How do you know if a horse is "warmed up"?

[DD265]

I understand why bodies (human and horse!) should be warmed up and I know what I'd usually be inclined to do in order to warm myself or a horse up but for a horse that's based on X minutes at X pace for example because that's what I've been taught.

How can you tell that the horse is sufficiently warmed up for the work you intend to do, i.e. what are the indicators?

I'm asking because I have an unfit older horse and I would like to do some stretching exercises with him. I would like to warm him up before hand (been taught not to stretch cold human muscles so applying the same logic to horses) but because he's unfit there won't be any ridden schooling or lunging and I can't hack during the week. I can do ground exercises with him and long rein but it's all in walk. I don't particularly feel like the warm up is effective but I can't actually tell tbh.

 

[soulfull]

If you watch him carefully you will be able to tell. He may offer to stretch or go from a stilted,short gate to stepping longer. I would also do carrot stretches before hand

 

[Orangehorse]

You can also warm-up doing massage or Tellington-Touch touches.

 

[Luci07]

I warm up for work with lateral movements so you aren't really doing much different. For this horse, (unless it is seriously freezing in which case a brisk trot early on to warm us both up is done!) we do about 10 minutes with transitions and a lot of lateral work. I move up when I feel he is equal on both reins and stepping into the bridle. On my previous horse we tended to push up through the paces on a loose rein as he needed to think forward before I could ask for any work. The end goal is the same, horse feels soft and is focusing, then I can begin to ask questions and work them.