SARAH: Any advice on increasing your horse's fitness level?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, I brought another prop.
SARAH: Ooh.
DR LYDIA GRAY: This is prop day.
So you may notice this book, Conditioning Sport Horses,
Hilary Clayton.
SARAH: You love her.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's dog eared.
There are little post-its in it.
The cover's looking quite worn.
My old name is in it.
I've had this for a long time, because it's
a really good book.
And so you might want to consider purchasing it.
But she talks about the three kinds of conditioning.
There is cardiovascular, which is getting your heart
and lungs working harder.
There is strength training, which is muscles.
And there's suppling exercise, and that's your soft tissue,
your tendons and ligaments.
And all of those need to be conditioned properly over time.
Over time is the term that uses long, slow distance.
And the goal is you start with walk,
and eventually-- This could take 3 to 12 months,
depending on the age of the horse, if they've
been conditioned already, if they're coming off an injury,
say, if it's the end of winter, and it's a new competition.
So there's lots of factors.
But you start walking, and you add
either intensity, so how hard, or duration, how long,
or frequency, how often.
Those are your three components.
SARAH: Not recommended to do all three at once?
DR LYDIA GRAY: No.
SARAH: Not a fun time.
DR LYDIA GRAY: No, it's very hard on your horse,
and they recommend starting with duration first.
So this long, slow distance is you build up
over the 3 to 12 months to 45 to 60 minutes
depending on your discipline of walk, trot, canter.
Your horse should be able to do that and not be winded.
That's the goal of long, slow distance.
Then you add in your sport specific conditioning.
So if you're an endurance rider, then you
want to continue the long slow distance
but at a more intense level.
So you would trot it.
If you're a show jumper, then you
need more strength and power, especially in the hind legs
to get over the fences.
So you begin to do drills.
Sets-- they use the same language
as human body builders and weight
lifters-- that increase your horse's power and strength
behind.
If you're dressage, suppling is a really important component.
And she says, while you might do cardiovascular fitness
and strength training on alternate days,
because the work is as important as the rest and recovery--
that's when you rebuild and improve your tissue quality--
suppling is done every day, and more so, probably,
in the dressage horse.
It's a fascinating book, and there's lots more in it.
Maybe someday we have four or five hours,
we can cover it fully.
SARAH: That feels like come in on the weekend.
Let's do that.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
SARAH: So that is fantastic.
You talked about noticing when your horse is winded.
Because obviously every horse is different,
are there guidelines that you give people?
Or is there something you use when
you're working with Newman?
DR LYDIA GRAY: The heart rate is your best indicator.
SARAH: Interesting, because you would think winded,
you think respiratory.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, and here's why.
When a horse breathes, the breathing
can become a component of, I'm trying to cool myself.
So if it's hot and muggy, and the horse did
a strenuous workout, the respiratory rate may reflect,
I need to get rid of some heat more
than I need to recover my air.
So the heart rate is better to monitor, and if you're fit,
in about 10 minutes it will go down to baseline.
So that's why in a vet box at a Rolex 3-Day Event
we use a 10-minute window to see is the horse recovering
completely.
SARAH: OK.
Very cool.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Really cool stuff.
SARAH: That was awesome.