Re: Equine Conditioning Plateaus?

[Tivers <Tivers@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-01-06 01:22:27 EST, bmurdock@cyberhighway.net writes:

<< Human athletes often experience "plateaus" during their conditioning
efforts, where their rate of performance increase levels off. My question is
do our horses typically experience the same leveling period?  >>

Bruce,

Yes, this happens with horses, too, but you want to avoid the flattening out
by setting up your own conditioning cycles--as in a hard week, a medium hard
week and light week (recovery) and a hard week. These you want to taylor to
the individual horse, dodging the plateaus. That light week would enable the
horse to gather himself together before getting stale.

You want your horse gaining or maintaining body weight throughout the
process--weight drops indicate an approaching plateau. Horses that hit a
plateau that the owner doesn't recognize soon enough are very susceptible to
injury.

ti