Warming
Up for the Ride
By Todd Martin
I
have written quite a few articles on training, and thought with cooler
weather around the corner( I hope), I should get back to the basics.
We will talk a little bit about properly warming up your horse before
you start to train.
Keep
in mind I did mention this is before you train or work you horse,
and that I do not feel that this is really training, yet a very essential
part of your program. You can over do this and end up with a horse
that eventually starts to hide his face or have a horse that guides
like a wet noodle between your reins. The purpose for flexing and
warming your horse up is the same reason why the gym teacher in school
had us stretch before we started running or playing a sport. It was
to prevent injuries to our muscles and tendons.
I will
give you a basic overview of my routine, that by the way I vary quite
often as to keep them from thinking that it is a routine. I like to
start them off with some flexing and asking them to move off the bit
and follow their nose. I don’t want for them to put their nose
to my foot right off the bat. If they do this, I know that it has
become a routine and not a stretch. I will also ask them to move out
at a walk, while at the same time I am asking them to bend and flex
at the neck. This allows me to get a deeper stretch, which helps me
loosen the shoulders. As they progress in training I want to be able
to get this kind of bend and softness at a trot and a lope. You should
do this one side at a time, and slowly progress into their training
so that the horse can softly go from far left to far right with out
a pause or hesitation in the middle. This will help them later with
guiding and eventually with lead changes.
Before I trot them off and get their legs loose, I like to make them
move off my legs at the shoulder and the hip. I start with the inside
leg and move to the outside leg. Once I have done this the fresh has
diminished, and they are ready to move out a little and stretch the
legs. I prefer to start with a slow and supple trot moving into a
long trot. How long I stay at a slow trot depends on the horse. If
it is a horse with a bit of a motor I will spend a little more time
on the soft trot. The long trot is something that I have found to
be a very important part of my routine. This allows the horse to really
stretch out the muscles and tendons in his legs before we go to work.
O.K.
now for the time frame. This is something that depends on where the
horse is at in training. On young horses that have just started in
training I will spend quite a bit of time here, because they are still
learning how to give to the bit and move off of my legs. For them
this is training too. So I will spend about 15 minutes here maybe
20 if the horse is in his first 90 days of training, and that depends
on how fast he is picking things up. Now, if he has been ridden for
quite some time, then I will spend 5 to maybe 10 minutes depending
on the horses muscle mass. The thicker the horse the more time and
the slower I ask for the bend, because there is more muscle to flex.
The
important thing to keep in mind is that if you start out on your horse
and begin to ask for him to flex and bend to the right, and he automatically
puts his nose to your boot, then you have probably done a little bit
of overkill. You will probably need to spend some time sending them
out forward at a long trot and work on going straight for a while.
If not it will effect your guide when you try to work one handed.
Just remember, flexing and stretching is something you do before you
exercise and work, it is not the actual work it self.
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