Sunrise Farm Horseback Riding Lessons, Horses Boarded, Horse Training in Pelham New Hampshire

Difficulty in training your horse? Have you looked at its body lately?

Is your horse difficult to train? First you should look at its body to ensure it is capable of doing the training. Is its body built to do the training that is intended? For example if you try to use a thoroughbred for pulling it will have difficulty because its body was not made to do that job. It would be the equivalent of taking an Olympic runner and entering them into a truck pull. The body is a tool used to do a specific job and if you are not utilizing the correct tool the job is difficult to accomplish.

Now look at your horse's muscle type and build. Is your horse incorrectly muscled? If your horse's neck has a very thick underside, this type of muscle is counter to having a soft, compliant horse for upward or downward transitions. The thick underside neck is used to brace on the hands or resist the bit. This type of neck is usually accompanied with a u'd back. The u'd back lacks round muscle on each side of the spine, leaving the back, instead, flat. The horse's hind is then usually big and round on the upper rear of its body. This is because the horse cannot correctly reach under itself and work the correct muscles. A horse with this type of muscle structure will have a short choppy stride instead of a relaxed flowing swinging stride which reaches all the way under itself.

Now let's look at your horse's weight. Is your horse fat? Most of the time a difficult horse is fat or is very big in incorrect muscle. Putting your horse on a diet is well advised if this is the case. The reason for this is very simple. If your horse is just plain fat from over-feeding, it is like an overweight person trying to do ballet. The overweight person does not have the correct muscle structure to do the correct work. If your horse has lots of big incorrect muscle, it is much like having a big muscled football player try to dance swan lake. The football player's muscle is built for a different job. Both of these body types for a horse, overweight or bulky overdeveloped muscles, should go on a diet to either lose the fat or to atrophy the incorrect muscle. The incorrect muscle is fighting against the correct muscles needed to do the correct performance. The excess body fat is weighing down on the body and causing undue strain on the body while also throwing it off balance.

How do you help your horse correct its body? The answer is simple - healthy exercise and an appropriate diet. You might try simple flexibility exercises such as, putting your horse on a 20 meter circle where you can work on bending, counter-bending, enlarging out of the circle and simple half halt exercises. These simple flexibility exercises should be kept at the walk until the horse can perform these exercises easily and happily. Then the same exercises should be done at the trot until they can be performed easily and happily by both horse and rider. These exercises will create the correct muscle. The diet of the horse will allow the horse to lose the excess weight and to atrophy the incorrect muscles the horse is using against the rider.

A healthy diet for your horse should consist of grain, hay, water and supplements if needed. Consult your licensed professional vet and/or equine nutritionalist and your trainer. These three professionals are essential to finding out your specific horse's needs. Remember a horse is just like a human. Each one is unique and each one has unique nutritional requirements. However those unique needs do not alter the universal fact that food is meant to be an enjoyable act of refueling the body; not an enjoyable way to pass the day.

As you begin this new regimin, do not be frightened or alarmed if your horse is losing weight and appears "too thin". This is temporary. Remember, you are either taking the football player and rebuilding its body so it can dance Swan Lake, or reshaping the fat horse to lose weight and develop correct muscle tone. To gain flexibility, the tendon and ligament strength has to be attained first and the incorrect muscles must atrophy. If your horse is overweight it will have to lose the fat so it can more easily carry itself, before you can develop the appropriate amount of correct muscle so that your horse appears healthy as opposed to thin. This is like an overweight person trying to do chin-ups. If the weight were gone it would be easier to do the chin-ups. Once the excess weight is eliminated from the equation it is then time to take in consideration the tendon and ligament strength need to do the chin ups, and to develop a plan for what the best way is to achieve these strengths.

In working your horse back into shape for the spring, assess your horse’s body. See what it may need. Then do the correct bodybuilding exercises (i.e.correct dressage is like correct bodybuilding for humans). The more exercises you know how to do and what part of the body it affects, the better and quicker you can create a sculpted body for your horse.

Have fun in the spring!

Mark Matyszyk
Owner - Trainer - Instructor
SUNRISE FARM