Warm up Horses for us Over the Hill Gang

You might be asking what hill is that? Well my hill is the over 50 age bracket hill ( I just can’t bring myself to admit to more than that)

and how is warming up horses different for me than you 30 somethings out there…here goes…

My horses and I have had the winter off from any real training or horseback riding so we are a bit soft shall we say. The snow has left us early this year making the ground in my outdoor arena workable so I’m beginning the process and believe me it is a process…of getting them and me ready.

In my 30’s I would have lunged them good and hopped on for a ride. Now I spend about a week slowly bringing them and me along. I start out in the round pen just letting them have a go around one way at a walk and jog and then the other way. Next I ask them to lope but only for one lap around and then let them go back to jogging. The first two  days are usually no more than 15 minutes as I allow them to warm up their muscles.

Since my muscles are soft and in need of building up I have to assume theirs are the same. Over the next week I gradually increase the time I’m asking them to work along with the exercises themselves. After the first couple of days I put them on a short lunge line instead of allowing them to move free in the round pen. On the lunge line I ask them to slow down and listen to me and begin to slow down to more collected gaits.

After their work on the lunge line and still working from the ground I ask them to side pass from both left and right, back up, give to their head both left and right sides, disengage their hip on both sides, turn on their forehand  from both sides and stand quietly without moving when I drop the lead line and ask them to stand.

I still put them out in the pasture for a while but I always take them back to their stalls first to ensure they don’t get the idea that as soon as we are through working they get to run and play. Otherwise it doesn’t take them long to begin to anticipate the play time that is coming and want to speed things up to get to this play time.

Somewhere along this week I’ll put the saddle on them as we do our ground work so they can get used to the feel of it on their backs again. At the end of the week they are more ready to get to work under saddle and so am I. They are showing me respect and listening to what I’m asking of them and they have gradually been asked to work to the next more difficult step so the final step with me on their backs is just one more next step.

Which one of us is this process for you might ask, the horse or me?

Well I’d answer..I’m not a trainer and I don’t have a 30 year old body anymore and I need to be safe so this works for me and them.

If you ride your horse all winter then you don’t need this warm up time but you still need the ground work exercises. All the good clinicians I’ve ever heard are big on doing ground work and working with my horses through the years I’ve seen how important it is. More on that later…after all I need something to write about tomorrow don’t I?