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Equine Fitness WorkshopCreate effective, safe, sport specific fitness programs for your horse

Presented by Shelley Thomas, MPT, CERP

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Introductions

Hi, I’m Shelley!

• Physical therapist – have worked in orthopedics, pediatrics, and neurology specialized practices.• Certified Equine Rehabilitation Specialist from University of Tennessee• Rider/competitor/horseperson• Background with horses includes running barns, owning a horse

boarding/training business, competing upper level eventing and dressage, and now working with horses and riders to improve movement, fitness, and performance.

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Equine Fitness Workshop Agenda

• Session 1• Lay the foundation - What’s in a fitness plan? Why is it important?

• Session 2• Deep dive into how to build different types of fitness and what sports require.

• Session 3• Let’s talk about recovery, ligaments and tendons, and using heartrate data to

in your decision making.

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What is purpose of fitness program?

• Help horse move properly, efficiently.• Prepare the body for load by creating positive adaptations.• Decrease risk of injury by creating positive adaptations.

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Movement and Compensation

The body is very good at compensating! Takes path of least resistance.

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Reasons for suboptimal movement

• Structure• Pathology, pain and injury.• Imbalances: Conformation, mobility, motor control, disuse.

• Programming• Poor assessment/no individualization, poor set/rep/periodization scheme,

poor recovery, working through pain/fatigue/soreness.

• Technique• Poor skill, repetitive exercise, decreased motor planning and sequencing.

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Positive Adaptation is the Name of the Game

• The body is very good at adapting.• We want to create optimal movement with fitness programs.• Optimal movement isn’t textbook.• Look at every situation, bring in all the variables. • What is optimal for one horse may not be for another.

• Handout – Exercise Induced Adaptations

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Injury

Pain/effusion

Inhibition

Poor movement

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Fatigue is dangerous. Dose carefully.

• One of the most effective ways to improve optimal movement is by increasing fitness. • Fatigue is dangerous and causes injuries!• Fatigue should be carefully dosed. It’s a variable in a fitness program

you want to control very carefully.• Fatigue is a way of saying the body isn’t getting enough oxygen to

create energy and remove waste. Muscle contractions, nerve conduction, and connective tissue recoil is starting to slow down.

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Fitness Pushes Back Fatigue Threshold

Increased cardiac and lung capacity, grow

more blood vessels

Increased blood supply and oxygen to

tissues.

Cells can create more energy to function (ATP). Remove waste

more efficiently.

Muscles fire adequately, decreased movement

compensation

Decreased stress on tissues.

Decreased risk of injury.

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Repetitive Movements vs “One Bad Step”

• Three major issues cause horses to get hurt (excluding trauma):• Fatigue• Force applied to quickly and taking connective tissue to end range.• Repetition of poor movement patterns leading to further injury.

• Injury risk goes up when movement are too:• Advanced• Fast• Loaded• Far towards end range

• Rule of thumb: Range of motion before strength.

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Checklist - Is your horse ready to work? (in handouts)

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Reaching Peak Fitness

• How long does it take to get a horse fit? That depends.• How do you know you reached peak fitness?• Be a detective.• HR data (session 3)• Speed of recovery• What’s “left in the tank” after a hard workout• Muscle biopsy data

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Phases in Fitness Plan

• Rest• Acclimation to work• Full work• Active rest

• Horse will cycle between the phases on a week-to-week, day-to-day cycle. They don’t necessarily move in a linear progression.

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Type of Work

• Long and slow• Speed, intervals• Strength, power• Skill• Flexibility• These all have a relationship to recovery (session 3)

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Maintaining Peak Fitness – Acute vs. Chronic Workload

This is a thought-provoking research study.

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Maintaining Peak Fitness

• You’ve built positive adaptations. How do you keep them?• Is rest valuable? Depends on situation.• Access to turnout• Age• Injuries, medical history• Personality

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Next session

• Tuesday, May 12th at 6:00 pm MDT• How to design a program for specific types of fitness, demands of

different sports.

•Questions?

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Email: info@intrepidwellness.com www.instagram.com/IntrepidWellness Web: www.intrepidwellness.com www.facebook.com/IntrepidWellness

Equine Fitness Workshop: Exercise Induced Adaptations

These adaptations occur when exercise is dosed in a “build zone,” meaning the exercise intensity is high enough to trigger physiologic changes to better deal with working at that level.

Adaptation Details Cardiac output The amount of blood the heart pumps per beat can

be increased as the heart muscle gets stronger and the pump is more efficient.

Lung capacity The amount of air pulled into the lungs with each breath can be increased, which allows more oxygen to be transferred to blood cells and brought to muscles.

Capillary bed density The horse’s body will build more capillary beds so blood reaches tissues to deliver oxygen and pick up waste products.

Bone density Bone density increases with exercise, so bones become stronger and better able to handle load. This is especially true in long bones like the humerus, femur, and cannon bones.

Tendon strength and pliability Collagen fibers in tendons increase strength and get more aligned, allowing tendon to handle load and stretching challenges more effectively.

Ligament strength and pliability Collagen fibers in ligaments increase strength and get more aligned to better handle load.

Muscle strength, size Muscle fiber size increases so each contractile unit in the muscle is larger, resulting in increased muscle strength when contracted.

Neurological connections The density of neurological connections in the brain with repeated practice, making the brain-body connection much stronger. Neurological recruitment of muscles also increases with practice.

Psychological tolerance to work, fatigue The horse learns to tolerate fatigue. This is a learned skill and requires practice.

Energy production in cells Cells improve ability to generate ATP, access stored energy, and if exposed to anaerobic training, use alternate sources for fuel that don’t rely on glucose.

Genetic expression Exercise can turn genes on or off, based on stressors horse is exposed to. This is a new area of discovery in exercise physiology and we will see more discussion about this as research unfolds.

Email: info@intrepidwellness.com www.instagram.com/IntrepidWellness Web: www.intrepidwellness.com www.facebook.com/IntrepidWellness

Fitness Program Preparation Checklist:

Complete this checklist to assess if your horse is ready to begin a fitness program

A rehab program is not a fitness program. If your horse is recovering from an injury, separate these activities. They must first complete the rehab program, fully recover from the injury, then transition to a fitness program/return to sport.

Check all that apply. If all areas are checked, your horse is ready to begin a fitness program.

___ No active injuries. If previously injured, rehab program has been completed and horse has been cleared by vet to return to work.

___ No heat or swelling noted in legs.

___ Range of motion is within normal limits in legs, neck, poll, jaw, back.

___ Teeth are floated/checked.

___ Feet have been trimmed/shod, angles are appropriate for conformation.

___ Nutrition is appropriate for workload. Horse is not significantly underweight.

___ Veterinary care is up-to-date (vaccines, worming, etc.)

___ Tack fit has been assessed. Tack fits well to avoid causing pain or discomfort.

___ Vitals signs have been taken at rest and are within normal limits.

___ Rider/owner has mapped out fitness program for horse to reach specific targets. Make sure the plan is tailored to the horse, not to the targets. Sometimes fitness takes more time than you want to allow (sigh).

___ Rider is ready to ride (fitness/nutrition/schedule/etc.)

___ Other:

___ Other: