Exercising

Exercising is very good for both you and me, but did you know your horse benefits from it as well? In this blog post, we will be going over why to exercise, ways to condition, and finally how you could go about it. Let’s put our boots on and start exercising.

            Why would you want to exercise a horse? Here are a few reasons. A horse that is in shape looks better than a fat or skinny horse. In young horses, exercising can increase growth hormones and help with bone development (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG2S3WcwhTE ). It also gives them something to do. A well maintained exercise program is a good way to make your horse look and feel like a champ.

            There are a few different ways to exercise a horse. A couple ways are to ride, drive, lunge, hot walk, and/or pony. With adult horses, riding or driving is a good way to exercise. Trotting three miles is an appropriate distance—start shorter and extend the distance a little bit every day. With a young horse, ponying is a great solution. I pony Keeno with my riding horse when we do 1.5 mile trots. I enjoy taking two birds out with one stone. Lunging at a walk/trot is a great activity for young horses. (Hot walkers can also do this.) Horses need room to run when they want. Since Keeno lives in a smaller paddock, I let him run in the arena while I run on Vegas. (see video) These are what I use to exercise my horses.

            The best way to start conditioning is to figure out your horse’s current activity level. Then create a program that will challenge your horse, but not over do it. Younger and older horses can’t be pushed as much as healthy adult horses. Create a chart to track frequency, duration, and intensity of each workout. (There are phone apps for this. Last spring I used Track My Hack, which shows how long you rode, distance and average speed.) Whatever the process, it is important to be consistent for good results.

            The best thing of conditioning horses is seeing them in peak condition. Well-defined muscles and seeing their ribs during movement along with a shiny coat are some signs of a well-conditioned and healthy horse. I hope you learned something in this short paper. Have fun getting in shape!