There is a lot to being a successful equestrian, but as we have already discussed, it is important to have the right horse as well as a healthy and strong legged horse. In my last blog, the second in a two part series, I discussed the importance of the proper saddle fit. There is a lot of information out there about equine care, and with the recent wave of "all-natural" equestrians it is often easy to get sucked into using a natural product that has minimal cost, but also minimal results. This blog attempts to show you the importance of changing your riding environment. Doing repetitive action is boring not only for yourself, but for your horse and minimally effective.
Over my 15 years in the equestrian world I have seen a lot of different horses in terms of health and breed, and a lot of different approaches to supplemental care. The tips and suggestions below are a compilation of what I have learned and have seen to work best.
We have all been told more than once the importance of doing things differently when at the gym so that our body doesn't get used to the repetitive motion. If you do the same exercise routine every day, eventually it will have minimal, if any, beneficial impact on you. The same is true when it comes to you and your equine partner.
As we all know, horses are like children. They can become bored or impatient easily. In order to avoid this, and to get the most out of your workout, it is important to do different disciplines of riding in different locations. For me this means riding in the arena one day, trail riding the next or maybe a combo of both. When I am in the arena perhaps we will do reining patterns, or just a variety of exercises or maybe work on trail patterns. When I am on the "trail" sometimes we get on the road and do a lot of transitions and distance conditioning and other times maybe we will go on a narrow trail and scale a mountain. No matter what we are doing, we are in the end accomplishing the same end goals.
We are still achieving haunch turns, bending, flexing, backing, stopping, minimal contact, transitions, etc.. They are just being accomplished in different ways and places. This variety keeps your horse guessing and paying attention to each of your clues. It allows horses to do the same stretches in different size spaces, with different distractions and different obstacles to overcome. This not only makes your horse more versatile but also assists in desensitizing them.
This doesn't mean that on some days one may need to be spent entirely in the arena doing lots of small quick exercises. Or an entire day working on a slow and easy walk on the trail or perhaps just working on conditioning your horse to pattern for an upcoming competition. I am just stressing that about 80+% of your time should likely be spent doing the things mentioned in the above paragraph changing things up during the ride.
Below is a list of exercises I like to do in different locations. It is important to note that the levels of these exercises depend on the horse's knowledge, ability and mood that day. All of these exercise last between 2 - 20 minutes and all have at least a 2-minute break of just free rein walking between them. Most rides should last only 40-50 minutes. Some that may include both arena and a short trail ride so may last longer perhaps closer to an hour 20. A planned 8+ mile trail ride might take all day and consist of only a few of these exercises to keep your partner alert and aware of the new surroundings.
Arena Exercises (in different patterns):
- Free rein, leg and seat turns
- Circles (big to small and small to big)
- Figure 8s
- Seat stops, backs and turns
- Long trotting
- Poll crossing, passing and backing
- Shoulders in and out
- Hips in and out
- C circles and counter C circles
- Wall roll backs, circle roll backs
- Weaving
- Shoulder in and out
- Hip in and out
- Transitions
- Collected both up and down transitions
- Speed control
- One rein stops
- Forward moving side stepping
- Roll backs
- Circles (shoulder, hip and mid-cage control)
- A variety of collection
- Hill climbing
- Speed control
- Step placement
- Pivots
- Sprint and distance condition
- Collected and non-collected flatland speed condition
- Stopping, backing
- Trust
- Desensitizing
- One rein stops
As always, thank you for taking the time read my latest blog and I hope you will come back for my next post on how to be the most successful equestrian in preparation of a competition! Happy riding!