My mare's gotten quite... 'unfit'... She has almost no muscle tone and is pretty much all 'fat'...
She's on a break from riding until school ends near the end of this month... After that, I'm goin to start riding her a lot again... but she's so unfit, that, even though she's on a break, I want to keep her at least kinda-sorta fit.
I want to start lunging my girl... (even though she's scared of the lunge whip, it's pretty easy once she figured out what I want her to do)... but I don't want to do too much too fast.
She really needs some muscle and all, and I want to lunge her at a trot both ways for a set time... say, 15 minutes or so... consistently.
She has been ridden a few times just to make sure that I could still control her (when she's not ridden for a long time, she get's to where it's hard to manage her with any type of bridle)... and I've jumped on her bareback a few times, just for the heck of it. She's trotted and cantered under saddle about three times for about five minutes each and we've had one good gallop since she went on 'rest' back in... Feburary, I'm pretty sure. My girl honestly hasn't been ridden that much at all this year so far...
So, how long would be 'good' and how long would be 'harmful' for lunging her ONLY at a trot everyday. I'm planning on getting out and lunging her everyday except on the weekends (she'll get weekends off) for a set amount of time, but I don't know how long would be best...
Here's a picture of what she currently looks like. She still needs to gain a little more weight...
^(Gyps is on the right...)
She's on a break from riding until school ends near the end of this month... After that, I'm goin to start riding her a lot again... but she's so unfit, that, even though she's on a break, I want to keep her at least kinda-sorta fit.
I want to start lunging my girl... (even though she's scared of the lunge whip, it's pretty easy once she figured out what I want her to do)... but I don't want to do too much too fast.
She really needs some muscle and all, and I want to lunge her at a trot both ways for a set time... say, 15 minutes or so... consistently.
She has been ridden a few times just to make sure that I could still control her (when she's not ridden for a long time, she get's to where it's hard to manage her with any type of bridle)... and I've jumped on her bareback a few times, just for the heck of it. She's trotted and cantered under saddle about three times for about five minutes each and we've had one good gallop since she went on 'rest' back in... Feburary, I'm pretty sure. My girl honestly hasn't been ridden that much at all this year so far...
So, how long would be 'good' and how long would be 'harmful' for lunging her ONLY at a trot everyday. I'm planning on getting out and lunging her everyday except on the weekends (she'll get weekends off) for a set amount of time, but I don't know how long would be best...
Here's a picture of what she currently looks like. She still needs to gain a little more weight...
^(Gyps is on the right...)