EXERCISES TO HELP CHANGE A HABITUAL PATTERN

Often we are given a generic set of exercises which include stretches' for your horse, I tend to not give my clients horses stretches in the beginning as we know when we do with ourselves we often find it difficult to gauge when enough is enough and often we will push pass the point when our bodies are telling us to stop (as we know we are always told to push past the point of pain) and we need to prepare the body to be able to be ready for more ask

But why should we not push past that point??? because this is your bodies alarm system telling you that it has reached its capability at that point in time. It means you are moving from a point of healthy tissue to potential damage to the tissue it your body telling you to stop.

But as humans we are always taught in therapy and exercise that pain is good it means things are happening and we are affecting change, but is it all for the better

When we ask our horses to stretch I have always believed in asking for smooth fluid movement with ease, we don't want a horse to whipping round snatching or we don't want to be pushing past the horses body is saying no, we also for proprioception do not want the horse to do the behaviour without the feel, do we know to see the subtle signs of resistance can we feel the subtle brace as the body says no, if we can't then we have to be careful we don, t push to far

Why is diaphragm and the regulation of breathing important well what is the first thing you do before and during exercise we control the rhythm of our breathing so for me the first thing we address is getting our horses to a better breathing pattern and making sure that the diaphragm is working to the horses full potential rather than against it, do we have to work only on the diaphragm to influence it??? no we have to give the whole body the chance to recover and rest.

When we think of it our work and exercise routine is such a small part of the horses daily life maybe a few hours a day the most important part or rehab or routine is the quality of the down time in the horses life, good quality forage and exploration to reach the forage, friends (it is so important our horses get on with who they are living with) and freedom of choice so they can become confident in mind.

So if your horse is unhappy in the downtime no amount of quality stretching will make a difference if your horse hasn't the freedom to move after a routine then the body can not facilitate the change

Here I have included exercises to help both horse and owner as as you quieten your mind your horse will appreciate the less busy internal human, we are in that moment just you and horse and feeling every breath every movement and going with what you feel

enjoy

These simple exercises can be done everyday as part of your grooming routine, you can be empowered to make a change you will see I have included a video of them all put together