After an unseasonably late wintery blast here in North Yorkshire, we’re hopeful that spring is finally on the way with the lighter evenings and warmer weather that horse owners love. It’s been a particularly cold and tough winter and now that the light is at the end of the tunnel we’re excited about spring and the competition season ahead. While we look forward to the ground firming up and bridleways drying out, riding can still be a little limited. That’s why for this month’s blog we’re taking a look at some of the different ways you can use the gallops and the water treadmill with your horse. Whilst the perception might be that gallops are for fast work only and the water treadmill is for rehab, in reality there are plenty of ways you can use them! Let’s take a closer look…
The gallops
The most common reason people think about hiring our gallops is to do fast work, cantering or galloping the full length of the track several times with the aim of improving their horse’s cardiovascular fitness. It’s fun, exhilarating and the easiest way to build up fitness and judge pace. But there are plenty of other reasons why the gallops can be a useful tool for horse owners…
- The gallops offer perfect ground, no matter how wet, cold or dry the weather is. Here in the UK our ground can be as changeable and unpredictable as the weather, and that means sticking to a training plan can be tough if you want to protect your horse’s legs. Our gallop has an Andrews Bowen canter mix surface which is a shock-absorbing and stable surface for perfect footing every time.
- It’s a great environment for bringing on young horses – you will have sole use of the gallops for an hour, so some people bring a quiet lead horse to give a youngster the perfect introduction to cantering in the open and without the security of a fenced school.
- A change of scenery. If you’ve been riding almost exclusively in the school or just one or two hacking routes during winter, chances are your horse is as bored as you are! The gallops, no matter what you do on them, are a change of scenery for both of you.
- Interval training for fitness – trot, canter, gallop and repeat. The distance markers mean you can measure pace and if you can get your paws on a heart rate monitor, working on the gallops can be useful to judge recovery times and therefore changes in fitness.
- Finessing flatwork – we even have people visit us and use the gallops for lateral work, schooling movements and other flatwork. It’s not always pants on fire galloping, so you and your friends can shoulder in, leg yield or extended-trot your way along the gallops to your heart’s content.
The water treadmill
The water treadmill is one of our most useful therapeutic tools for horses coming back into work after an injury or holiday, but there are plenty of reasons why it’s also worth bringing a fit and healthy competition horse, a young horse starting its career or a veteran here for a session. Here are just some of the ways the water treadmill can complement your training regime:
- It aids recovery from hard exercise – a water treadmill session helps to remove lactic acid and other by-products of exercise from the muscles, aiding recovery after intense exercise. We often get people pairing an hours’ gallops hire with a water treadmill session afterwards for exactly that reason!
- A low-impact cardiovascular workout. The water treadmill is perfect for giving a horse who is in intense training a workout that’s gentle on its joints, has water resistance to raise their heart rate and is in straight lines, reducing pressure on their joints and hooves.
- Another way to give them a change of scenery. When the weather outside is cold and dark, the water treadmill is a great way to give your horse a workout without going around in circles on the horse walker or in a school.
- Adjusting the depth and speed works more of their body – the deeper the water is the more the horse has to engage its topline, core and hindquarters, giving them a great all-over workout.