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You are in... Forums > Welcome To Your Horse Forum > The Yard > Warming up properly..

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CharParsley620

Joined:

Jul 10

Posts: 2406

CharParsley620 says:

Warming up properly..

This may seem long but bare with me!

A few weeks back I rode out for about half an hour with two friends of mine.. We didn't do much, just did mostly walking, a few trots and a short canter. We decided that actually, instead of jumping and having some fun up the woods we wanted to do some schoolwork/jumping in the paddock.

We all got in my friends car, drove to my house (30 seconds away, literally) got my camera and headed back. There are bits and bobs inbetween this story of mine but I shall cut to the chase otherwise it gets confusing. 

Basically.. We'd already warmed our horses up. Properly. Parsley loves jumping and always 'goes well'.. but after pootling out and warming up beforehand.. I must say made a massive different. I knew I was being lazy when 'warming him up' previously because I just wanted to cut to the chase I guess. But now I see it differently..

Two days after going out and then schooling/jumping.. I went straight in the paddock without taking him out first.. He went 'well' but didn't feel as loose and flexible as he did when I took him out blah blah a couple of days before.

Now before he goes in there, he goes round a local track of ours that we call Fishers or he goes round the village. Especially with him being 23, he should actually be doing about 25 minutes warm up anyway. Just goes to show how much he (and others alike..not all) benefit from a good warm up. Obviously every horse is different. 
:)_

It's lonely in the saddle since the horse died.

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  • Posted 2 years ago (16 March 2012 22:08)
rhapsody

Joined:

Apr 05

Posts: 2530

rhapsody says:

Re: Warming up properly..

I tend to think of the school as the horse's gym, so if you think of using a gym yourself you are always advised to do a proper warm up first, so it's the same for them really.  Muscles always work to their full potential when properly warmed up as it increases the circulation to them and delivers the oxygen they need to perform optimally.

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  • Posted 2 years ago (16 March 2012 22:17)
CharParsley620

Joined:

Jul 10

Posts: 2406

CharParsley620 says:

Re: Warming up properly..

rhapsody said:

I tend to think of the school as the horse's gym, so if you think of using a gym yourself you are always advised to do a proper warm up first, so it's the same for them really.  Muscles always work to their full potential when properly warmed up as it increases the circulation to them and delivers the oxygen they need to perform optimally.


Exactly!  Parsley certainly benefits from a full warm up. 

It's lonely in the saddle since the horse died.

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  • Posted 2 years ago (16 March 2012 22:25)
Rosebudd

Joined:

Apr 11

Posts: 562

Rosebudd says:

Re: Warming up properly..

 totally get what your saying here! Flicks a lot easier once shes had a decent warm up! 

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  • Posted 2 years ago (16 March 2012 22:36)
kevinhiatt

Joined:

Aug 10

Posts: 5172

kevinhiatt says:

Re: Warming up properly..

Yes slowly warm up this is what humans should do as well then hopefully no pulled tendons, it really worries me when I see riders take their horses out galloping around, which gives all horse riders a bad name and does the horse no favours as just get straight out of the box. At the yard I am at I get remarks about how I take things slowly as warming up takes a good half hour, then you feel your horse ready and supple and mine starts to do her bouncy walk and neck goes into outline, listen to your horse, then just as important cool them down don't leave them sweated up as one girl used to do and we and a few other riders felt for her horse and looked after it cooling it so it did not get a chill. I once came back to the yard after one of my 4 hour rides on Tonka he was sweaty and a girl who worked at the yard asked if she could cool him down so I thanked her and let her, oops bad mistake it turned out as when I went to see the YO to pay she said to me I hope you have cooled your horse down and I told her who was doing it and she said oh! no and said she was thrown by a horse which was classed as a Schoolmaster, so went to see this girl with Tonka in the outside arena and the girl was doing a good impression of the wall of death, managed to stop Tonka and this girl needed 2 of us to lift her off as she had gone stiff with fear, lesson learnt don't let anyone else cool your horse unless they know how to.

Gypsy Gold does not chink & glitter.It gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark.Tonka & Lara my beautiful horses RIP, Nelson & Chloe the cats.

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  • Posted 2 years ago (17 March 2012 05:35)
PonyMad4Ever

Joined:

Dec 11

Posts: 142

PonyMad4Ever says:

Re: Warming up properly..

 Yes, at my yard we are meant to do 10mins walking, 10mins trotting, then canter, then jump. I normally do more 5-7mins walking and longer in trot though, because that is Ellie's problem area and she hates walking for too long! It is SOOO important, especially with Puz - cos of him being unfit and old(ish), he is sometimes a bit stiff before he's warmed up properly ;]

Red;♥

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  • Posted 2 years ago (17 March 2012 07:22)
AMLS

Joined:

Apr 10

Posts: 306

AMLS says:

Re: Warming up properly..

My gelding (who is only 6) needs a really good long warm-up. I get nothing out of him if Itry to "cut-to-the-chase" !!! It's almost like he needs a good shake out before he gets down to work. He also takes a long time to get focussed and spends a long time at the start of each session spooking at rocks and leaves and things haha !!! So it's not just our senior citizens that need time to loosen up !!! But then I guess we wouldn't get straight up of the couch and go start running around without stretching first !!!

 

They're all individuals I guess.

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  • Posted 2 years ago (17 March 2012 13:38)
jenappaloosapony

Joined:

Aug 11

Posts: 485

jenappaloosapony says:

Re: Warming up properly..

 When I am hacking often a 5 - 10  minute walk from our stables (jen also gets walked for 5 mins as she has a cold back) before we trot for a couple of minutes and sometimes canter at the end.

JennyMyAppaloosa♥Loveyou

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  • Posted 2 years ago (17 March 2012 13:45)

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