Exercises to help with Balance.

[peanutsmumma]

I have a 6 year old New Forest who has low milage. He is just starting schooling this year after mainly being hacked out.

What exercises do in people suggest to help with strengthening and balance?

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I would say hacking over varied terrain. There is no reason why you can't school on hacks.

 

[peanutsmumma]

I would say hacking over varied terrain.

We have done this for 18mths

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I guess that you are talking about moving into an arena now. I would just finish a hack by doing one circuit, then one circuit on each rein and build up from there. You would probably find The book 101 schooling exercises useful.

 

[tda]

Still out hacking, transitions constantly, up and down, vary speed within the pace, square halt

 

[Jambarissa]

Pole work is good and keeps them interested. In hand or at walk to start with. Use fans and odd spacing to encourage him to pick his feet up. Back up over some easy ones too.

Walking over a small jump in hand really made mine lift her back.

Keep sessions really short.

I do like hacks though, backing up smaller inclines, shallow serpentine as you go across an incline and lots of transitions.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

What Jambarrisa said also adding in a bit of lateral work start with a few steps of leg yield and build it up slowly.

Shallow loops along the long side so you just come off the track to do a small loop back to the track, try in walk first then try trot then as they get better try and fit 3 in.

I found this great for a nice consistent frame because if a horse can stay consistent doing these just going around the outside of the school then becomes easy.

 

[tinselbobs]

I recommend the 101 schooling exercises book too. I have a flick through if I’m lacking inspiration as I always try to go into the school with a plan of what I’m going to work on e.g transitions as the focus.

 

[dorsetladette]

Another recommendation for scholling 101 really useful.

But again as others have said hacking is the best for young ponies. Lots of transitions and collecting and lengthing, LYs etc etc while out on quiet tracks.

another thought - I'd just had the physio out to my non ridden welsh cob. She has given me lots of exercises to do with him to get him using muscles you'd normally ask him to use when on board. raised poles, but quite high I'd say about a foot off the ground and then stretches for the shoulder and wither area - hard to explain. But maybe speak to your physio about exercises to help develop the muscles he would be using to balance himself on a cirlce.

 

[SEL]

Is it at faster paces? I tend to find you need to slow everything down when they are young and working in a small space. I'll often ride around the fields for a warm-up, do 15 minutes in my grass school then pop him out for a hack. We're going through a growth spurt and he's finding having 4 legs quite hard at the moment. Farrier commented this morning that he's now looking like a cob front end and back end rather than both front legs out of the same hole.

Physio also really helpful for exercise plans.

 

[peanutsmumma]

Is it at faster paces? I tend to find you need to slow everything down when they are young and working in a small space. I'll often ride around the fields for a warm-up, do 15 minutes in my grass school then pop him out for a hack. We're going through a growth spurt and he's finding having 4 legs quite hard at the moment. Farrier commented this morning that he's now looking like a cob front end and back end rather than both front legs out of the same hole.

Physio also really helpful for exercise plans.

We are mainly walking with a little bit of trot.

He has regular physio. He has a sticky stifle so I'm trying to build his back end up to help with that aswell.

 

[sbloom]

Groundwork for posture and balance, only working on strengthening if everything is moving TRULY functionally so no polework unless the horse improves the way he moves over them otherwise you strengthen in the dysfunction. Ridden work slow, even short stride length, speed is the enemy of balance. Hacking over irregular terrain should also be slow, in a light seat and of course through ALL ridden work if you're a way behind your feet, behind his COG, asymmetric in any way, it will slow down or completely prevent improvement in balance.

He needs to de-rotate in the ribcage (https://stephaniebloomsaddlefitter.co.uk/blog-and-resources/wonky-donkeys) before he can develop his balance and that can't happen at speed; equally it can't happen without the rider being in the right place, the right saddle, hoof balance yadda yadda. High bar but the longer I do this job the more I see this as the way to do things.

 

[peanutsmumma]

Groundwork for posture and balance, only working on strengthening if everything is moving TRULY functionally so no polework unless the horse improves the way he moves over them otherwise you strengthen in the dysfunction. Ridden work slow, even short stride length, speed is the enemy of balance. Hacking over irregular terrain should also be slow, in a light seat and of course through ALL ridden work if you're a way behind your feet, behind his COG, asymmetric in any way, it will slow down or completely prevent improvement in balance.

