The Light has Changed and It’s Time To Ride!

When I took my mare to her first cutting practice in 2 ½ years at Cactus Creek Ranch, I wasn’t expecting tons from her.

She has pretty much enjoyed her time off and I have watched her condition shift from competition ready to “fluffy” as she has learned to enjoy a less rigorous life.

It turns out the time away from cattle work hasn’t done me any favors either. My seat was not where it should be, and my timing was off a tic and them some.

My surprise came when my little horse cranked it and went to work like she hadn’t missed a day. She ran a little short and a little crooked, but like I said, both my timing and seat were off, the problems were mostly mine.

Where she had changed was in her physical condition. She doesn’t have the muscle tone, endurance or speed she should have to practice, much less compete. I don’t want to make her sore because she’s out of shape, she’ll get banged around enough while I remember where to sit.

Cow work is supposed to be fun. If it makes her sore she won’t want to keep working.

So how am I going to get us back up to snuff? Both of us need to hone our reaction time from a thought out maneuver to an instinctive one. Cutting puts a lot of strain on hocks and stifles, not to mention backs and shoulders. I don’t want anything to tear or wrench or crack. On either one of us.

I would imagine any regular competitor, in any event, will face the same dilemma if their horse has spent most of the winter working on hay intake and dozing, instead of collection and turns.
What a horse needs to compete is strength, elasticity and wind. I don’t have to actually be cutting to build those things. As a matter of fact, I could end up hurting my horse if I jump her back into the fray without building her first.

When I was a kid I did a little endurance riding. Competing in the NATRC (North American Trail Riders Conference) competitions gave me an incredible understanding in how to safely condition a horse. Learning to check my horses heart rate was one of the best tools I was given. The recovery heart rate is a universal way to assess fitness for any breed in any sport. In order to evaluate the condition of your horse you start with her resting heart rate. In order to be accurate it’s best to have a stethoscope.

Most horses will have a resting heart rate of 42 beats per minute (bpm). Just like us, the fittest horse will have the lowest heart rate, sometimes as low as 25 bpm. Moderate work will bring a horse’s pulse up from 75 to 110 bpm and can go over 200 bpm during heavy work. A healthy horse will recover to below 60 bpm within 10 to 15 minutes of rest.

Horses in poor condition can take 30 to 45 minutes to recover.

The easiest way to know when it’s time to increase exercise levels is when the horse can recover between 44 and 55 bpm within 15 minutes of rest. If the horse’s bpm is over 72 after exercise then you have worked the horse too hard and need to back off.

Or you can count the respiratory rate (breaths), which, while more general, is much easier out on the trail. Again, start with a resting rate, which will be between 8 and 16 breaths per minute. You can count how many breaths the horse is taking by watching the nostrils or flanks. The recovery time from exercise is the same as with the heart rate. If you want to be completely thorough, check both. The heart rate to respiratory rate ratio should be three to one, or two to one. If it becomes one to one you’re in trouble and the horse needs to quit. I don’t want my horse’s workouts to be all about following a flag or blasting through her turns right away.

When I was a kid, Mark Reynor, a great cowboy, told me, “Trotting builds muscle and loping builds wind.”

My horse needs muscle and wind in order to hold it together while turning repeatedly on her hocks and accelerating with everything she’s got to control her cow. I’m going to work on conditioning her by getting on the trail, long trotting and loping in the arena, and adding hill work to encourage getting underneath herself and to build her back. It keeps things interesting and will strengthen her mind while saving her hocks for competition.

Whatever we decide to do, it’s important to start each workout slow. Five minutes of walking and five minutes of trotting can get the horse's body temperature raised and blood flow increased to working muscles. As a result, the muscles and tendons are loosened which increases the range of motion and helps avoid pulling or tearing of tendons and ligaments. The muscles are warmed up, allowing them to handle harder work by smoothly relaxing and contracting. A moderate warm-up will help the horse dissipate heat during intense exercise.

On average it takes a month to see increase condition on a horse. I’m going to try to ride from three to five times a week and make sure she gets at least a couple of days rest. Like any exercise program, a horse needs time off to repair muscle and stave off fatigue.

I’m going to work my horse up to a heart rate from 130 to 150 bpm. Which would put her breath rate anywhere from 45 to 75 or so breaths per minute. It’s easy enough to check this while in the saddle by with a watch and a second hand. Count how many breaths in 15 seconds and multiply by four to get a rough estimate of how your horse is doing. I want to work my horse to about 75% of her limits every time we go out.

Once I have her in better shape we’ll pick up on refining her maneuvers. I’ll still take her to cutting practice a couple times a month, but I’ll be careful not to over do.

While all of this is going, on I have to work on myself too. I can clean up my leg cues in the arena instead of waiting until I’m wasting cattle. If I’m an active participant on our trail rides I can work on my core strength and seat instead of sitting like a lump. Staying on during all the spooks and jumps, which my little darling will inevitably want to share, will get my butt where it belongs.

In a few months I’m thinking we’ll be good to go. Does it sound like I’m getting ready to compete a little? Hmmmm.