So recently my mare sprained her fetlock but the vet said that this next week I can start riding her at the walk but no turning or circles unless they are large and i will be riding her like this until January. Does anyone have an exercises or things to do while i can only walk?
Thanks!
Are you going to be doing arena riding or trail riding?
Of course trail riding is usually pretty simple to ride along on a straight line at a walk.
For arena riding, if I am rehabbing something you describe, I might honestly just walk around the perimeter of the arena. Pretty boring I suppose, but you could try to do little leg yields and lots of stops/gos. Maybe a “goal” is to consistently teach your horse to stop only from your seat cues, so at least you have something to work toward while you are riding boring perimeters! But if the vet doesn’t want you doing circles, of course, take it easy until she’s cleared.
Mounted archery? Most everyone starts at a walk in a straight line --I shoot 90% of the time at a walk --I only do a canter when someone else is with me as I am basically lazy and I’m much more accurate at a walk. I don’t have to search for my arrows if they are all in the target. When someone is down at the barn, I’ll shoot at a canter on the course (straight line) but then that person helps me find all the arrows that completely missed the target --which is most of them. Other ideas (from kids’ horse camp) are sticks in a bucket --set buckets along a straight line and see how many sticks you can drop in at a walk. Riding bareback with an egg and spoon or maybe a golf ball in a spoon. There are a bunch of exercises you can do for your upper body --hey --how bout some weights in your hands and do curls while you ride? I know there his horse Yoga too --practice summersalts off the back or “trick riding” backwards --might want to have someone else out there. Read a book. When we did distance riding, we (my buddy and I) read books for hours in the saddle, at a walk. Teach your horse commands in a different language --Spanish, Russian, or Dutch -my driving horse responded to walk, whoa, left and right in English and Dutch.
May want to post this on the horse Health forum, or Off Course, for more responses.
Get a big ball and lead your horse pushing the ball, then mounted ask the horse to keep the big ball moving, then with purpose from one end to the other, etc.
Use a tarp for your horse to learn to walk over it folded as a pole, then open a bit, then open more, until your horse walks and plays on it.
Then drag the tarp around then ride with the tarp along with you, etc.
Since your horse is on rehab, be careful not to overwhelm your horse where it may get scared and scoot around and re-injure itself.
Most horses catch on that kind of slow play time and kind of like it and if you listen to them, they invent their own extra games all along.
Im Arena riding and thanks
If you’re walking for rehab and forbidden from doing circles I would be VERY hesitant to do anything besides just walking around the perimeter. Trying to leg yield, or even her taking funny steps trying to push a ball might torque the joint in a way that could irritate it’s healing. Of course, she is a horse and could do the same thing reacting to a noise or just feeling fresh. I just wouldn’t want to be stuck in walk rehab mode any longer than necessary. You might ask your vet about backing up though (or about doing lateral movements, he might say it’s fine). I had to rehab a mare with a mild high bow last winter, icing and hand walking in the indoor. SOOOOOO DULL! But we started throwing in a couple of steps backward (in a straight line) every few laps and built it up until she was backing down the whole long side in good form and man did it put some abs on her! It certainly helped keep her topline strong and when she was back under saddle she felt great.