Stretches for horses

Kiparra · Stretches for horses

Does anyone have the Parelli Patterns?
I noticed in the online and liberty books for the patterns it showed suggestions of what we could do with our horses depending on their horsenality and also our available time.

I saw for the 5min time limit that it suggested for LB horses that you could teach them stretches with treats.
I dont know any stretches for horses and i wouldnt know how to teach them with treats ie, does the horse do the stretch or do we manually do the stretch for them for eg if you stretch their front leg forward after saddling.

I read one stretch about teaching your horse to do ab exercises but causing them to lift their back slightly by applying steady pressure just behind the girth line. i tried this but i didnt see my horse lift her back- she just seems to stand there.

I thought that perhaps one stretch could be teaching your horse the spanish walk, but im not sure how to go about this!

Any suggestions would be great!!

Thanks

Horse Gypsy

I only know a few. but I think there is a book/article somewhere on carrot stretches?? One is to make the horse reach with it head and neck all the way around to the flank area/hip area on both sides with a carrot. Another is to get them to stretch down by getting them to reach between their front legs by hold a carrot sort of behind the front legs.
Then you can pick up the front legs and lift them up and out, same with the back. You can pull on the tail also until it sort of gives to you-- some horses are really tense back there. I think that is all the ones I know.

TrickMule

There are a lot of things you can do to stretch the mind and body. I do a lot of stretches and I prefer for my mule and horse to do them themselves, rather than me starting to pull their legs about for them or being locked into always using the treat to lure. Not that there is anything wrong with doing that, but it just makes it more fun and interesting if they actively try to do them themselves, I think.

A fun one I do is called Yoga. Initially they stretch to take a treat from under the hind leg, near the udder or sheath and have to lift a hind leg to get their face under and the neck flexes practically in half with maximal extension of the outside. It is a more submissive exercise requiring an element of trust as a) the horse does not raise up to do it as it does in the more dominant maneouvres you can teach and b) the trust element comes in because he is on three legs with limited vision. Yoga is a great beginning exercise to get to grips with. Here is a photo of my mule doing Yoga. She is 21 and still extremely flexible. I will now ask for Yoga without a treat.

Teach it gradually but slowly placing the treat further along and down the flank. You will see that the further the treat goes along the flanks, your horse will eventually try to lighten the inside hind. You can then support the cannon a little and show them that this lightening (and eventually lifting) will give them more reach. Eventually, they will learn to prepare to position and lift that hind leg right up out of the way themselves to get the required reach. It is something they would naturally do anyway to deal with an itch under there, so it is not too big a leap in their minds once they understand. I stand behind her and say Yoga and she comes right around like that.

There are many others that I do, but this one is a great one to start off with. Other things that will stretch parts of their bodies is all four feet on the pedestal (with a small standing surface), or just the hinds on. It stretches and flexes many of the muscles and tendons that you will want to have supple and strong for balancing more to the quarters and for collection. The hinds are walked under. Fair enough, the fronts are often set back on the pedestal also, but I don't think this takes away from the fact that the position encourages a beneficial stretching and walking under of the hinds, affecting the hips, croup, back and abdominal muscles.

(I no longer ride in the saddle shown because it did not sit well on my mule)

Here is one of my horse as he rarely spoken about the web these days as he is now retired

The Spanish walk will mobilise the shoulders - a very old photo - maybe 6 years old now? You might recognise it from the Success Stories (Liz and Millie) that used to be on the Parelli website:

You can add a jambette/salute while on the pedestal also - my cue is now more refined as it looks very stupid to have me raise my leg to get it done - plus I have ended up with a hideous double chin in this photo from extending the back of my neck for reasons I cannot fathom!

I also do various bow style things. The obeisance has already been mentioned by Horse Gypsy (where the horse takes a treat from between the front legs with various degrees of sinking to the ground) which is a great starting point. You can then develop this into a bow on one knee. I don't have a recent photo of that, but here is an old one where I am at the stage of having to grub around low to the ground myself. It has now been developed further and she can bow down by herself with me standing up instead of waving my butt in the air.

