sounds to me as if you are not very motivated, which is perfectly understandable. We all get to that place sooner or later -- the question is how long you will stay there, and when you will leave!

I think that it might help you to sit down with a notebook and pen, and make a list of the reasons you wanted to ride this winter, and how you felt about it, and why you want to ride now, and how you feel about it! If you want to have a fitness schedule because you are preparing for competitions, and you don't really WANT to ride in competitions, you aren't going to keep up the schedule. There has to be something in it for you -- either the pleasure of the ride itself, or the feeling that you're preparing for something you WANT to do, or the fun of teaching your horse something new, or just the joy of having a complete break from the rest of your day.

Take some time to think about what you want from your riding, and what you will need to do to get it. Ask yourself what you would like to be doing with the horse in three months -- go through an imaginary day, doing everything that you WANT to be doing. Then you'll be ready to plan how to get there and do it.

Let me know if I can help with exercises or suggestions for physical training (his) or mental training (yours). :-)

- Jessica

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