As the eventing season has just started again, Marie-Charlotte Fuss, double gold medallist at the European Young Rider Championships with her superb Sillas de la Née, shares her experience with us. She tells us her secrets in terms of physical preparation of the CCE horse.

Indeed, eventing is a demanding discipline that requires a lot of hard work and a good physical condition.

1. When do you start preparing your horses for the show season?

"They do a maintenance job for a good part of the winter, I don't stop the work completely, then they quietly start galloping again at the beginning of the year. »

2. How do you organize the training of your different horses during this preparation?

"They do an average of one canter every two weeks. The rest of the work is split between flat work, jumping sessions, and trotting/lunging. They have a day off on Sunday. As for Hakuna, she does not canter because at 5 years old it is not necessary. »

3. Do you focus on a particular discipline?

"I work a lot on dressage. They only jump a little, once a week is enough. I also work a lot on physical condition with gallops and trotting. I adapt the spacing and intensity of the sessions according to the objectives I set myself. »

Photo© Nicolas Hodys

4. What will you look for from your horse?

"During the gallops, I try to find relaxation, which is not always easy because they are often very happy to go galloping! »

5. How much of this preparation is recovery? What do you favour for a good recovery?

"After a gallop, they do a little trotting the next day and resume normal work the day after. For recovery, we advocate active recovery: they trot for a long time quite relaxed, and then we take them to the ford to cool down the limbs and for them to have some fun! »

6. In addition to the physical preparation, do you work on the mental state of your horses ? If so, how?

"I try to pay attention! It's important to me that they are happy to go to work. When I have time, I like to let them loose in the round pen to play a bit. On top of that, they go to the paddock and outside regularly so I think overall they are pretty happy (well I hope ☺ ). »

7. What should you absolutely avoid doing during this preparatory period?

"You don't want to "over-prepare" them, keep in mind that it's the beginning of the season so they don't get blitzed before they even start the competitions. »

Photo© Nicolas Hodys

8. Are there any rules to follow before and after an intense effort?

"It is necessary to cut the feed a few hours before the effort and warm up the horse so that it goes to work in good conditions.

In competitions, in the case of big events, we take the heart rate as soon as they arrive, then we cool them down, and they walk until the vet agrees.

Then everyone has their own method! Mine are showered then we put the limbs in ice for 30 minutes. We repeat this twice and then for the night we apply clay plus bandages. We check that the horse has enough water available to him, and that he is behaving normally. »

Heart rate of the active horse

9. How will the Seaver Strap help you during this preparatory phase?

"The Seaver strap will help me to follow the performance of my horses in training. I'll be able to get accurate information on the intensity of effort I'm asking for so I can adapt training. »

10. How do you prepare yourself? Do you practice other sports besides horseback riding to prepare yourself physically?

"I'm lucky enough to be part of the Livio stable, which organises a two-hour session with a sports coach every week, in which I participate. On top of that, I have a rowing machine at home which I use twice a week and I go running on Sunday mornings when I'm not competing. »

11. Any last words of advice?

"Always listen to your horse so that you don't go "too far" and have a horse that is in great shape on the big day! »

Photo© Nicolas Hodys

Team Seaver

*A big thank you to our ambassador, Marie-Charlotte, for this article ☺