Finding your mojo in the dark

FEATURE

Finding your mojo in the dark Tina Canton BHSI Bsc (Hons) UKCC level 3

Dont forget rider fitness

I

t’s that time of year again; the clocks have gone back and although we have a brief reprieve of lighter mornings, the evenings close in very fast and we have to deal with leaving home and coming back from work in the dark.

Intermediate horses jumping Foxhunter well and Medium BD. BS and BD often offer 6 months or winter membership to keep costs down. At least going affiliated you are guaranteed proper course builders and decent judges! You never know, you might even win some money and put more value on your horse!

Keeping your motivation during the darker months is very hard, unless you have the luxury of an indoor school to play in, or you are a keen hunter and love winter, but there are some ways that you can try to use the time constructively so you are on your game when the Spring comes along and the season kicks in. My top tip is if you know you are about to have a busy time and are going to struggle to do your horse properly, let alone ride everyday, give them an official holiday. This allows them to go out and be horses - ours are turned out 24/7 (rugged up) and gives them a total break from being over handled and changes the routine. This also gives you a break and stops you feeling guilty that you can’t do them! If possible we try to send them away for holiday. This gives them a total break and we always find that they always come back better.

Take time to work on your problem fences

development and obedience training.

This is also really important for the

Hacking is very important

Holiday time

28

December 2016 - January 2017 Equestrian Life

Use the winter as well to try to get to lecture demos and workshops. A lot of elite riders earn some winter money by doing these demos and they often yield really good training exercises that you can take home. There are a multitude of training books and videos with lots of exercises on too. Ask if you can spectate and watch clinics with different trainers or volunteer to do poles, then you will get to hear what the trainer is saying!!

young horses to go and absorb the work they have done and allow their bodies to recover and grow. If the holiday is less than 6 weeks, you tend to find that they will have retained a lot of their base fitness, any longer than this and you will have to start from scratch. When the horse are in and in work, try to look at your work schedule and be realistic with time and facilities. It’s ok for them to only work 5 days a week when they are not competing hard, and a couple of those work sessions may even be lunging. This saves time and when done correctly is great for top-line

We are going to run lunging clinics this winter to make sure everyone is doing it properly. To me there is no point lunging without some form of training aid on - you may as well loose school or turnout and let them run around!! Lunging should be as disciplined as flat schooling and will build strength and co-ordination. Word of warning with older horses, or ones with hock problems - don’t over do it as it will increase wear and tear. Also, try to still let your horse go out, even if it is only for a few hours a day. Some yards have great allweather turnout areas to save their fields from getting trashed. Ours go out all year round. The only time we may keep in is in deep snow but, we are very lucky to have a walker. Try to fit in a hack a week in the daylight, so the horses don’t get bored going in the arena all the time. If you are hunting it also keeps fitness levels up. Winter is also the time to go back to basics, make sure that the foundations are solid in your schooling and jumping. Deal with any issues now when you are not entered for loads of competitions and you may

also want to move yourself up a gear and tackle new challenges such as half-pass, counter canter, flying changes or a skinny / corner issue. We try to set ‘work goals’ for each horse that we want to achieve over the winter, then it doesn’t matter if the horse takes a while to understand a new challenge. At this time you don’t have the worry of trying not to upset the apple cart when you have a competition coming up. It is definitely the time to keep up your training and talk to your coach about what you want to achieve. It really annoys me when I don’t see someone all winter and they turn up 2 weeks before the first competition and expect you to work miracles! Use winter indoor competitions to push you out of your comfort zone too. Aim to be competing up a level by the time you think about entering your first event, that way when you get outside on the grass the tests and courses will seem easier. As a rule of thumb BE90 horses want to be going British Novice / Discovery and doing prelim BD; BE100 horses - Discovery / 105cm classes and Novice BD; Novice BE horses need to be jumping Newcomers / 115cm and doing Elementary BD; and,

We also try to attend ‘mental training’ days / workshops as the season approaches. These are really good at focusing your thoughts and formulating a training plan to make sure that you are in the right frame of mind to start competing. Another other good idea is to work with your coach to set some goals for the forthcoming season. We are going to hold non-mounted goal setting sessions in the New Year for customers to focus where they want to be and how to achieve it. The best way is to look at short, medium and long term goals. Look at your main competitions for the season ahead and work backwards as to how you are going to make sure you are ready for the challenges you have set yourself. You can also use this planning stage to make sure that your horses are fit enough by scheduling gallop days and cross country schools and even look at management issues such as getting stud holes in!! Winter always seems like it is going to last forever, especially when the really bad weather kicks in but, once you start to plan it always seems like there is a light at the end of the tunnel - you even start to think that you may need more time! www.equestrianlifemagazine.co.uk

29