Walking your horse like a dog!

Lillybob

Lillybob

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Personally I love taking my girl out just for a walk on her leadrope around the place and I think it really helped us bond. However I'm now looking to keep doing this but I wondered if anyone had any excersises I could do from the ground whilst out for a walk to help get us both a bit fitter, more supple etc. Or even just to mix it up and make it a bit more interesting :)
I'd also like to hear about anybody else who liked walking their horse!
 
Go running with her! As long as she isn't the spooky type to step on your feet you should be fine. You may have to carry as whip as they may be a bit suspicious to trot next to you while you're running but trust me. Good to traffic proof the babies and in my case, shift the fat off. :o
 
When my daughter first got her welsh A he was really over weight so in the evenings id take him out jogging around the tracks, I soon found out I'm not as fit as I use to be and you get some very strange looks from dog walkers haha carrots stretchs are good for keeping your horse supple
 
Oh yes, underestimated thing to do I think, we got into the habit when rehabbing my first horse after colic surgery and carried it on with current horse. It helps with the bond between owner and horse, it's a bit of gentle exercise for both, helps horse be good to lead etc. It's useful if horse can't be ridden for whatever reason, and we tend to do it more in winter too when turnout time is more limited (I don't like him stood in his stable for too long without at least a little leg stretch). I say 'we' because it's something my hubby likes to do - he doesn't ride and would like a dog really so this is close enough!
 
I did a lot last winter. He needed straight line exercise for rehabilitation and was too spooky to ride in the dark in windy weather, so I would walk him. He takes confidence from me being on the ground, so we did 2 miles a night.
 
We are doing a KS rehab after surgery and our Physio recommended backing the horse up for ten paces or so. It's useful for engaging stomach and shoulder muscles apparently. We do it daily, either before or after riding or just when catching in from the field.... Something to add to your in-hand repertoire perhaps?
 
I used to walk my horse all the time, she injured herself and really benefited from the gentle exercise. I usually put her bridle on and carried a whip to keep her walking briskly and make sure she wasnt dragging her feet. As she got better we jogged too. I still take her for walks quite a bit, just not as religiously as I was. Its a good thing to do if I dont feel like riding.
 
Mine has just got over laminitis and due to his Insulin Resistance he need to lose some more weight. He had been retired for 5 years but I have been told I can ride him in walk so I am just starting to walk him in hand before putting a saddle on him again. We did about a mile and a half today, some of it up a very steep hill. He always was a lazy wotsit so I do carry a stick to keep him walking as he keeps trying to turn round on the steep part :) It's doing me good too!
 
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Had to do it a while ago after a stone in shoe disaster. Didn't realise how steep hills were to walk up or what a lazy walker horse is. Even I can do faster! But he loved me walking next to him. Which was sweet.
 
I had to walk my pony in hand after tendon injuries, he was quite happy!

When he was a youngster, I used to take him paddling and set up handy pony courses for him.
 
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I use it as a good chance to practise Le Trec style/horse agility obstacles - as well as being good fun, you'll be amazed what you can find to go past/over/under/through in hand :D
 
I do this all the time... Great for building up a youngster's confidence, great for getting your horse to trust you, something nice to do with oldies or stiff horses that aren't regularly ridden - especially in winter when they are boxed - and great for rehab of laminitics or a horse that has been on box rest that isn't ready for turnout or riding.

You can practice transitions, voice cues, stop and lunge for a bit, find a clearing and do some trick training or in-hand work or just do some in-hand as you go... You can do shoulder in, haunches in - any lateral work - as you go as well. You can even work on self-carriage and collected movements if your horse is up to it every now and then... After all, you don't have to be in a school to do in-hand work...

But I also like to just stop and let them graze from time to time... I put it on cue so as to discourage pulling!
 
I have done it with all my horses if the need arises it is especially good for the youngsters. They love it and by the time you get on them they know all about going out on their own, meeting dogs, bicycles, Duke of Edinburgh students! The dog comes too.
 
I used to love taking my girl out on a line. At first I did it because she went on some drugs and I couldn't ride her for safety reasons, but she was very fit so we used to walk and sometimes run and she could have a good munch on the grass as we went, and later when she was old and at the point of retiring, we used to go out for inhand hacks. If we stopped to graze I would carry a plastic curry comb in my jacket pocket and take the chance to do some grooming. I always used a lunge line and if the path was narrow I would send her up ahead of me, or if we were on the river bank, she preferred to top bank (so she could be nosey!) and I would stay on the bottom bank. It scared the pants off a few people over the years though as they thought she was loose since there was no obvious sign of me! I often used to say to dog walkers that my dog was bigger than their dog and sadly I also noticed that she was a damned sight better trained than most of them.
 
I used to lead one of my youngsters out into the forestry, negotiate around fallen trees etc. then let him loose and walk off. He'd stand for a minute or two, then realise he was being left behind and find his way through the trees to join me jumping where he could! Long reining is fun too. It definitely helps bonding and is good exercise -- physical and mental.
 
Very handy for de-spooking - we go through the big estates in the local town and have to touch his nose on anything he spooks at

Also practice square halts stop and back them until they are square - my proper horse always stops in a square halt and I assume this is the results of months if not years of putting him square every time he stops
 
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