First Speed Work of the Season: 5 x 1 km Repeats

We finally had a nice day in which to do speed work because the ground was finally soft enough to have a half-decent workout without worrying about damaging Gamble’s legs.  I wanted to get up to a kilometre of faster-than-intermediate pace (1:49/km), so the plan was to do a kilometre of trot and slow canter, followed by 5 kilometre repeats at increasing speeds, each separated by a 2 minute rest period.  Here are our splits:

2:12 (aiming for 2:15)

1:55 (aiming for 1:55)

1:37 (trying to keep him to 1:45)

1:35 (aiming for 1:35)

1:32 (aiming for 1:35, but then aimed for 1:30 at the end.)

I’m quite happy with how Gamble did.  I could have asked him for another, but I didn’t want to push it.  But he definitely had the ability and the will.

The only downside was that one of his overreach boots rubbed him raw on his left fore, and his withers were rubbed raw again as well.  I’m breaking out the old “holey” saddle pad (with the withers cut out) and I’ll look for some gummy overreach boots that are a bit lighter than the Supra ones I was using.


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