Hill work, anybody?

[Mabel]

I can’t ride! I can’t keep a good posture while applying my leg and rein cues— I’m no better than a sack of potatoes. I won’t do my mare any good riding til I’ve gotten a few chiropractic adjustments done for my lower back and hips. I had my first adjustment today and felt/saw the difference.

Anyway, I’m asking the Western people: what are some exercises I can do on the uneven terrain and hilly areas on the ground (not riding), how often should I do it, and is it decent work for my mare to do for 3-4 weeks?

This is my 13yo mare: https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1476217_671962019492858_588676434_n.jpg

She’s built in such a way and has had a fast upbringing in Barrel racing, she usually wants to leave her hind legs out behind her and go hollow, so if I leave her alone or do not have her working rounder, she will at best get very stiff, at worst go lame. I have uneven terrain outside my property along the roads, even a forest trail farther up, so there are some short, manageable hills to work her on. I’ve taken her out there before in these parts and she’s done fine, she’s got a history as a confident, calm trail horse. Recently she’s gotten sloppy with her feet and starting to go more hollow because of my riding issue. There’s a long, gentle slope in the road, and a bunch of short ditches and uneven, grassy terrain not far from the roadside. The steepest slopes are about 30 degrees. I took her out on a lunge rope and did some walking and a little jogging uphill, tried some backing uphill and downhill, walking along the side of a slope, and leg yield. The hardest thing I saw for her to do was leg yield on the slope, she could only get one small step at a time. When she backed downhill (facing uphill), she staggered a bit and was cautious, unsure about moving her feet.

Another thing; I haven’t had her spook at anything yet on the road besides a crosswalk once, eyeballing the other horses, but she refuses to walk through muddy puddles. She’ll step over or around them, will not step in them. No problem with any other kind of puddle.

[Two_Fishies]

Have you had her back looked at by a vet/chiropractor? I had two vets mention to me recently that it’s super common for barrel horses (especially ones that have been ridden poorly) to have their lower backs out.

In barrel racing (the correct kind) you don’t want a horse to hollow as it makes it harder for him to turn and accelerate if he can’t get his back legs up under himself. Although the sport attracts a lot of self declared “trainers”, so you don’t always know what she was taught to do.

[Mabel]

[QUOTE=Two Fishies;7402482]
Have you had her back looked at by a vet/chiropractor? I had two vets mention to me recently that it’s super common for barrel horses (especially ones that have been ridden poorly) to have their lower backs out.

In barrel racing (the correct kind) you don’t want a horse to hollow as it makes it harder for him to turn and accelerate if he can’t get his back legs up under himself. Although the sport attracts a lot of self declared “trainers”, so you don’t always know what she was taught to do.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I had many vet checks and chiropractor visits. When I did Dressage with her, we didn’t need a chiropractor for about four months. It’s suspected she has mild arthritis in the hocks. Whoever did break her in for barrel racing did it hard and fast; she has black scars all around the points of her pelvis, and a single long scratch on each side, probably from spurs. You can’t quite see it on the photo I posted, I usually keep her hair a bit long enough to brush over the marks xD

She raced as a 2yo, had a colt at about 4yo (registered, sired by another barrel racer), then did a variety of things like trail, hunter/jumper, mounted police (all of which she did well) before meeting me 6 years ago at a show jumping school. Traded hands four times including the transfer to me from my trainer.

Vet says she’s alright to do the work I ask of her, and both she and my equine chiropractor told me to strengthen up her back so she doesn’t put strain her back and forelegs. I did a barrel run with her for fun last year, damned if she didn’t go into the ring beautiful and make the turns like she’d never left the ring… Barrels were set twice the distance as usual apart for the local show, and we made 32 seconds in English tack, going nicely along in what looks like a big canter on camera. Huuuuuge stride on this 15hh horse, she really pushes with her hind end in all her gaits, but the energy usually goes UP and OUT in a long stride instead of a shorter, rounder move. She can get her hind leg far under herself to move laterally, I was making really good progress with her doing lateral work before my misalignment kicked me out of the saddle.

[Two_Fishies]

The arthritis in the hocks sounds right. Poor thing sounds like she was really hammered on. And my sympathies on the balance issue. I quit dancing for a few weeks because my balance was so messed up when I started adjustments on my back. The good news though is it came back quicker than I expected in the saddle. No stirrups work helped.

It sounds like you’re off to a great start. This is not the same situation as this was a horse injury–not a people one–but I did a little hill work last year bringing my mare back from a hind tendon injury. I followed my friend’s advice to focus on walking slowly up and down hill. Slow walking can really help with strength as it takes control to fight gravity, especially going down hill.

The length of each session varied, but I always worked her every day. The biggest thing was just observing how she handled every little step up in work. If she struggled with something (like you had with backing downhill), I’d take a step back and work on something easier for a little while.

A lot of the work I do for building back strength on the ground puts pressure on the hocks (primarily moving a horse in and out of the circle on a longe line and turns on the haunches). A little of this might be helpful, but I would keep it pretty limited.

If you can run fast enough, a little Big Trot-Little Trot on the ground could help. You could also do this on a longe line. Ask her for a bigger trot on one half of a large circle, then ask for a jog on the other half.