The Right Way to Warm Up Your Horse

frame. There is not yet oxygen blood flow and fuel necessary to support the contractionrelaxation cycle that muscle fibres function with asking muscles to engage immediately when the horse comes from his stall before these elements circulate would be essentially like choking them. In a resting state only 15 percent of circulating blood is delivered to the horses muscles traveling instead to his organs and digestive system. During exercise however up to 85 percent of his blood circulates to his muscles. One of the goals of loosening up is to allow this shift to happen.
Warming Up
Once you have things moving it is time to begin the brisk activity of warming up. Here you want to begin asking the horse to stretch into contact but not be in a collected frame. Avoid the common mistake of performing suppling exercises at the start of this warmup phase before sufficient oxygen and blood flow in the tissues and their subsequent rise in temperature gives them pliability. Cold and unfueled muscle fibres tendons and ligaments are susceptible to overstretching injuries. Also if there is tension in an antagonistic muscle group suppling movements will cause inefficient use of the horses body and contribute to sidedominance. It is best physiologically to spend the first five minutes of this phase with active forward movement in either trot or canter. Which gait you choose depends on each individual horse. Some are more balanced in the trot others prefer to canter. The key here is to maintain an active gait with the goal of stimulating the skeletal muscles enough to force blood flow to them. This does not happen at a leisurely pace.
After five to ten minutes of active movement the skeletal muscles are warm enough to begin suppling exercises. These can include various sized circles legyielding turns. As this phase of warming up continues progressively increase intensity of muscle output and suppling by using smaller circles and more difficult lateral movements. Be sure to make things more strenuous progressively. As you proceed from this stage your warmup exercises should lead you directly into your planned workout for the day. This is to say that your warmup should flow seamlessly into your schooling session you should not take a break after your warmup. At this point the horses muscles are able to contract more powerfully which enhances the quality of his performance and ensures a better training session. All