Boost your pony’s fitness with interval training!

Why is fitness important?

Whether you’re a happy hacker, dressage enthusiast or eventing star, fitness work is important in every pony’s weekly exercise routine to help keep them happy and healthy. This way their bodies are prepared for exercise, and you can continue having fun while reducing the risk of injury. Of course, all exercise helps – but exercises specific to your pony will improve his stamina, agility and recovery time safely.

What is interval training?

Interval training is a common choice of fitness training by professionals, but riders of any level can use it! It’s made up of short bursts of high–intensity exercise followed by gentle recovery periods.

Top tip: Watch the ground conditions if you’re planning to do interval training outside of the arena.

Top tip: Wear a stopwatch to track the length of each burst of exercise and recovery. This makes it easier to track your progress and stick to your training programme.

Top tip: Incorporating hills will boost your pony’s strength and stamina even further!

Why should you try it?

Have you ever played sport or been exercising and your legs begin to feel wobbly and your muscles tired? Well, this is caused by something called lactic acid. Lactic acid is produced in the body when you’re doing super-fast exercise, like sprinting, and is made when carbohydrates (which help fuel your body) are used. Lactic acid can build up which makes you feel tired, and it’s the same for ponies!

An unfit pony will become tired much quicker than a super fit pony when doing high intensity work, due to them having a quicker production of lactic acid. So, adding interval training into their fitness regime improves the length of time they can exercise for at high intensity before the lactic acid kicks in and they feel tired!

Did you know?
The muscles during slow work are fuelled by oxygen compared to faster work which is fuelled by carbohydrates!

How to start

Knowing how hard your pony is working is super important, and checking his heart rate is a great way to do it – his heart rate will return to normal quicker as he gets fitter! To find it, gently place your index and middle finger under his jaw to feel his pulse. Count how many beats you feel in 15 seconds, then multiply that number by four to get his heart rate in beats per minute (bpm).

A normal resting heart rate for a pony is between 28–44 bpm. While heart rate is useful, it can be tricky to check while riding. So, try counting your pony’s breaths instead. His resting breathing rate should be between 8–16 breaths per minute. You can do this while you’re still in the saddle, which makes it easier during your ride. Keeping track of your pony’s heart rate or breathing rate helps you know when he’s ready to move on after a rest. Plus, it’s also a fun way to see how much fitter he’s getting over time!

Before you start any interval training, don’t forget to warm up your pony and yourself. This helps get both of your muscles ready and can minimise the risk of injuries.

Once you’ve warmed up, have a go at our interval training set:

• at least 15 minutes of walk
• three to five minutes trot
• one minute walk
• two minutes steady canter
• one minute walk
• two minutes canter
• one minute walk
• two minutes canter
• at least 10 minutes cool-off in walk

Incorporate this into your pony’s exercise routine for three weeks and increase the difficulty towards the end of the three weeks, keeping the routine the same but adding in hills to make it harder. As your pony gets fitter, you can increase the length of time you spend in trot and canter, but only by a minute or so at a time!

Keep track of your pony’s breathing rate and heart rate and only start your next section once his breathing rate and heart rate have almost returned to his normal resting rate. Remember to always listen to your pony – if he’s tired, cool down and readjust your training programme next time.

Don’t forget, cooling down properly is super important to allow your pony’s body to recover!

Photo credit: Jon Stroud