Cross Training Your Horse - What Does It Mean?
As your Equine Massage Therapist I have around 90 minutes at each visit with you and your horse and within that time I have many goals 📝
▪️To assess your horse visually with my eyes
▪️To assess your horse physically with my hands (my second pair of eyes)
▪️To detect soft tissue restrictions, muscular imbalances, postural changes
▪️To treat the soft tissue restrictions and rebalance your horse physically and also mentally
▪️To mobilise your horse’s joints within their ‘new’ de-restricted tissues
▪️To stretch your horse, which among other benefits promotes a physical and mental ‘feel good’ factor
✅ All of these things I can do on the day, and all of these things will greatly benefit your horse
🔹However what I also aim to do during my visit is provide YOU as an owner/rider/trainer with the knowledge you need to enable YOU to continue the work I have done between sessions in order for your horse to get the very best out of their treatments and for you to have the very best version of your horse that they can be! 😍
🔹I cannot stress enough how much progress your horse can make if you are able to follow up with your ‘homework’ on a regular basis between sessions ⚠️
🔹And what’s also important is that because I have been able to get my hands on your horse and assess them for myself I am able to tailor the ‘homework’ to the individual horse and owner’s situation
🔹This is also the reason I like to post informative posts to my page
🔹Let’s face it, there is only so much information you can take in on one day 🤯
🔹In my last post about Muscle Building I mentioned that I was going to follow up with a post on Cross Training.
🔹But what do I mean by Cross Training and why might I recommend it to you❓
🔹Cross Training simply means training in a variety of ways, this can include:
▪️Hacking – on the road
▪️Hacking – in woodland, hills, different gradients and surfaces
▪️Lunging
▪️Long Reining
▪️Driving
▪️Free Schooling (Liberty work)
▪️Jumping - on a surface
▪️Jumping - on grass
▪️Dressage (Strength Training)
▪️Polework sessions
▪️Galloping (Speed Training)
▪️Water Treadmill Sessions
▪️DAYS OFF‼️
🔹This list is not exhaustive, and your horse does not need to do ALL of these disciplines
🔹But the reason I recommend Cross Training for most horses is that by training your horse in a variety of different ways and on different surfaces, and by changing the work they do on consecutive days we are helping to avoiding muscle fatigue.
🔹By working the same muscles on 2 consecutive days we are more likely to fatigue the muscles and we are not giving them a chance to recover.
🔹This encourages our horses to use other less tired muscles to perform the same task, therefore working the ‘wrong’ muscles or at least not the ones we were hoping to train.
🔹This can also lead to muscle, tendon and ligament injury and also joint issues, as when the muscles fatigue they are less able to stabilise the joints which can cause joints to ‘wobble’.
🔹The benefits of Cross Training your horse include:
▪️Increased proprioception (awareness of where their limbs are)
▪️Reduction of soft tissue injury
▪️May reduce the risk of arthritis (bony changes due to joint instability or concussion)
▪️Improves mental well being as your horse is not being ‘drilled’ on the same tasks
▪️Can prevent musculoskeletal pain which is common due to ‘repetitive strain’ when horses are not cross trained
🔹I hope you have found this post useful?
🔹As always if you have any questions or would like to book your horse in for a treatment please do get in touch 📲
Thanks for reading!