Things To Know About Surface Conditioning
Whatever the ambition, whatever the day to day, surface conditioning is designed to support you and your horses every step of the way. Whether your horse is competing at high levels or just being used for the occasional trail ride, it must have a certain level of fitness to perform well and endure the activity without injury. Asking the horse to do too much, too soon, can spell trouble. This is especially true for those pasture potatoes that have had little in the way of regular exercise, and are then suddenly expected to carry their equally unfit owner on a two-hour trail ride. Regardless of the discipline, the horse is used for, they should be gradually adapted to greater workloads over time. In order to understand the adaptations that occur with surface conditioning, we must first understand the energy-generating processes involved in muscle contraction during exercise. An appreciation of these processes will also help you to design an appropriate training program for a partic...