Horse Warm Up

Image a time when you forgot to warm up before a run and then regretted it later. Now think about how your horse feels every time you run him without a proper warm up. Without a proper warm up, you may be paying thousands of dollars in vet bills or even hospital bills if you or your horse gets injured during your run. Is running the fastest time really worth anything if you or your horse gets injured and can’t run again. The process of warming up your horse before a run may seem pointless, however it prevents your horse or even yourself from injury and gets your horse to focus on you. Before you start a warm up you should make sure your horse is well groomed and that all your tack fits correctly. Doing this will prevent your horse from getting …show more content…
The goal when warming up is to increase your horses body temperature and all the muscles it takes to run. Warming also increases blood flow to the muscles. The first stage of a warm up is the walking stage. Take a few lap around the outside of the arena in both directions. This also your horse to start moving and allows him to see everything around him. Then you want to start moving in circles around the arena. These circles can be any size or even multiply sizes in both directions. Circling allows your horse to bend and stretch muscles. Stage one or the walking stage so be about 5 or 10 minutes and you should go both direction to engage all the muscles. The second stage is trotting around the arena. You want to keep your horse at a working trot, so not too fast or too slow. You want to continue working all the muscles that you did in the walking stage. You want to do circles or all sizes and even practice a few barrel turns if you can. Even if you don’t have barrels, you can use cone or even just image if a barrel was there. Next you should practice stopping from the trot. You want your horse focused on you and listen to your ques. The trotting stage should be about 5 to 10 minutes long like the walking