Harry’s system of routine fitness work for his horses from a young age builds resilient core strength without putting too much pressure on them physically.
Harry Meade has risen to the top of the eventing tree in a large part thanks to his extraordinary ability to go clear inside the time at five-star level. This isn’t just down to innate speed of the horse he’s riding, given he has consistently achieved fault-free clears on a range of horses with varying pedigrees. In this article exclusive to H&H subscribers, Harry reveals the meticulous fitness system that underpins his performance
The new eventing world number one’s recent cross-country record at five-star is outstanding. In his last nine runs at the highest level, he has produced six clears inside the time, results that speak volumes for how Harry Meade gets horses fit.
Many horses and riders never go clear inside the time at CCI5*; Harry has repeatedly steered more than one horse on the same day to beat the clock. The majority of this achievement must be thanks to years of experience in honing a natural talent, but there’s clearly a skill in producing so many different horses to perform at their peak at the elite levels of eventing.
The son of the 1972 Olympic champion Richard Meade admits: “We have quite an orthodox approach; it’s a combination of old-fashioned horsemanship with reliable, proven science.”
It sounds so simple, but Harry is exceedingly meticulous. It all begins with bespoke treatment for every horse.
“We’ve always had the philosophy of trying to treat each horse as if it’s the only one on the yard,” says Harry.
How Harry Meade gets horses fit
The foundation of Harry’s successful horse management is fitness. He doesn’t run his horses fast at national one-day events, yet they are primed to perform when it really matters.
But while they might appear to be taking life in the slow lane in their formative years, Harry says his horses “start fitness work early in their career – we’re lucky we have some really good hills to work on”.
He walks and trots the young horses up a long grassy slope to “build core strength”. He estimates that from April to November, “95% of their work is done on grass”.
“They start going up here aged four or five and once they have that strength they never lose it, even with time off,” he explains. “I don’t think of it as fitness work, just learning to work in a balanced way, and as a by-product they get very strong and fit.
Fitness work up hills starts early on in Harry’s horses’ careers.
(Image credit: William Carey)
“They develop a core base fitness, building resilience, and it increases gradually over time without having to have a deep push. This avoids putting too much pressure on them physically,” Harry adds.
“We work on the hills with relaxation, focusing on their breathing and softness, to provide the maximum cardiovascular benefit with minimum stress on their legs.”
Every rider has their variation on fitness work, according to their facilities and terrain. Where Harry’s strategy differs is his commitment to tracking data, which allows him to monitor the individual over its entire career.
He has kept a detailed hand-written record of every fitness session for every horse in the run-up to a CCI4*-L or CCI5* since 2003, including which hill or gallop they worked up, how many times they went up, the pace, going, weather, how they felt and how they recovered.
Harry makes notes after every horse’s gallop in a folder that details every fitness session leading up to a big event – with records going back to 2003.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)
After their target event he makes a summary of how they coped and what, if anything, he’d change in their preparation next time.
“It means I’m able to bottle up what has worked really well with different horses, and know how to peak at the right time,” Harry explains. “I can compare horses that have been prepared through faster work to those who predominantly did longer slower bits. I can compare similar types of horses 15 years apart.
“It also allows me to have a precedent in a setback, knowing how horses who missed a period of work were affected. If a horse needs a change of plan leading up to an event, I can look back over the years and see if there is a precedent.
“I started doing this in the era of roads and tracks and the fitness programme I use now is broadly the same as I used back then.”
No stone left unturned in pursuit of peak fitness
Part of the routine recovery strategy is making sure the horses clear their airways after a gallop session, with their heads down grazing, so any discharge can drain out rather than back into their lungs.
Some horses need more help than others with clearing the airways. It was Harry’s grand old campaigner Away Cruising who induced the regular use of a nebuliser at Blenheim in 2016. Despite being super fit, Away Cruising uncharacteristically struggled with his breathing early on the course at Blenheim, and was subsequently diagnosed with equine asthma. For the rest of his career he had nebuliser treatment twice a day, and went on to line up at 10 CCI5*s.
“Any horse with compromised wind in my yard uses a BreathEazy nebuliser in the run-up to their target event, and it makes a big difference,” Harry adds.
Harry’s head groom Jess Errington with one of their horses demonstrating the use of a nebuliser to improve their breathing.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)
Steamed hay or haylage is another nod to keeping dust levels low.
Harry prefers to feed his mares hay rather than haylage, and they also have a slightly different work routine to the geldings to reduce their likelihood of tying up.
“For this reason, the mares will have two short bits of work a day rather than one long session,” says Harry.
All the horses have either steamed hay or haylage to minimise dust levels in their forage.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)
This approach is borne out by his huge success with mares – Cavalier Crystal finished fourth at Badminton in 2025, third at Burghley in both 2023 and 2024 (two of these rounds were inside the time), and Annaghmore Valoner won Bramham in 2024 before finishing fourth at Burghley on her five-star debut (both inside the time). Grafennacht, the former ride of William Fox-Pitt, has already won a CCI4*-L and finished fourth at Kentucky CCI5* (inside the time) since arriving in Harry’s yard.
His remarkable five-star record is a testament to the precision and depth of how Harry Meade gets horses fit. By combining old-school horsemanship with data-driven detail, he consistently produces horses that peak at exactly the right moment.
Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
