# Share your horses workout routine.



## phoenix (Jun 7, 2010)

I need inspiration to spice up my horses workouts. I usually work him 4-5 times a week, 30-45 minutes per session. We do free lungeing, free jumping, lungeing with side reins and i ride on the weekends.

A little background: My horse was out of work for almost 2 years with a hip injury, he still has a bit of a gimpy hip so i tend to take it easy on him and not work him too hard. For the past year he's been on a weight loss regime and has been worked 4-5 times a week (depending on weather and his soundness). He's getting bored, i'm getting bored. I tend not to do the same thing two days running if i can help it. Say Monday i'll free lunge him, Wednesday i'll lunge him in side reins to work on his balance issues, Friday i'll free lunge/free jump him then Saturday and Sunday i'll ride in the small field we have mostly at walk and trot (he's just started to canter under saddle again last week since he's now balanced enough not to cross canter as frequently). The days sometimes differ with my work schedule.

So what do you do with your horse/horses? How do you make training and working out fun?

I want to take him on trail or hack out with him but the barn is on a main road and i don't have access to a trailer right now.


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## PintoTess (Aug 18, 2010)

well i start out with 10 minutes warm up: stretching working long and low, trotting, walking, a bit of cantering.
then we do circle work and on the bit work.
then we do abit of jumping.
then we do some stretching and sporting turns
then some pole work (trot poles)
then 10 minutes cool down
then unsaddle 
then groom
between different activities we have a 5 minute break and i give tess a drink.
so there you go ...it sometimes changes though depending on the weather.


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

I always start with a 10 minute walking warmup. It doesn't always go in this order, but weather and mood permitting, we'd do it this way. (We do eventing, so it's very varied)

Monday - dressage

Tuesday - flat work geared toward forward seat/jumping stuff/jumping 

Wednesday - Play day, go out into the fields and mix up real work with running around like idiots - ironically this one by far builds the most muscle and produces the best possible gaits due to the forward nature of riding in the open. I usually curse under my breath that I can't repeat his beautiful trot in the confines of a ring.

Thurs - dressage

Fri - Play day, same nonsense as Wednesday

Sat - Trail riding day

Sunday - off

I usually let how he's feeling during warmup tell me what we'll work on that day. If he's stiff and it's cold and raw out, we'll just work on suppling exercises, bending, circles, serpentines, lateral work, etc. 

If it's cold and he's resembling a rocket, that's forward seat flat work/ jumping day. Sometimes we just go out and do laps. 

For jumping day, I set all types of grids and pole combinations. There's a zillion different things you can do with 4 ground poles if you get creative.

I'm always reading books and jumping on the internet looking for new stuff to try. In the 3 years I've had my horse, we haven't been bored yet!


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## phoenix (Jun 7, 2010)

MyBoyPuck said:


> I always start with a 10 minute walking warmup. It doesn't always go in this order, but weather and mood permitting, we'd do it this way. (We do eventing, so it's very varied)
> 
> Monday - dressage
> 
> ...



Play day... i used to have play day every day with phoenix when i couldn't ride him because of his gimpy hip, he was in the best shape back then. we'd run up and down the arena and chase each other and he would jump in the air and just have a great time. we haven't done this in ages, i might add this again because it's so much fun!

I'm building two jump standards and am going to buy new poles at the next trade fair i'm at, he free jumps really well and really seems to enjoy it so once i have my jumps built that should add some interest.

it's strange but i don't get bored.. i could walk/trot around on him all day but he seems to get bored really easily which is why 'm looking to spice things up. I was thinking of maybe doing some desensitization work with bags and such. I wish i had access to a trailer, going on trail would be great, i can't see him being bored when any minutes something might jump out of the trees and eat him.


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## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

Can't say that I really have a set routine...but usually I will start with some groundwork to warm my girl up, then get on do some walk and trot work, some canter work, and work some circles, eights, etc...I will normally 'end' a ride with a bit of trail riding. I usually lead her to the local fair ground to do our main chunk of our work, as there is a round pen, and several arenas to choose from and some nice horse paths to ride on there. I wish there were some trot poles and what not at the place I ride, but there are some barrels and cones, so I usually will set some of those up and work different random patterns. My mare is mainly working on balance, transitions, and remaining calm and relaxed throughout the ride. When my trailer gets new tires, I will take her to some of the trail heads and do some serious trail riding. However, due to the fact that we live in a rather inhabited area, she is getting tons of experience riding in lots of traffic, conquering underpasses, and noisy bridges, etc...so I can't complain about that either.


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

phoenix said:


> it's strange but i don't get bored.. i could walk/trot around on him all day but he seems to get bored really easily which is why 'm looking to spice things up. I was thinking of maybe doing some desensitization work with bags and such. I wish i had access to a trailer, going on trail would be great, i can't see him being bored when any minutes something might jump out of the trees and eat him.


Do you do any dressage training with him? Things like leg yield, shoulder-fore, haunches-in, etc all are extremely useful for getting a horse to focus and all can be done at walk and trot. While jumping is fun, I'm equally addicted to dressage since it has so much to offer.


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## phoenix (Jun 7, 2010)

mom2pride said:


> Can't say that I really have a set routine...but usually I will start with some groundwork to warm my girl up, then get on do some walk and trot work, some canter work, and work some circles, eights, etc...I will normally 'end' a ride with a bit of trail riding. I usually lead her to the local fair ground to do our main chunk of our work, as there is a round pen, and several arenas to choose from and some nice horse paths to ride on there. I wish there were some trot poles and what not at the place I ride, but there are some barrels and cones, so I usually will set some of those up and work different random patterns. My mare is mainly working on balance, transitions, and remaining calm and relaxed throughout the ride. When my trailer gets new tires, I will take her to some of the trail heads and do some serious trail riding. However, due to the fact that we live in a rather inhabited area, she is getting tons of experience riding in lots of traffic, conquering underpasses, and noisy bridges, etc...so I can't complain about that either.


We're doing a lot of the same things (not the riding to the fair ground things) like remaining calm and working on his balance to correct his cross cantering. So far he's managed to stop crossing in one direction and only crosses in the other when he gets a little too ahead of himself. 

I wish i could do some trails, we have a few good ones close by and if the barn wasn't on a main road i would walk him there but as the cars tend to travel at 60-70 on this particular road i can't see them being concerned about slowing down for a horse .



MyBoyPuck said:


> Do you do any dressage training with him? Things like leg yield, shoulder-fore, haunches-in, etc all are extremely useful for getting a horse to focus and all can be done at walk and trot. While jumping is fun, I'm equally addicted to dressage since it has so much to offer.


I started doing leg yield with him, and he is very good at turn on the forehand, we got a little muddled with leg yield and i got advice from a few people on here about it. Unfortunately last week his hips started to play up again so i am currently not riding him and waiting on the chiropractor.

I was thinking of introducing him to long lines and seeing if i could introduce some lateral work on the lines, which we could work on in the times when his hips aren't so good. I used to take dressage lessons and would really like to do more of it with him.

I don't jump. i've never had any jumping lessons and i don't think it's sensible for me to get on a horse that has never had a rider on him while he jumps and attempt to jump. He jumps. loves to jump, gets really excited and throws himself around when he clears the jumps.


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