Road Work

[Jolene]

Hello there.  I'm wanting to breed my Quarter Horse mare and show the foal and I want to do road work with him ( just gonna use 'him' here either way, easier) but I'm not exactly sure how to go about it.  I know you would want to gradually increase the work, but could someone tell me definitively what road work entails?  Maybe describe what you do when fitting your horse?  Are there any books at all on the subject or that cover the subject in-depth?  Plus, the road that I'd be using is blacktop but will have small rocks on it, should I go ahead and do as little as necessary to keep him comfortable and keep adding on as he gets comfortable or would I get the fittening properties while using something like Boa boots?  Will the hooves still condition and harden if I'm using boots or would they stay a little 'soft'?  Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Larri DB]

Hi there, don't know how much of a help this will be....

I bought my filly as a yearling and once we had acclimatised her to vehicles on the yard I took her out onto a very quiet lane for a few minutes a day to watch traffic go by, then we added walking up and down that lane, and got further each week, just building up slowly at a pace she was comfortable with - mentally and physically.

After a few months we were out walking everywhere for an hour or so and by the time she was three we would be out for a few hours at the weekends exploring all the paths and bridleways, coping even with the main road, bridges, railways etc.

(hacking her out was a doddle once she was backed - she knew the area off by heart!!)

I think the important thing was that we were walking, did very little trot work - oh and she wasn't ever shod either - all the walking built up over time really conditioned her  feet (long before I knew that barefoot hooves needed conditioning :P )
I had her in a head collar to start, then a lunging cavesson and then moved onto a bridle and long reins attached to a surcingle.

It was huge fun and we built up a fantastic bond together (and my god was I fit :lol: )