This sounds like an optimum way to condition your hosrse! i am gonna try it on my appendix quarter horse.
im sorry i dont agree with this it is a lot and most people will push there horses into this very quickly. and that could cause the horse a lot of issues. so not pushing the horse into four miles is a good thing. but long troting is a good thing and that builds the best muscle tone and gets them into really good shape. thats what i do with my barrel horse every other day and his time has gotten way better from when i started him on barrels. and ive seen a difference in muscle tone also with just the long troting cecause i had him on one of these programs like your talking about and it wasnt working. but all horses are different also.
I don't think this was explained very clearly or well. First off you should defiantly NOT work your horse 7 days a week! Your horse should always have a break day once a week for it's physical and emotional well being. Also you should vary what you do with your horse, not just the same conditioning everyday, for example Mondays do suppling exersizes like leg-yeilds, circles and sidepassing, tuesday go for a trail ride include galloping, wednesday give the horse off and just hand walk or lunge at the walk, thursday do some low jumping including bounces, rollbacks and oxers. Also the exersize program should be customized for your horse. if you're horse has just been in it's feild eating grass and going out for light weekend hacks, then oviosly it won't be in the shape to trot and canter for 4 miles with no walk breaks! Also if your horse is in better shape you would need a more intense training program. I also do not agree with not doing cicles, your horse has to able to do well rounded cicles in order to do barrels! How will you horse learn to bend around your leg around a barrel if you never teach it?
Ummm the question was asked and a response was given by a world champ. But apparently some folks feel qualified contridicting a person who has probably made more money in a year than most people make in a lifetime. Hmmmm resume's would make a concrete statement.
if you all would sit down and read Marlene's book, Barrel Racing 101, you would be amazed at how much sense her conditioning program makes. this answer describes her every day warm up. it lets the horse relax and think about things, and when you complete four miles without picking on your horse, you will see the change in him. now he's ready to go to work. he's ready to flex and counter arc and you will notice a huge difference on how snappy he is at the smallest cues... do Marlene's warm up for a month and see the changes in your horse before you criticize a world champion.
When I purchased my barrel horse at 9 years old I was told never take her on the trail. That was the worst advice ever. She has been on the trails for 7 years now and rarely sees the inside of an areana. Since working her on the trails she has gone from rearing and hostile to a trusted horse I take my 3 year old twins on. Oh and she also has times three seconds faster than most in our area. She was burnt out. It's up to the reader to have common sense when using the writers advice. Don't take a horse thats fat and out of shape and run the heck out of them. Can we stop caterin g to the stupid and use our heads.
Honestly my horse Amberlee is not the fittest horse after the winter but what I do is make her lope really slow up a steep hill at least five times, and that builds up her endurence. Then later in the season after she is at her best, I put the pole and barrel pattern on the same hill. And have her practice doing the pattern on the hill. So when she gets on the flat arena it is no problem to her and she doesn't break a sweat! She shaved off 6 seconds doing this on both patterns. Now she is running 23 seconds on poles and 16 seconds or less in barrels.