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Exercise 46: Giravolta
Exercise 48: Poles with a Blank Space
Exercise 49: The Two-Part Turn
Exercise 51: Gearing Up to Gallop
Exercise 52: Canter Poles for Adjusting Strides
Exercise 53: Turns and Straights
Exercise 54: Canter with Lariat
Exercise 55: Canter Wavy Lines
Routines for Supplemental Conditioning and Specific Horse Types
Acknowledgments
Writing books requires an unseemly amount of hard work, and as I’ve learned, a team of people who believe in you. I would like to offer a huge heartfelt thank you to those individuals who supported this project in one way or another. Above all, thank you Donna Stidolph. You are one of a kind.
Thank you to everyone who showed up and made the marathon photo shoot a reality: Kelsey Doyle, Jane Brown, Liz Folb, Angela Rebol, Bill Blume, Sara Stern. I would also like to acknowledge the people who make my daily training program a pleasure and a success: Carlos Nunez, Carolyn Oshinsky, Juliette Rys.
This book was born from my own wish that a resource like this already existed. Thanks to Trafalgar Square Books for believing in the need for this book and for helping me develop it. Also, a nod to my mentors, horses, and students who motivate me to keep adding to my toolbox of skills. I continue to be inspired by the convergence of classical dressage principles with the findings of exercise physiology research, and I admire all the others who are also trying to fit this puzzle together. Let’s press onward together.
To my partner Siobhan I give enormous gratitude for accepting the ever-consuming focus that my life with horses occupies.
Introduction
Have you found yourself asking what kinds of conditioning exercises might be right for your horse?
Or which ones would improve the quality and coordination of his gaits, making him a more fun and willing riding partner?
Perhaps you are trying to resolve one of the following challenges related to his posture or performance:
Rebuilding after an injury or extended time off.
Countering an unspecified weakness that prevents him from doing what you ask.
Improving stiff, uncoordinated, or short-strided gaits.
Softening a rigid or hollow topline.
Lightening heaviness on the forehand.
Correcting a hindquarter anomaly like locking stifles, an unstable pelvis, or a strong preference to travel one direction versus the other.
Or maybe you would just like to better determine whether:
His resistance to work is due to physical limitation or behavioral issues.
He is physically capable to do what you’re asking.
There is a specific source of his weakness or reason for his lack of progress.
There is a cause for his need of frequent chiropractic adjustments or the way he often feels “not quite right.”
There are ways you can make his gaits easier and more fun to ride.
This book offers easily digestible and applicable guidance to resolve all these issues—and more.
Every horse needs to be an athlete first, and only then can he comfortably and willingly work with you toward your riding and performance goals. Along the way he often needs to overcome postural habits or weaknesses, muscular imbalances, incorrect gait patterns, and other restrictions that alter his fluidity of movement. The exercises in the pages that follow give you the answers and tools to bolster his athleticism so that he can be the best possible riding partner.
After starting in chapter 1 where you will gain a better sense of what kinds of corrective exercises will most benefit your own horse, feel free to peruse the chapters that follow in any sequence. Many readers will gain the most from browsing through the book and playing with various exercises. The exercises do not need to be performed in a particular order unless it is indicated in the text. The benefit of each exercise is clearly marked, so you can easily find the ones that are the best fit for your horse. You can then pick and choose your favorite exercises to form routines of your own design.
For those who want a more structured takeaway from all this information, I offer sample routines and schedules in special sections between the main chapters. These examples may help you apply the knowledge you have gained.
Here is what you can expect:
Chapter 1: Corrective Exercises to Create New Patterns
This chapter introduces you to corrective exercises and helps you determine what types of exercises your horse needs and why. The exercises in this chapter are a good place to begin as they offer benefits for any horse. The chapter is followed by a special section of routines to resolve common challenges and dysfunction.
Chapter 2: Tuning Up Postural Muscles
In chapter 2 you will learn strategies for what I call “pre-hab,” in other words, keeping your horse fit, comfortable, and sound. The routines after this chapter are specific to diagnosing dysfunctional movement.
Chapter 3: Simple
