22/05/2025
*** HARD GROUND ***
I have seen some very worrying “advice” on social media over the past couple of weeks, recommending cantering/galloping and jumping on the hard ground as a way to condition your horse’s legs to it. NO!!!!! You CANNOT condition a horse’s joints to hard ground! The more you canter and jump on hard ground, the more you will hammer the joints and help your horse get arthritis! Please do not listen to anyone advising you to condition your horse’s legs to hard ground, unless you want your horse to head towards steroid injections or early retirement. Cross training your horse (riding on a variety of surfaces) is good for legs, but hammering around on hard ground is not!
The ground, certainly in my area, is currently like concrete. PLEASE think twice about jumping/cantering in fields at the moment, as it’s almost the equivalent of jumping your horses on the road. If you are struggling to keep your horses/ponies fit, and can’t use or hire an arena, then trotting steadily up hills out hacking is a great alternative. Or just lots of hacking in walk to keep them ticking over until we get some much needed rain!
I’ve seen horses this week who are simply jarred up/foot sore from being turned out on this hard ground, so try not to add to the concussion by making them work on the rock hard ground....
I’m off to do a rain dance so that I can get Alfred out Eventing soon (ground too hard for me to enter him up at the moment).
Photo of Harry back in 2010, jumping clear around a big Intermediate track at Salperton Park.
Feel free to share, but not to copy and paste my words.
