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Paul’s Top Tips for Event Preparation

After the horse has had it’s holiday I usually start at the beginning of December with the older horses by walking and gentle trotting out hacking daily for 4 weeks (providing they’ve had no previous injuries). At week 2 I clip the horses. I give them a bit of time as sometimes they can be quite fresh!

Then I gradually introduce flat work and slow cantering by week 6 to 8 again increasing this as time goes on. I then introduce pole work and jumping the horses by week 8 to 10 however, every horse is different and some need more and some need less.

I also keep the horses in a routine as I find this really helps. I do a lot of hill work and hacking and limit schooling in the arena to just a couple of days per week to keep the horses interested and prevent them from becoming stale.

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Paul’s Top Tips for bringing an Eventer back into work

I usually start by the beginning of December with older horses that need to be fitter than the younger horses and I start with 4 weeks walking and gentle trotting out hacking daily (providing they haven’t had any previous injuries) building up to an hour to an hour and a half by the end of 4 weeks.

I wait to clip the horses until they have done 1-2weeks of ridden work as they can be a little fresh sometimes.

Then I gradually introduce the flat work and slow cantering by weeks 6-8 and again I increase this as time goes on. I then introduce pole work and jumping by weeks 8-10 however, every horse is different and some need a little less. Routine is a very important part of training for me.

I do a lot of hacking/hill work and schooling whilst hacking and limit the arena use to a couple of days per week so the horses don’t become stale.

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Our top tips for fitting a horse rug

It can sometimes be very difficult to find the correct size rug to fit your horse, especially if you’ve bought a new horse and you have no idea what size rug to buy!

Here we will show you how to fit your horses rug correctly and ensure he or she is wearing the correct thickness for the time of year. Firstly we suggest during the spring/sumemr months when the temperature is mild the Equiwear Light Weight 0g turnout rug would be perfect for keeping away the chill, keeping your horse dry and clean the night before a show! The Equiwear Lightweight Turnout 0g comes with a neck cover for the cooler evenings too.

During Autum the Equiwear 200g Middle weight turout is the ideal rug for your horse as it is slightly thicker in weight so will keep them warm and dry during the cooler days and the neck cover will come in handy for the colder evenings keeping your horse snug to the tips of his of her ears.

The Equiwear Heavy Weight Turnout 400g is the ideal winter rug for those cold frosty night times, but can be left on during the day when the temperatures stay very low. The neck cover is ideal to be used over night to keep them extra warm and comes in useful when your horse is clipped to keep them extra toasty.

The best way to measure your horse for their new rug is to measure from the front of the shoulder right to the end of their body at the top of their hind leg. Thi will ensure the rug is big enough to allow for movement in the field but not too big that the rug has the possiblity of slipping back on your horse and causing injury.