Ridden Core Strengthening Exercises

The further I have gone into depth with developing my core strengthening system for horses, the more I have weaved it into absolutely everything that I do and teach, so that whatever activity I'm doing with my horse Azuro for example, I'm always working on ways to engage and strengthen his core. 

If I have it weaved into all types of exercise, it's not just a case of 'doing a core day', because I'm working on it all of the time. 

Azuro had kissing spine surgery 5 years ago (see last weeks blog!), so it has been a big part of my focus with him, developing and maintaining core strength...whether working on the lunge, over poles, within the in hand work that I do, and in ridden work...always keeping a check on his posture, and using specific exercises to mobilise and engage his core, and allowing these exercises to do the work for him/me. 

RIDDEN EXERCISES FOR CORE STRENGTHENING 

Making some changes to your ridden work with your horse, particularly following kissing spine, any other back issue, or other injury, is essential, to ensure that we retrain how the horse uses his/her back and core under the rider. If you go straight back to how you were doing things before the problem, you might end up back where you were. 

I have just added a series of ridden exercises to my Strength & Straightness Programme, that follow on from my core exercises and in hand work, following the same principles of developing 'long and low' posture, a lengthened topline, relaxation in the frame, creating space in between the DSP's, and then building strength into that new posture. 

There are no short cuts in this way of working....it's a thorough, systematic approach to retraining your horse. But adding it in as a layer of foundational work, in amongst your other activities, will ensure you have core strengthening as a priority with your horse. 

The way that I approach all of this is to start with teaching the horse how to release tension in the body, by releasing the topline, and I do this from the ground first and then later on under saddle. Once the horse learns this important 'reset' (that's how I experience it with horses that have been locked in the core), we can then teach them how to move in that more open frame, over the back, and this enables the horse to develop true core and back strength. 

In a ridden session, I start with walk exercises, moving the horse around in a lengthened frame, creating bend so that the outside of the body can lengthen and release, which in turn helps the horse to stretch down, so it's all a positive cycle that works together. 

I incorporate lengthening and shortening the stride, loops, circles, spiralling down to small circles with bend, all in long and low in walk. 

Once I have spent 10-15 minutes on what I would term 'mobilising' ridden exercises, as described above, I then find that the horse can move around really nicely and freely in a long and low frame in walk and trot, and there's no resistance. 

So I'm using the exercises to create my end goal, which is the horse moving over the back, lengthening the topline, and carrying themselves and the rider. 

Again, it's using specific exercises and techniques, to do the work for your horse. 

Once your horse is mobilised and activated through the core and back by doing these ridden exercises, the rest of your ridden session is much more productive, as the horses body is functioning.

Standard walk-trot-canter exercises doesn't achieve this...if you're always struggling with the contact, or crookedness, bend, or struggling to get your horse to work over the back, trying out some different ways of working on your horses body strength might just be the missing piece of the jigsaw.

Change isn't always easy, but it is required to move ahead...do what you always did, and you will get what you always got. 

If you need help implementing this type of work with your horse, I can help you. 

***Ready to dive into my Strength & Straightness Online Programme? It's my full core strengthening training system that you can access TODAY...CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS