5 Essential Stretches You Should Be Doing With Your Horse

Before going on a run, or beginning any kind of workout, most athletes start by stretching.

Stretching helps loosen the muscles as a way of warming them up for physical activity. The same routine applies to horses, too.

Heels Down Mag compiled a list of some of the best stretching routines to help keep keep horses limber, supple and sound before and after a hard ride. Enjoy!

Stretching for Flexibility

In this video from Evention TV, eventers Dom and Jimmie Schramm explain how stretching on the ground helps improve the horse’s range of motion and flexibility of a particular muscle or joint.

Vet Recommended Stretches

Dressage trainer Deanna Corby described how you want to get “the blood pumping” a bit before a work out, especially before a deep stretch, like what’s required of a horse’s body in upper-level dressage work.

Carrot Stretches

A simple way to get started with a stretching routine is to use a treat, like a carrot, to ask the horse to stretch over his rib cage and to his hip on each side, and to lift his back while stretching between the front legs.

Stretches for Strengthening

Dr. Emma Poole from the Foundation Equine Clinic explains a few key stretches that are used to help strengthen a horse’s back, pelvis and neck. In addition these methods can help develop topline.

Forelimb Stretches

Dr. Joanna Robson in Napa, Calif., demonstrates some stretches riders can do from the ground by lifting the horse’s legs one at a time.