Thursday Video from Nupafeed: Conditioning in Vermont with Anna Loschiavo

Conditioning in VT— here’s a video of how I train. (Sound on for narration). We don’t have an expensive gallop track with perfect footing at a calculated grade, but I’m perfectly ok with that because I’ve never run a cross country course that looked like that either. After warming up, I do three gallop sets in my Uncle Mike and Aunt Penny’s beautiful, undulating hay field— speed variation and length depending on level. Then I trot up our dirt road which is rocky and can be hard or soft depending on the rain and grading schedule. The upper level horses finish up the hill in this video. The woods ground is beautiful to ride on but it’s steep, it’s uneven, there are rocks, sometimes we hit them although we can avoid most big ones, we have to jump over a couple water bars, fallen down trees and branches that are scattered about at odd angles. My horses and I have to think quickly, they have to pay attention to their feet while they’re climbing a massive hill. I broke some of the branches since this video and the land owner cleared one of the gnarlier fallen trees that we jump, but honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I have been training on this hill for years with fit, sound horses. I believe that intelligently (**very key word**) training on uneven footing where the horses have to think about their feet makes them that much more aware while also conditioning their tendons and ligaments to strains and pressures that they’re going to be exposed to in competition. It might not look pretty but I am thankful for what I have and how it helps my horses 🙌🏻❤️👊🏻Prince Renan is in the video below, you can see Spartacus Q tackle the hill in a video in the comments.#poulinpowered #straffordsaddlery #teamstuebben Poulin Grain Strafford Saddlery Stübben NA

Posted by Anna Loschiavo Eventing on Tuesday, October 2, 2018

You don’t need a fancy gallop track to get results —  just ask Anna Locschiavo, who’s clocked in her first two international wins this year aboard her two top horses. Anna is based out of her family’s Chase Hollow Farm in Bradford, Vermont, where she uses the resources the Vermont landscape provides to condition her horses. From Anna:

“Conditioning in Vermont — here’s a video of how I train. (Sound on for narration). We don’t have an expensive gallop track with perfect footing at a calculated grade, but I’m perfectly OK with that because I’ve never run a cross country course that looked like that either. After warming up, I do three gallop sets in my Uncle Mike and Aunt Penny’s beautiful, undulating hay field — speed variation and length depending on level. Then I trot up our dirt road which is rocky and can be hard or soft depending on the rain and grading schedule.

“The upper level horses finish up the hill in this video. The woods ground is beautiful to ride on but it’s steep, it’s uneven, there are rocks, sometimes we hit them although we can avoid most big ones, we have to jump over a couple water bars, fallen down trees and branches that are scattered about at odd angles. My horses and I have to think quickly, they have to pay attention to their feet while they’re climbing a massive hill.

“I broke some of the branches since this video and the land owner cleared one of the gnarlier fallen trees that we jump, but honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I have been training on this hill for years with fit, sound horses. I believe that intelligently (**very key word**) training on uneven footing where the horses have to think about their feet makes them that much more aware while also conditioning their tendons and ligaments to strains and pressures that they’re going to be exposed to in competition. It might not look pretty but I am thankful for what I have and how it helps my horses 🙌🏻❤️👊🏻” 

In the video above, Anna ride’s Gina and Rodney Oakes’ Prince Renan, with whom she won the CIC2* at the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event this May, and in the video below she rides her mother Melanie’s Spartacus Q, recent two-star winner at Plantation Field. Sound on for narration as they gallop up the hill!

Posted by Anna Loschiavo Eventing on Tuesday, October 2, 2018