My 6 y/o gelding has alwasy been in excellent competition shape untill last year. Due to a large move, change of job & purchase of a new ranch, he has been turned out to pasture (65 acres), since last Sept. I have only ridden him lightly for about 30min at a time 4-5 times this year. He is healthy, with all shot’s & deworming UTD, as well as farrier care, he just hasn’t been ridden. I feed Ultium 1 1/2 scoops 2 x day, plus the pasture is planted in jiggs bermuda. What’s your recommendation on how to best get him back into competition shape, and how long before I can run him again?
Thanks,
Tammy Thomson
Hamshire, Texas
I’ve always heard you should take 1 week for every month the horse was turned out to leg them back up. In your case that would be 9 weeks. I would imagine that your horse would be somewhat fit to run before that but I would be putting a lot of runs each week on him until he is fully fit with adequate “air”.
Martha Wright
Thank you, I really expected it to take longer than that. I didn’t want to rush him. I have him on the walker, started @ 20 min working up to 45 min day with plans to start riding him for an hour a day after that & then increasing as he seems to tolerate it. Maybe I’m moving a little too slow. I will watch his “wind” & evaluate. Again, thank you for your time.
