3 ways to improve your horses movement!

Would you like to know some of my favourite 'go-to' exercises that I use with my own horse and clients horses, that I find the most effective for mobilising and switching on the important postural muscles in the horse body?! 

I have been working professionally with horses for over 10 years now, and have amassed massive amounts of knowledge and experience around horse movement and rehabilitation. And if you have followed me for a while, you will know that I love to share important information with horses owners, to help improve horses' quality of life, raise welfare standards, and help to prevent injury by understanding how to exercise our horses correctly and effectively! 

Mobilise-Activate-Strengthen is the format I use for most horses, so I start with thoroughly mobilising the horses body with small, specific exercises, to release tight, restricted areas of the body, working 'under the radar' so to speak. There is no point strengthening a horse that is restricted in different parts of the body and not functioning through the core, so I always use core mobilisation exercises from day 1. 

Activation is next, once the body is mobilised and more flexible / operational! Core activation exercises are used to switch on the core and in particular the small, important, postural muscles that sit along the spine, the multifidus - we need these specific muscles to be strong for our horses spine to be strong and protected from injury. 

Strengthening comes after the first 2 phases, and I find that this order works! If you start strengthening work without mobilising or switching on the core, you can actually just be strengthening NEGATIVE POSTURE! This is why I talk about core exercises so much, it's not just something to do with our horses, they have such an important impact on our horses back, core, and movement! 

3 Fast & Simple Steps to Improve Your Horses Movement - new Free Guide available, link is below for you! 

So with 'Mobilise-Activate-Strengthen' in mind, my 3 fast and simple ways to improve your horses movement are...: 

Step 1: Heavy on the forehand? Horses are built with around 60% of their weight over the forehand! So within exercise, we need to work on lightening the forehand to reduce the risk of forelimb injury. Thoracic sling weakness is also a contributing factor here, where the structures sitting in between the scapula and the front part of the ribcage are atrophied/weak, allowing the ribcage/withers to drop in between the scapula, giving the horse the 'downhill' look. WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!! I use backing up and the backward weight shift daily to help mobilise and strengthen the thoracic sling - images and descriptions are included in the Free Guide - link below! 

Step 2: Long and low...this is a good working posture that most horse owners are working towards, or developing with their horses, where the horse is using his back and core properly, and all parts of the body are functioning within movement! If your horse has poor posture / back pain / injury, they may struggle to move in a long and low frame. To create this posture as DEFAULT, your horse needs a strong core. So Core Activation series of exercises are an important set of exercises to add to your exercise regime. 

Step 3: Symmetry! Is your horse left or right handed?! They are all crooked to one degree or another, so we need to work on our horses symmetry in body and movement, again to improve comfort levels as well as help decrease injury risk. One of the best ways to work on symmetry in the body and movement, is to teach lateral exercises in-hand! Not always easy, but if you are COMMITTED to your horses wellbeing, take the time to learn how to do it (CONTACT ME OR LOOK THROUGH MY WEBSITE FOR COURSES AND EBOOKS!) your horse will be so much more symmetrical! And less likely to become injured within exercise. 

***To help you, I have put together a new FREE Guide: 3 Fast & Simple Steps to Improve Your Horses Movement, which includes more detail on implementing 'Mobilise-Activate-Strengthen' as a training strategy AND images and descriptions of my 'go-to' exercises outlined here! CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD: 3 Fast and Simple Steps to Improve Your Horses Movement 

AND as always, do get in touch if you need further help or support, or would like to take the next steps and join my members group for access to my entire online learning platform and ALL of my training modules!