Azid is now in his second block of training. Which means we’re starting to work more on fitness. His first block focused on schooling, building up his strength with poles and hill walking but now we’re switching it up a gear. He still get’s schooled and lunged but these are now less of a priority as longer hacks and canter sessions become the main focus.
I have my horses on a two week cycle broken down into training blocks of 6 weeks with a 12 week peak. So Azid is currently on day on day off on the same schedule every two weeks, this will then be changed in 6 weeks time. All of which is focusing on a 12 week training programme to get him to peak fitness for one of our main goals of the season.
I usually fit 2-3 training programmes into a season, aiming to peak a little higher each time with rest built in between each one. This works out fairly naturally as we’ll peak for a certain competition and then he’ll have 2-4 weeks off depending on the distance.
This week we had a good mix of schooling, lunging, hacking and his first canter session in two years. Next week he’ll do two hacks and one canter session. So far he’s coping well with the work and the injuries from the previous years appear to be under control, so fingers crossed that continues.
A big thank you to Poplars Farm Cross Country for allowing us to film the drone footage in this vlog!
Beth Endurance 