He needs to de-rotate in the ribcage (https://stephaniebloomsaddlefitter.co.uk/blog-and-resources/wonky-donkeys) before he can develop his balance and that can't happen at speed; equally it can't happen without the rider being in the right place, the right saddle, hoof balance yadda yadda. High bar but the longer I do this job the more I see this as the way to do things.

Thanks Steph, that's really interesting.
I'm going to take some photos later and have a look at them to see the difference.

 

[SEL]

We are mainly walking with a little bit of trot.

He has regular physio. He has a sticky stifle so I'm trying to build his back end up to help with that aswell.

I can share the pain of a youngster with a sticky stifle. Presumably you've ruled out anything apart from growing pains and presumably your physio has talked you through the exercises to strengthen the quads and surrounding muscles?? If not then ask them because they are static exercises and very, very helpful (there are studies behind them). They do need to be done religiously though.

Without the right development in the muscles surrounding the stifle he's going to be finding stuff hard.

What's your hacking like? That is by far and away the best thing to get those quads built up

 

[peanutsmumma]

I can share the pain of a youngster with a sticky stifle. Presumably you've ruled out anything apart from growing pains and presumably your physio has talked you through the exercises to strengthen the quads and surrounding muscles?? If not then ask them because they are static exercises and very, very helpful (there are studies behind them). They do need to be done religiously though.

Without the right development in the muscles surrounding the stifle he's going to be finding stuff hard.

What's your hacking like? That is by far and away the best thing to get those quads built up

I've been doing dinner plates, tail pulls and holding up the opposite leg so he puts wait on the leg with the stifle problem.

He has the physio again next week so will be interesting to see if he has improved since she saw him in march.

Hacking is good, we have lots of hills and also flat tracks where we do lateral work.

 

[SEL]

I've been doing dinner plates, tail pulls and holding up the opposite leg so he puts wait on the leg with the stifle problem.

He has the physio again next week so will be interesting to see if he has improved since she saw him in march.

Hacking is good, we have lots of hills and also flat tracks where we do lateral work.

What really helped with mine was lots and lots of trotting. I built up to it obviously but the ground over winter meant we were walking everywhere and I did notice he went backwards despite being on 24:7 turnout - and my fields aren't flat so they have to deal with uneven ground.

Jec Ballou had a great piece on why trotting works for stifles but I cannot find it for looking.....

 

[peanutsmumma]

What really helped with mine was lots and lots of trotting. I built up to it obviously but the ground over winter meant we were walking everywhere and I did notice he went backwards despite being on 24:7 turnout - and my fields aren't flat so they have to deal with uneven ground.

Jec Ballou had a great piece on why trotting works for stifles but I cannot find it for looking.....

My boy is out 24/7 too, his field is on a hill so that helps a little.

Some days are worse than others, we have only had 1 episode of it being 'stuck', it's mainly just 'sticky'

If you find it, I would be interested in reading!

 

[bubsqueaks]

My boy is out 24/7 too, his field is on a hill so that helps a little.

Some days are worse than others, we have only had 1 episode of it being 'stuck', it's mainly just 'sticky'

If you find it, I would be interested in reading!

heres Jec's podcast about it

 

[maya2008]

You don’t need to school in an arena to fix locking stifles, but it sure helps if you don’t have any hills. Best thing is hills, hills and more hills. The more work you do, the more muscle you will build. Trot up hills stops them favouring the dodgy leg so they build muscle evenly, or if you do canter then make sure you swap leads regularly.

Little feral 12hh arrived here terrified of his back legs which had started locking once he was no longer on 24/7 turnout. I had him out full time then walked and trotted him in-hand twice a day up and down the slight slope of our main field. Within 2 weeks he was happier and more confident. Once he could be led out off another pony and we could access the bigger hills, he locked maybe twice that I saw? We don’t walk much - mostly trot and canter. Once he was backed we stuck with the hacking and hills, still fine. Once we started work in an outline (recently), he visibly began to develop muscle behind. He has done very little in an arena, but will do more this winter. He was backed April this year.

My original TB had much more severe stifles - she improved with hills but we had to really focus on building muscle behind to get rid of the locking completely. That, we did through dressage - lateral work and collection helped most.

Neither would keep enough muscle with mostly walk hacks. We trot and trot and trot, transitions, up hills, get them really using the back end.

 

[Supercalifragilistic]

Does he half halt? Riding without a half halt is like writing a book without punctuation. A little half half before he does anything (turn, halt, walk faster, walk slower etc) acts like a tiny balance, it shifts the weight back - even if it’s only a fraction - allowing him to answer the next question with more balance.