Now that the barns are slowly and cautiously being allowed to open during the Covid-19 crisis and people are starting to ride their horses again, how do they bring their athletes back into shape safely and happily?

According to rider, trainer, and coach Janine Little of Little Dressage in Brockville, ON, “Fitting your horse back up post-Covid19 is going to be similar to fitting your horse back up post-winter holidays or post-injury. Many riders out there (maybe not in current times, but certainly somewhere in our riding past) have dealt with not being able to afford an indoor facility over the winter months and have had to fit their horses back up in the springtime. Many riders have also dealt with a horse that sustained an injury and had to be brought back to fitness slowly as well, so this situation will be very similar.”

Here is her systematic plan for a return to show-ready form.

Safety First

First and foremost, the thing that I have to stress the very most is please be safe: if your horses have had time off they will no doubt be feeling fresh when you start them back up so, have a bit of extra awareness right from the first day that you’re back at the barn. Your usually wonderfully well-behaved horse, after some time off, may be excitable and may need a refresher course on ground manners, etc.

That first week back at the barn, take extra precautions. The horse you know and love has had a break from his or her normal program and may not be the exact obedient sweetheart that they usually are right away.

That being said, your horse will not have forgotten all that they know; in my experience, horses 100% do not forget their training BUT they do need a refresher course to remind them their first week back at it. In addition, you’ve been away from your horse for a bit and your reflexes and timing will also be a bit rusty, so please take extra care.

Lungeing with a Purpose

Carrying on with the staying safe program, depending on your horse, consider if you need to take a couple days of lungeing time to reacquaint your horse with a working frame of mind, as well as to get them focussed again and get some of the extra energy out before you put your foot in the stirrup. Every horse is an individual in that regard. I have some that could have three months off and be just fine to hop right on, and I’ve got others that need a few minutes on the lunge line after just three days off. Take your time and don’t be in a rush to hop right back on; the last thing you want after having already had time off with the pandemic is to sustain an injury getting dumped off your overly exuberant kid the first day back!

Lungeing should be controlled and focused, not just letting the horse race around and ‘let off steam’. (Totem Photographics)

If you do choose to lunge, please make those lunge session working sessions ‒ do transitions and make your horse focus on you. Alot of people just let their horses run on the lunge to “get rid of energy.” First off, that’s very hard on the horse’s legs, especially when they’ve been out of work, which could increase likelihood of injury. Second, I don’t actually find it effectively “gets the energy out”. I find lunging with a working attitude is far more productive in settling a high-energy horse as it focuses their energy, rather than trying to just get rid of it. Also, a horse that is working over their back and through the body will have to focus more and use more of their energy effectively than a horse that is simply running around and likely to get themselves even more worked up.

Preventing Injury

We also need to keep our horses from doing too much too soon to protect them from injury. Depending upon the amount of time your horse has been out of work, we have to develop a reconditioning program. Your horse can maintain its fitness without too much loss for up to about three weeks off; after that, they will begin to lose some conditioning.

If we’re considering a horse that has potentially been out of work for six to eight weeks, when we begin to fit those horses back up the first thing they will gain back is their cardiovascular fitness. Next comes muscular strength and finally, tendons and ligaments which have poorer blood supply and as such take much longer to tighten back up and strengthen.

We have to be very careful and mindful of the type of work we do, because after only two to three weeks back at work our horses will regain much of their cardio conditioning and will be feeling pretty good, but it will still take four to six weeks for them to regain much of their muscular strength. Ligaments and tendons can take as long as 10-12 weeks to fully tighten back up, so our program has to be tailored toward not putting too much strain on the soft tissue too early or we risk injury.

Once you’re back in the saddle I would recommend the first one to three weeks back working on mostly straight lines and large 20-meter circles. Avoid tight turns where possible and if you need to use some lungeing in the beginning, make your circles as big as possible and keep the lines travelling so there is less torque on the legs.

Focus mainly on the working paces and suppleness. This is a great time to revisit the basics of really getting the horse nice and loose and supple in both directions and really nicely over the back. Around week three you can start incorporating easier transitions ‒ keep them gradual and focus on quality rather than quantity in the beginning ‒ you can build in more difficult transitions over the next few weeks. Around week six you can build back in some of your lateral work.

It is likely that your own fitness level will be low and reflexes will be rusty for the fist few weeks, so don’t push for too much too fast. (www.madebyjessy.com photo)

10 Weeks to Fitness

I’ve made a rough program below of how to bring your horse back to fitness after a period of time off:

Weeks 1-3: Straight lines and large bending lines (20m circles, 3-loop serpentines), working paces, focus on rhythm/relaxation and suppleness.

Weeks 3-6: The work you’ve established from weeks 1-3 should now become your warm-up and now you start to incorporate more transitions back into the workload. Start with easier transitions and keep them gradual in the beginning, focusing on quality rather than quantity. As you get closer to week 6, start to make the transitions more dynamic, pushing more into harder transitions forward and back within the gaits. Start addressing lateral positioning again without schooling actual movements (eg. start to position the horse for a couple of strides shoulder-fore or travers here and there, but don’t ride formal lateral work, just play with some easy positionings. In weeks 5 and 6 you can start back in with smaller bending lines and turns; again, go gradually down in size until you get back to your 10m and 8m voltes.

Weeks 6-10: The work of weeks 1-6 should now become the first half of your ride and now you can start blending the harder demands of more advanced lateral work back in gradually until your horse is back to their full fitness and training level.

Keep in mind this is only a rough timeline; some horses may take longer to fit back up depending on their physical abilities and age. As always, listen to your horse and use common sense!

*****

Janine Little is an FEI Grand Prix dressage rider, trainer, and coach who has trained horses and riders up the levels to Grand Prix. Janine was long-listed to the Canadian Team in 2010, shortlisted in 2011 and on Dressage Canada’s Rider Development Squad in 2017, 2019, and 2020. She has coached various Young Riders to gold medals at the North American Youth Championships. She currently divides her time between her training business in Brockville, Ontario, during the spring and summer and Jupiter, Florida, in the winter. www.littledressage.com.