3 ways to improve your horse’s fitness

Ingrid Klimke / Photographer Horst Streitferdt

Many riders face this situation: you train with a goal in mind, you finally start to get it right and… your horse is lame. Each of us knows this feeling of disappointment and confusion – “what did I do wrong”?

What can be done to prevent this from happening? First, understand that you can’t control all the horse’s actions and some injuries simply cannot be avoided. But we can improve the horse’s fitness, which will help him minimize the likelihood of some damage to the musculoskeletal system.

Jill Copenhagen, a U.S. veterinarian, board-certified chiropractor and equine rehabilitation physician, shared three ways to improve horse health and fitness.

Step Workouts

Thinking about how to get your horse in shape and long workouts, jumping and pole work immediately come to mind? In fact, long-term work is not the only way to keep a horse in good physical shape. long walking workouts (on a vigorous, marching gait) are also important in preparing the horse. They are promote muscle building и strengthening the cardiovascular system, are optimal for the physical. In addition, such training helps to stabilize the horse’s mental state – even if your fighting partner is healthy, what is the use of active training if during it the horse is constantly nervous and refuses to comply with the requirements of the rider?

Stepping 40-minute workout on various surfaces (sand, grass, etc.) several times a week can significantly improve the general condition of the horse. It is worth remembering that constant work on perfectly flat ground will make it difficult for the horse to adapt to other surfaces. Whenever a horse works on grass, harder or softer ground, its soft tissues (eg, ligaments) will be heavily stressed and deformed. Combined with the added stress of competition, this can lead to injury.

Crossfit for the horse

Athletes-marathoners are engaged not only in running – many of them are engaged in weightlifting and yoga. As with humans, CrossFit can be one of the key factors in preparing a horse.

Examples of crossfit exercises for the horse:

• Work on raised cavaletti
• Gymnastic jumps over small obstacles
• Work in hilly terrain
• Swimming/aquatraining
• Short field canter training
• Walks in the woods

Strengthening the muscular corset of the back

It is very important to pay attention to exercises that develop the horse’s back muscles. This will help remove unnecessary stress and stress from the limbs, which will reduce the likelihood of injury.

A horse that always works with its head up, arched at the loin, and not engaging the back muscles will have a harder time than one that trains with a rounded neck, raised withers, and a “turned on” back.

An effective exercise for strengthening the muscles of the back and lumbar region of the horse is trot on a long reinwhen your horse is pulling down and forward. This simple exercise encourages you to lift your back and stretch your muscles. It is also suitable for horses suffering from back pain or kissing vertebrae. However, it should not be used if your horse has recently had a front leg injury.

Another exercise – reinsertion. It is suitable for strengthening the horse’s back, and a properly executed backward movement (diagonal legwork) requires the horse to coordinate its own movements. To complicate the exercise, you can try back down on a slope. If this is too difficult for the horse, start doing it by hand. Step by step, it will become easier and easier.

These three exercises are suitable for those horses that carry regular sports loads, as well as for horses of a hobby class. They will help develop endurance and improve the physical condition of the horse without long hard training. But remember, if your partner has had an injury, it’s best to check with your veterinarian before exercising.