Photo camera video taken by myself from the handler point of view when the bow was developed a little further and not needing me to get down on the ground myself:

Another thing which I like doing is the cat stretch/circus bow, where the horse sinks like in the obeisance, but instead of the face disappearing under the legs, the neck is held high. At the moment, this is my mule's favourite and she will stretch properly, first going down into position, holding it for a moment and then switching into a real stretch, with a little stretchy groan being released (and sometimes a little sideways yawn too). The key to doing this is to choose your moment when the animal is likely to want to do it anyway. I can usually get one or two of these per day with the proper stretch added (more, without the last stretch phase), whereas the bow on one knee can be done limitless times.

I only have a poor photo camera video of the circus bow that I took myself as noone has taken a photo of us doing it recently. It doesn't really show the depth of the bow very well because of the viewing angle, but she will do it with her breast keel nearly on the ground:

This is what it should look like when you can see the whole horse, although some might argue that the front legs should the straighter:

PS, for the obeisance, work on having the front legs straight rather than the horse buckling and toe tipping. You can do the obeisance with the front legs on the pedestal for added depth and straightness. The horse might be less confident doing it on the pedestal at first, so just do it little by little to teach.

Have fun!

Note that many will consider these things "tricks" and find no value in them.

(PK's take on Spanish walk is interesting. He thinks everyone should learn to teach it because it teaches the rider/handler how to teach the horse in small pieces without force, get good timing and observation, learn how to refine and get the horse to do more as the human does less (sounds familiar?). He also finds gymnastic value in it in terms of getting a more expressive passage and freedom of the shoulders. Purists would not agree with this and do not feel it necessarily a natural movement (although for the male entire horse, I hink it is pretty close in terms of catching, shaping and regularising something natural, imho - my gelding does it with more verve and vigour than my femal mule who has a lower action). Fillis was often denigrated for this very reason as he was accused of teaching his horses many unnatural movements (the work on three legs, canter backwards, etc) for the purposes of the "circus" (said with a sneer). However, for me it does not eliminate the fact that Fillis was great at *teaching* his horses things and I find beauty in that, rather than perhaps in the movements themselves....the skill and patience required to do some of the things he could do with his thoroughbreds is just amazing and impressive to me. To me, Bartabas is like a modern day Fillis.)

Liz C, Bazkins and Pants the Mule
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Clarissa

I always thought mules had tails more like donkeys & hinneys had tails like horses.

I must have it back to front!

Re the exercises Liz. They are great & well done too!

Kiparra you might need to use a hoof pick instead of your fingers/hand for better feel under her belly.

TrickMule

Horse Gypsy

My horses do the cat stretch on their own- some of them-- it is cute!

Julie

I use the TTouch stretches and movements - make a huge difference!!!!

Chablis

Great thread (and photo's). Any more? A friend used clicker training with her horse - he stretches himself and smiles on command.

TrickMule

Kiparra

Thanks for all your tips guys! i look forward to getting out and helping my horse to stretch! hmmm when she can do it all by herself, maybe we could have stretch sessions together? i need to improve my flexibility too!

Thanks TrickMule for all those wonderful examples!!

havingfun

I tried some stretches with Navonie yesterday and almost lost a finger. Oops. Today I put half a carrot on the end of the carrot stick in the loop the savvy string makes. She is a food hog and had a hard time reaching her head up and towards her chest to get the carrot. She does fine side to side but I do those periodically. The front legs seem pretty flexible but the hinds did not go nearly as far as I thought they would. She is very heavy on the forehand and has no butt. We've started some Karen Rolf exercises to build the topline and I will now start with the stretches as well. Great topic.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Trick Mule...I thought I would put a note in here about what a GREAT job you've done training your mules! Very nice job. You've obviously spent a lot of time with them, and mules are no push over for training.

Great pictures.

Kiparra

Where could i find some Karen Rholfe exercises to build topline?
are there some on her website or on dvd?

Im struggling to build topline on my horse. she has put on weight thankfully but now i want to develop her topline.

Thanks

havingfun

http://www.dressagenaturally.net/

I'm not knowledgeable in dressage so it took me a few times watching. The DVDs starts at the very beginning so was very helpful. Navonie is starting to use her hind end a little more and more important I have learned how to recognize that.

Kiparra

Great thanks so much for that!!