Walking Exercises

[iJump]

Not a dressage rider but figured I would get a better response here…

Bringing a horse back after a few months off, plan on doing a lot of walking to start.

What are your favorite walking exercises for fitness and to keep things interesting?

I don’t have access to trails unfortunately.

[eightpondfarm]

serpentines, spiral in/spiral out, turn on the fore, turn on the haunches, half halts, fullstop and reverse steps

[gertie06]

It depends what you’re bringing the horse back from. With some injuries, you’ll want to avoid lateral work. Would you mind telling us what s/he is rehabbing from?

[pluvinel]

Try these…

[video=youtube_share;4E4gqOASkZg]https://youtu.be/4E4gqOASkZg[/video]

[Mondo]

Thanks, Pluvinel! Always love to watch the great Oliveira at work!

[BatCoach]

adding some ground poles or small cavaletti breaks up the monotony and helps with range of motion. You can make your own by getting cheap landscape timers at Lowes or Homedepot, sand them down and slap a few coats of kilz primer on them. I made 5 and they have been really helpful in rehab.

[iJump]

@gertie06

It depends what you’re bringing the horse back from. With some injuries, you’ll want to avoid lateral work. Would you mind telling us what s/he is rehabbing from?

No rehabbing, was too busy to ride this one for a while. And it’s an older horse (16).

[lvneri]

• If you've got some hills nearby, walking those would help build muscle.
• Walk a 20m x 20m square but in the corner do a 1/4 turn on the haunch