I'm looking for tips on how to whip my horse into shape...

The horse I ride, Jessie, has to be in good enough shape to be able to canter/gallop the Pre-Entry cross country course at NNEP on June 8th. Today we were working on 1 min. of cantering, and 3 mins. of walking out in the fields, and after that he started coughing a bit. Unlike some other courses, NNEP's is pretty long.
He's obviously not extremely fit, and I would like some tips to fix his coughing and/or laziness in time for June.
So basically, i'm looking for something to improve Jessie's cardio.

Please and thank you!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jaclyn,

We do a lot of hill work and we have access to a half mile standardbred training track so we start with a mile of cantering for a week or two and we gradually keep adding more and more. You don't want to increase the workouts really quickly or the horse could get hurt which you probally wouldn't want so close to your show.

Hi Jaclyn,
Please talk to me about this at your next lesson. There is a lot of guidance material in your show team book. We should discuss Jessie's fitness program and come up with a plan for him.
Since Jessie is older we need to be careful with his program as well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: StephC,

quote:

Cough??? Have the vet look at him. Cough needs to be treated according to what is causing it. Could be as allergies and treated with antihistimines.

Trust me, the coughing is nothing incredibly serious. It's just that kind of cough that you get after a hard run, or something.

I'm sure Steph will be able to guide you through this...

1.5 weeks is not really enough time to get a horse fit! :-) If you don't feel the horse can canter/gallop the entire course, consider trotting some of it. I don't think the PE course is timed. But most importantly you want your horse to complete it happy and sound.