is your horse fit enough?


Feeding for fitness not fatness


Winter and early spring weather will often have an impact on the amount of work that horses and ponies receive, but one of the most important factors to consider is ensuring that they have a nutritionally balanced diet, which is where Blue Chip’s new Super Concentrated Daily Health Balancer can help.


Blue Chip Super Concentrated Daily Health Balancer is whole- cereal and molasses free and is designed to maintain optimal health in all horses and ponies. Combining the optimum level of essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, along with a complete hoof and respiratory formula, digestive supplement including a probiotic and Nucleotides this concentrated balancer will ensure your horse or pony has everything they need on a daily basis.


Blue Chip Super Concentrated Daily Health Balancer comes in a handy 3kg tub and is so nutrient dense that an average sized horse, up to 16hh will only need 2 x scoops per day, lasting 1 month.


Visit www.bluechipfeed.com or call 0114 2666200.


Caroline Mosley in action


Mel Pecheur’s focus is “Going to the gallops, as it’s the only place I can properly let my horse go all out (not easy to stop when I give him his head!) and it builds up both of our fitness! Our routine doesn’t vary much and I use a


Is your horse fit enough? As anyone who is working on their horse’s fitness ahead of the new season will know, the weather has not been at all helpful recently, so to give you some ideas, we asked some event riders how they achieve...


Weatherproof fitness


Caroline Mosley, who events up to 1* level says: “Currently I’m just riding at weekends due to the daylight. One day includes a walk hack with small trots. Once the daylight improves I’ll add in canter work and in the arena, I’ll mix it up with flatwork days and arena-interval training then some outings to go jumping. As the season gets closer, the long hillwork hacks will increase in difficulty and I will start using a heart rate monitor once canter work starts. The long hack is 10-16km long depending on the start point; I use my phone to map it too and it has a 1.5km canter track that rises over 200m over the length of it - not a bad fitness track to use. Sadly there are no gallops near me.”


cycle app to see how fast we are going and how much we have done.”


cantering thanks to amazing sandy tracks.”


Mel’s enthusiastic eventer after a work out on the gallops


Natalie Ford has a more varied routine, revealing: “I trot to the village and back twice a week (20 minutes there, 20 minutess back), grass verges and roads, then he’s schooled twice a week, jumped once and a steady hack once. I can already feel him getting fitter and he’s also lunged twice a week, in the morning, before I school in the afternoon. I have no turnout at the moment as winter fields have turned into a swamp! Oh and we’ll start fast work soon; my next door neighbour has a gallop track I can use and this will replace one trot to the village.


Nicola Holehouse relies on hunting and boxing up for long hacks over the local common. She says, “We can do 10 miles with 5 minute blocks of solid


Are you fit for purpose?


Rider fitness is just as important as horse fitness, so ahead of the new season, take an honest look at yourself and to help, we’ve put together some ‘food for thought’.


Are you aware that every day you are overweight, your joints, lungs and heart are continually put under strain? An 80kg person has to put the same amount of energy into maintaining a rising trot as a 60kg person carrying an army- sized rucksack, so you will become tired and breathless more quickly and the damage to your joints and heart will take their toll later in life. Losing excess weight is not always easy, so make sure you do it for yourself,


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not anyone else. Find a diet that suits both you and your lifestyle and you will stick to it. Lose those pounds gradually and they won’t come galloping back later.


You feed your horses according to their needs, making sure their diet contains the correct feed and supplements necessary for their workload, so don’t forget to apply the same rules to your own diet. We need a combination of protein, fats and carbs to


correctly feed our bodies. Balance your diet. The brain requires fuel in the form of glucose, and carbs easily provide an accessible supply, but the damage comes if this is provided in the form of sugary foods. If you add protein along with correct carbs, you’ll stay fuller longer and won’t get those ‘sugar-dips’ that see us reaching for the biscuits or chocolate. Fresh fruit, salads and vegetables are important in a balanced diet, so if you need a snack


after a workout or ride, it’s better to grab some nuts or fruit. Also, remember to stay hydrated, preferably with water and at least two litres per day. Leave sports drinks for when you’ve been working out or riding in hot weather. They can also contain large amounts of sugars, so be careful.


If your physical fitness and body strength is on target, then riding and competing will be much easier, you will reduce the risk of injury and


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Karley Hubbard explains: “It’s just under five weeks until our first event of the season (we compete at novice level) so I’ve started introducing fast work (interval training, building up to two five-minute canters with three minute walk intervals per session) once a week. I note fitness levels through the horse’s recovery rate. Fortunately we have apple orchards up the road with dry ground! I’ve been keeping them ticking over throughout the winter after a month and a half off at the end of October. The typical routine is - schooled twice a week, jumped/pole work once a week, hacking twice a week with a combination of hill work. With one or two days off a week dependent on time/competitions etc. They’re also turned out every day.”


Enjoying a recent jump training session


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