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You may feel like warming up is an unnecessary part of the ride. Especially if you are just planning on riding quickly, doing a targeted warm up may feel like a waste of time. However, the warm up is essential before exercise and boasts numerous benefits for our horses. Keep reading to learn more about how to warm up effectively and help your horse perform at their best.
The Importance of warming up
Warming up is meant to prepare the muscles, tendons, and ligaments for work. Many horses come from a stall or spent time on the cross ties before begin asked to work. From this period of rest, the body has to go through numerous physical changes to prepare for intense movement. Even if the horse comes straight from a field, they are still not ready to get right to work.
During a warm up...
increase blood circulates to the muscles
muscles become more elastic
heart-rate gradually increases
joints flex, allowing joint fluid to move and lubricate
These gradual changes allow the horse's body to switch from rest to activity. This slow warm up period diverts blood circulation from the organs to the muscles. This helps metabolic waste move faster through the muscles, preventing the buildup of lactic acid, minimizing fatigue, and allowing more stretch of the muscle fibers.
A sound warm up routine will help...
prevent injury
improve performance
speed up recovery
Cold muscles and ligaments are less elastic and are therefore more prone to injury. A slow warm up allows blood flow to be directed to the muscles and prepares tendons, ligaments, and joints for more rigorous use.
Warming up is essential to preventing injuries and improving a horse's longevity and performance, however, an important aspect of getting ready to ride is often left out.
What is often left out
Most riders understand the importance of warming up a horse physically before an intense ride, however, ensuring a horse is mentally ready for work is not often discussed. A sound training regime should consider the horse's mental health and ability to learn just as much as their physical ability to perform.
Tension, stubbornness, and balking are all signs that your horse is telling you 'no.' While sometimes, these behaviors arise from pain, sometimes horses just need a chance to work on basic skills before they are ready to move on. Taking the time to incorporate a mental warm up can help your horse perform at their best and get more out of their work.
What to look for when warming up
As you move through your warm up routine, you should feel your horse getting ready for more rigorous exercise. You should feel:
a long, loose stride
responsiveness to the aids
a willingness to perform
Warming up should take your horses from a state of relaxation in their field or stall to being ready for activity and learning. Warming up is about more than loosening the body. Just as your horse's strides should begin to lengthen, your horse should be mentally ready to take on harder tasks.
Now is the time to evaluate your horse. Are they warming up out of any stiffness? Will they move forward actively when asked? Does their stride feel relaxed and even in tempo? Can my horse perform their basic skill set?
If any of these questions can be answered 'no', it may be better to forego an intense ride today and instead work on the basics or just do some gentle exercise.
How to warm up
Creating a warm up routine for your horse should be individualized. However, if you don't already have a set schedule to follow, a basic template can help you determine what works for you.
Warming up comes in four main phases: relaxing, loosening, warming up, and suppling. Regardless of your warm up routine, you will want to structure it that way as tendons and ligaments will need a loosening period before they can be ready to work. While many horseback riders talk about these categories in terms of the horse's physical body, a mental warm up mirrors these phases.
The 4-Phase Warm Up Routine
If you don't have a set warm up routine for your horse or are looking to update it, the basic 4-phase routine is a good place to start.
Relaxation: Get the horse comfortable in their surroundings and introduce them to what is coming next.
Expected time: As long as it takes
Exercises:
Letting your horse roam free for a few minutes before tacking is ideal. Target training at a slow walk and trot can get their warm up started.
Walk the horse around the arena before mounting. Let them investigate anything that might be of interest. Once they are relaxed and responding well to you moving them on the ground you can mount.
Loosening: Let the horse get moving and physically prepared for more rigorous work. Check that the horse is willing mentally and able to perform their baseline skills.
Expected time: 5 - 15 minutes
Exercises:
Walk with loose reins. After a few minutes add in large circles and looping lines. Change direction a few times.
Ask your horse to perform basic commands (halt, walk on, etc.) to reconfirm the basics under saddle and ensure your horse's willingness to perform.
Warming Up: Get the blood pumping to the muscles. Warm muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Ensure the horse is willingly taking on more complex tasks, and ready to learn.
Expected time: 5 minutes
Exercises:
Get your horse moving actively forward. Most people will move to the trot, but some horses warm up better at the canter.
Ask for a few transitions in the gait and assess the horse's movement and willingness.
Suppling: Get the horse bending laterally and starting to push through from the hind end. Horse can start being ridden in contact and working towards collection. Start introducing the type of work the horse will be doing slowly and assess willingness. The horse's work for the day should blend seamlessly into the warm up.
Expected time: Varying
Exercises:
Circles, changes of directions, bending lines, serpentines, figure 8's, transitions
Lateral work, basic dressage work, spins (depending on the horse's level)
Pole work to small jumps but don't overdo jumping in the warm up
At this point, your horse should be ready to transition into their work for the day. If at any point in the warm up the horse feels off in their movement or resistant, take a step back and assess why your horse feels that way. Make adjustments to your plan for the session accordingly.
Over time your horse will be familiar with their warm up routine and it will act as a subconscious cue for them to mentally and physically prepare for work. Over time your horse will be mentally more prepared to work and perform better.
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