Carrot Stretches???

[el_Snowflakes]

I try to do carrot stretches with my horse at least a few times a week. I ask her to stretch around towards towards her bum then the same but low down then down to her girth area and to her chest then up from there (to release the poll area)

However..........

I recently came accross an american article which said if your horse has one eye facing the sky and one facing the groud when stretching round to their side then you are doing it wrong as the horses head should be level (if that makes sense....)

Is this correct? and if so how do you encourage horse to stretch this way without applying any pressure (which i would be unhappy about doing)

 

[dappyness]

Not much help here but i'm sure I read the same thing.
There was an article in a magazine last year that had a 'how to' in horse pilates which said a similar thing.

 

[LifesRemedy]

I would imagine it depends on which structure you are trying to stretch?? if you turn your head to the left, or tilt your head ear to shoulder, you are still stretching soft tissues, but each one is stretching a different muscle or muscle groups

 

[googol]

I'm confused! Think I'm being thick? Can anyone explain?

 

[BorgRae]

It does depend on the stretch you're doing i guess...

I recently had the physio out and she recommended carrot stretches. Particularly stretches to his shoulder. She said to get the benefit from this stretch I had to make sure he was poll high ears up and not leading with his nose (so no eye to the ceiling!).

 

[ebonyallen]

^^^^^^This^^^^^^^

So no issues here re the eye.

 

[el_Snowflakes]

It does depend on the stretch you're doing i guess...

I recently had the physio out and she recommended carrot stretches. Particularly stretches to his shoulder. She said to get the benefit from this stretch I had to make sure he was poll high ears up and not leading with his nose (so no eye to the ceiling!).

how do you encourage horse to do this though??

 

[dappyness]

With a carrot!!!!







I'm sorry... I did say I was no use at the top of the thread

 

[MerrySherryRider]

This explains why the head shouldn't tilt http://www.jennyhadland.co.uk/html/carrot_stretches.html

There are plenty of video's demonstrating carrot stretches on google. I really need to start doing these again, the horses enjoy doing them.

 

[BorgRae]

Doing it slowly will encourage them to keep their ears up and not lead with the nose.

I start with the treat at his mouth head forward and straight, then slowly encourage him to bend to his shoulder. If he starts to poke his nose, I go back a little and encourage the bend again.

When we first started doing it, I had one hand on his face, and one hand held the treat. The hand on his face just guided him so he knew to keep it head straight. Don't use pressure with this hand tho, as the stretch has to come from them using their muscles (in other words, don't crank his head straight with your hand! Lol!)

Hope that helped? x