Walking warm up in winter

[MsM]

I feel like I have to make a guilty confession here: I don’t usually do a 10-15 minute walking warmup in the winter. Am I alone in this?

First of all, my horse is a bit “fizzy” in the winter. If he is really silly I will lunge first, but most of the time he is rideable, just, um, ambitious. He needs some contact at the start or he invents things to do. I can get a nice forward, stretched walk for a short time (we have worked on this!) but 15 minutes in the cold would require a lot of management.

Which brings us to another point: We need to warm up and walking is not enough! Without the muscle activity of higher gaits I get progressively colder and stiffer. My horse doesnt seem looser with a longer walk and can be fussier. And I don’t get better work in general afterward. He is on all day turnout and has been walking around all morning before I show up, usually midday. He is a youngish horse without arthritic issues that we know of. An easy trot seems a better warm up gait for both of us in the cold.

My usual routine is to groom and tack up, then hand walk a couple of times around the indoor while I finish tightening the girth etc. Once mounted, we will walk on a longish rein (depending upon his attitude and the atmosphere) for maybe 5 minutes, adding in a little leg yield or shoulder fore toward the end. Then he gets to trot, again on a longish rein and usually cough/sneeze. I gradually ask for a bit more contact and start adding in lateral work. On calmer days we may do a relaxed canter early, but some days we need to expend a little energy first in the trot. We do some “relaxed” walk breaks in between but he still seems to think “walk is boring, let’s do Stuff!” Happily he is mostly past the point of becoming Tigger after he canters! We usually do a little stretchy trot at the end and a loose rein walk (Though sometimes I hop off right after he gets something we have been struggling with)

Anybody else confess to not doing a long walk warm up at the start of every ride?

[RedHorses]

I had a horse who would “go lame” if he didn’t walk for at least 20min at the start of the ride in the winter. It was something to do with the muscle effort that kept him warm made him really uncomfortable with more intense activity demands. He couldn’t work out of it either. The next day he’d be fine given a 20min walk warm up. There were many days it was a race between getting him good to trot and me getting too cold for the trot to warm me up!

I don’t have an indoor at the moment and riding through snow is very dynamic even at the walk. It got deep enough that I was riding up and down the plowed driveway a couple of times before and after each ride just to let the horses stretch their muscles out on easy footing.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Because of my MS exhaustion I can’t ride for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Since I cannot ride out the “its COLD, let’s MOVE” I got myself various BOT and Fenwick stuff to warm up the horse’s muscles. I know the joints still need to warm up too, and I do spend most of my ride at the walk. But if I do not do the posting trot pretty early in my ride I just do not have the energy to do the posting trot properly, in a way that improves the horse’s way of going.

I got a Fenwick Western saddle pad (I ride in a jumping saddle) because it extends over the horses’ loins. With the lesson horses in their 20’s, that, in combination with my BOT exercise sheet, seems to help with the stiffness right behind the saddle and over the croup.

One horse I rode had problems with his pastern joints. I got him BOT exercise boots, and he always seemed to appreciate their help too, at least he would often nuzzle me after I put his boots on.

Other than that I don’t have many answers. After the first minute or two (depending on how the horse feels to me) I spend a lot of the walk gently asking the horse to extend some, and back down to a slow, slow walk, back up though the three speeds of the walk. After a while I work on gradual turns and then I start asking for turns in place. Usually it takes until the end of my ride until the horse is warmed up enough for some “real” work, but at least he feels looser when moving.

[Redlei44]

Not in a super-cold climate, but if it’s cold enough that I will get cold while walking at the beginning, I keep a heavy cooler on the horses quarters and wrapped around my legs in the front for the walk warmup. Usually seems to buy me at least a few more minutes before everyone gets uncomfortable.

[theresak]

The horse should not just be puttering around at a lazy walk for the 15 minutes. A marching walk should be enough to start warming the muscles. However, the walk is really to let the joints and joint fluid warm up in colder weather. You still need additional work to warm the muscles up.

I do 10 minutes of marching and stretching walk (not so stretchy if we are spooky but still working over the back) and then 5 minutes of suppling and lateral work at the walk with my older horse. If my horse is really spooky, I won’t even get on for the first 10 minutes and will hand walk at a quick pace while encouraging the neck down.

I’ll leave the quarter sheet and cooler over the top if we are hand walking or just quarter sheet if I’m riding. I have a knee length coat that helps keep me warm until we trot.

With my coming 4 year old that has a maximum 20 minute attention span and very low forward motivation, I’ll just walk a lap each direction and then move to trot and canter. He was so behind the leg when he was first under saddle that I’d walk away from the mounting block and then go right to the trot. By next winter, I do expect him to be able to walk for 10 minutes to warm up before a ride.

[lorilu]

The warm up is not a leisurly stroll. it is a time to warm up the muscles, assess the fitness of the day, and get the flexibility tuned in. Most of my warm up is in the walk. Big long leg yields, forward and collected transitions, w/H transitions, moving on to alternating SI and HI in the same direction, changing direction through a walk piro, then the other direction. Next is SI to Renvers. SOme serpentines fill the inbetween minutes. LOTS of transitions. Then to a bit of rising trot and right to canter… he warms up better in canter than trot so we save trot till last, when he is using his back.

[anon40672407]

I’ve never been a dressage-only rider, so my horses came from various backgrounds.

One horse, I had to start him at a trot or he’d dump me. His former owner used to do that, and it was what he was used to, and the metronomic quality of the trot kept his legs busy. Walk or canter, he could figure out how to arrange them to leap off the ground. So he always warmed up at the trot.

In another spot, I lived precisely 15 minutes walk from the riding arenas and kept my horses at home. So, whether we rode, or led or ground drove, it was 15 minutes down to the riding grounds and 15 minutes home. I didn’t have to even think about it.

Our old appy needed a good walk warm up, but then straight to the canter. Trot was HORRIBLE until he’d had the canter to loosen up with.

I’m now riding a fairly old gentleman and I try to make sure he gets a full 15 minute walk warm up. He’s been a good old guy for many years, deserves a proper approach. I also do transitions within gaits and lateral work during the warm up as lorilu mentions. Plus reminders that halt means halt.

[outerbanks77]

If they have been turned out and moving, I don’t feel the need to walk as much. If the horse has been standing in a stall for hours, then yeah, I think they need more walking time to get the joints working. You can always do some hand walking or in-hand work so you get more warmed up as well if the horse has been standing and thus needs a longer walk warm up. On the lunge I definitely don’t walk them for 10 minutes, but after maybe 5 minutes, get them going in more of a an easy jog and slowly work up from there, the way the Kenyan runners do it.

[endlessclimb]

Each horse is an individual. Sure 10-15 mins of walk is ideal, but if it doesnt work it doesnt work. Its a target to strive towards, but ride the horse under you.

[HereComesZach]

I usually plan on a lengthy walk warm up and cool down, HOWEVER, I have owned quite a few horses who can get very ‘up’ in windy or cold weather. If a horse can’t settle in for a walk, then we will just sort of ‘get going’ to keep them focused. I do try a lot of walk work still, but it will look more like circles, spirals, leg yields, shoulder in, etc, just to help give them something to channel their energy towards, and then we will start our trot and canter sets.

[B-burg_Dressage]

I think them being out helps a lot, as long as you don’t take forever grooming and tacking up (since they’re obviously not moving around during that).

I have a 5 minute mounted walk to the arena (which can sometimes be loose rein, sometimes very on the bit and distracting him from being wild).

Good days: 5-10 minutes walking on a loose rein followed by loose rein trot that gradually gathers contact.

More exciting days: 5-10 minutes of working in the walk with a ton of bending and circles and lateral work to keep him focused. Followed by some carefully planned trot that is very focused as well.

So I still get my walking in, but the walking helps relax my guy. He gains confidence and relaxation from knowing the game more than just burning up some energy in trot work.

Generally, my winter rides are shorter. My legs get so cold after about 45 minutes. So our walk at the end isn’t always super long. A few laps around the arena and the walk back to the barn is good enough for us.

[TheDBYC]

@endlessclimb

Each horse is an individual. Sure 10-15 mins of walk is ideal, but if it doesnt work it doesnt work. Its a target to strive towards, but ride the horse under you.

This . Walking is so good for them – gets the synovial fluids flowing into their joints & spine. Some horses? Just. Cannot. Handle. It. My trainer’s horse would probably have a heart attack from the anxiety of waiting for the other shoe to drop. And my daughter occasionally rode a pony where you got on & hand galloped a few laps or he just wouldn’t settle. Fortunately, both me & my primary steed are both old and creaky & like a long walking warm up!

[sophie]

I am in New England, and my 23 yo Tb is not clipped in winter. I just dress for the weather - fleece-lined, windproof breeches, warm winter parka, layers underneath it, and warm paddock boots.
I was taught all these years ago to warm up at walk for a bit especially if the horse was stalled. But warming up at walk is boring to my mare and me if we are stuck in the indoor, so we make it fun. We do serpentines, broken lines, leg yield, haunches in, half pass, turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, we walk over poles, etc. etc. If I don’t keep my mare busy she will find “excuses” to amuse herself. At my expense. She is pretty good at stretching down at walk on a long rein and paying attention, if I make her.

That said, I remember cold winter mornings, as a kid, when we got on and our instructor had us warm up our horses at canter…lol

[TheDBYC]

I learned how to turn on the haunches to make a square. That’s one of my favorites.