Best Warm up Exercises During Winter to Loosen up Your Horse

Imagine going out for a run on a cold day and immediately taking off at a brisk run. For most of us, that would be really uncomfortable, maybe painful, and put you at risk of injury. Research shows horse’s bodys experience muscle stiffness and tightening of ligaments and tendons during cold temperatures (Horse Network). Properly warming up slowly and gently during cold weather will help loosen up the horse’s muscles, increase blood flow, help maintain flexibility to prevent injury.

Pre-Ride Warmup

We know that the horse’s body is a mirror to the rider’s body. A stiff, cold, inflexible rider will be uncomfortable for the horse and will likely stiffen the horse’s body. Wear proper cold weather clothing, gloves, and shoes to help yourself out during cold weather. Before you get in the saddle, gently do some stretches and movements to start waking up your muscles and body.

 

Pre-ride warm up exercises for your own body:

Start from your head and work your way down to your toes. These are great to do no matter the weather and take less than 5 minutes.

 

  1. Neck stretches: Gently turn your head to look to the left, then to the right. If you feel any tightness, hold the position for a second and massage the tight spot. Repeat 5 times on each side.
  2. Back and core mobility: Standing evenly with your arms in a riding position, gently twist from your center and core to the left and hold that position for a few seconds, then to the right as if you are on a bending circle with your horse.
  3. Arms mobility: Put your arms straight out from your sides and slowly do small circles, then make the circles bigger. Feel if both sides are even. Think about keeping your core and back muscles engaged and moving from your center.
  4. Hip stretches: Balance on one leg with the other leg in a 90 degree bent position in front of you. Keep your knee bent at 90 degrees as you move your leg out to the side opening your hip, then back behind you, making a circle. Move slowly and start with a small circle, then do 2 larger circles as your hips allow. Do both sides.
  5. Hamstring stretches: Standing with your feet hip width apart, raise your arms up over your head, then slowly lower your arms toward your feet as you bend at the hips to reach toward your toes.
  6. Calf Stretch: Standing with the balls of your feet on a step, let your heels drop down with a slight bend in your knee as if you were in the saddle.

 

Before you get in the saddle, there are several warm up exercises you can do to help your horse loosen up without you on their back. These exercises can be done right before you get on and take less than 5 minutes!

 

Pre-ride warm up exercises for your horse:

 

  1. Carrot stretches: Ask your horse to stretch their head to either side of their barrel or to the flank. Do both sides and see how they are feeling on either side
  2. Turn on the forehand: In hand, start to move your horses feet independently. Ask them to move their hind end away from you and start to bend their body in both directions. Ensure they get 2 or 3 solid steps under their body with their inside hind leg.
  3. Turn on the haunches: Now move the horse’s forehand away from you while they keep their hind legs in place. Do both directions and try to get their front leg closest to you to cross over the other front leg.
  4. Back up: Ask your horse to back up in hand. This will help encourage the haunches, topline, and core to start engaging.

 

If a horse can’t do a certain movement or is resisting, it is likely they are too stiff and you will need to modify the movement by asking for less.

Warm up Exercises in the Saddle

Start slow and encourage stretching and engagement at the walk and trot. It’s important to ride from your seat and leg during the warm up on a cold day. A stiff horse doesn’t need more contact and bend, rather more movement off of your leg and seat which will loosen up their entire body. Avoid doing small circles right away as circles require a lot of flexibility.

 

Warm up exercises: 

  1. Lengthening and collecting the walk: Play a lot with the walk when you first get on. Move them off your leg on a long rein to a nice balanced walk with a solid rhythm, then collect the walk slowly shortening your rein to a working walk, then lengthen them out again. This will encourage them to stretch and start to use their topline.
  2. Leg yield and shoulder in: Start at the walk and focus on working off of your seat and leg and really getting all parts of the horse’s body working. If you find yourself or your horse getting stiff and resisting, work on something else.
  3. Working Trot: Ask your horse to stretch forward at a working trot with changes of directions on 20 meter circles, asking for bend in both directions.
  4. Working Canter: Keep your horse moving forward into a nice working canter to help activate their hind legs. Start with 20 meter circles and long sides to get the horse to start working over their back. If needed, you can ride in a two point position to help your horse start to engage their topline.

 

Riding during cold weather has challenges, but in the end will help you understand how to best warm up your horse for future rides. If you can keep training and riding through any weather, you will reach your training goals in no time and will stay fit and active year round.