United States Eventing Association

Fitness and February

This article originally appeared in the February 2025 edition of Sidelines magazine.

The holidays are over, and the height of eventing season will be here before you know it! To help expedite your return from winter, I thought I would share a few of my thoughts surrounding bringing horses back into work as well as a few conditioning tips that you can tweak to meet your own needs. Let this help motivate you to get out there and get started!

Walk work is very important, especially if your horse has received less turnout time than usual. You should incorporate at least 10 minutes of what I call “round and down” walk work at the beginning of your ride. The horse should be on contact, capable of bending and focusing. Imagine an extended walk. You’re trying to build muscles, and this exercise is also important at the end of your ride, especially if it’s cold. You should expect more stretch over his back at the end, proof that you were productive, and that it feels good to your horse to stretch his muscle groups.

This does not need to take place solely inside of the arena. In fact, walking a hill is one of the best ways to strengthen stifles. If you only have access to a small incline, you can walk it several times each ride. I have a hill between our stable and indoor that most of the horses walk three to five times a day to start their daily training session. Try to maintain an active and straight walk. Keep the horse round and stretching over his withers so that the incline and decline can both work their magic.

Lungeing is another big part of my program. It must be done carefully, as it’s intense work! I don’t believe in just letting a horse run around at the end of the line. All my horses lunge in some sort of device: neck stretcher, side reins, the “gadget” as we call it, or the Pessoa Rig. They should be respectful and on your aids, just as though you were riding. I would make sure to keep your sessions to 20 minutes or less.

As you first bring your horse back to work, walk and trot work on the lunge is fine. Focus on transitions. Remember to alternate which way you start so that you are building him up symmetrically. Cold nights and wind can be very hard on kissing spine horses. We think about the Pessoa Rig as a kind of prescription for them to move and warm up their backs without the burden of bearing a rider's weight. We try to do this two to three times a week, even if it’s used as a quick warm-up before your real ride.

That leads me to what I call the “lunge-ride combo,” which is quite popular on windy days or those first few sessions back! I might only lunge the horse one direction even based on behavior and fitness; but waiting for that feeling that I know the horse is rideable and listening, not overreacting to the same aids that I’m going to use as soon as I hop on. And don’t be a hero. If you’re not making progress on the lunge, listen to your gut and just make it a lunge session. Make sure you always come out victorious; it’s wise at times to pick your battles!

It’s important that you bring your horse back to a variety of footing conditions so that he’s strengthening his tendons and ligaments to ward off future tendinitis. We have what we call the “back road” that runs throughout our farm. Even when the fields are too wet, we can do plenty of conditioning work on this lane with gentle hills at either end. We practice trot on the spot, leg yields, shoulder in and haunches in—anything you could be doing down the long side of your arena, you can do down a one-lane farm road. I like to increase my trot rides by five minutes per week until they can do a 20-minute continuous trot. Make sure that you are changing bend and your diagonal, and bonus for challenging yourself with staying in two-point for the entire duration. #feeltheburn

Once I think my horses have enough stamina and rideability at the trot, I incorporate more canter work and cavaletti exercises simultaneously. Working on the canter will greatly improve your trot; but sadly, working on your gallop will not improve your canter. Be ready to chip away at the canter, focusing on quality transitions in and out of it to create strength. Cantering over poles on the ground, not even raised, can help with timing and coordination of your position as well as getting the horse to remember how to rock back to react. You don’t have to feel bad about repetition because there is very little impact. It also starts to take some of the excitement out of jumping, which comes next!

Then I spend a lot of time trotting fences, keeping it simple with rails for timing and straightness. Adding in the cavaletti and small fences will make your horse huff and puff more, which is ultimately good for the lungs and entire cardiovascular system.

Again, sometimes less is more and in a strange way you go faster when you go slower. Enjoy the journey and kick on until next time!