How to warm up your horse For A Working Equitation competition

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Riding in a competition is not just about hopping on the saddle and taking off for the test. It requires careful preparation to ensure your horse performs at his best while keeping him safe from potential injuries.

One crucial aspect of this preparation is the warm-up, which helps acclimate your horse to the environment, check the codes, and prepare them physically and mentally for the specific trial you’ll be performing.

In this article, we will explore why a proper warm-up is essential for your horse’s performance and how you can effectively incorporate it into your riding routine. From the initial steps to the trial-specific exercises, we’ll cover everything you need to know to ensure your horse is ready to perform and stay injury free.

Why You Need a Proper Warm-Up

Before you enter the arena, there’s a vital step that often gets overlooked—the warm-up. While it may seem like a boring routine, the warm-up is critical for your horse’s overall performance. It not only prepares their body but also establishes the bond between rider and horse.

A well-executed warm-up helps your horse transition smoothly from a state of rest to one of physical exertion. By gradually increasing their heart rate, loosening their muscles, and activating their mind, you set the stage for success. 

In Working Equitation competitions, you’ll be performing 3 to 4 different tests, and each time you should adjust the warm-up to the specific requirement of the trial. You’ll learn how in this article. 

Step 1: Walk on a Loose Rein

During this stage of your warm-up routine, you’re allowing your horse to acclimate to the environment and loosen up.

Just as humans need a moment to adjust to new surroundings, horses also benefit from easing into their work environment. Begin your warm-up with an active walk on a loose rein. This allows your horse to familiarize themselves with the sights, sounds, and smells of the area.

The purpose of this phase is also to start loosening up gently, which is particularly important if your horse is just getting out of a stall, where his movement was restricted. He might be somewhat contracted in his body and needs this phase to loosen up, especially in a competition context, where stress might also creep in.

Step 2: Check the Basic Codes at a Walk

Once your horse feels comfortable in his surroundings and walks more freely in his body, it’s time to move onto simple exercises at a walk to check the basic codes.

Start by testing if you can vary the pace of the walk, slow down the walk with your seat and let the horse walk freely.

Then test your leg actions. See if you can move your horse sideways to the left and to the right, with your leg at the girth; if you can move the haunches with your leg behind the girth; and the shoulders with your leg in front of the girth.

Check the backward weight transfer. Does your horse respond to your seat to shift his weight backward, and even back up.

Step 3: Mobilize your Horse’s Haunches and Shoulders at a Trot

Again, start by checking if you can vary the trot with your seat. 

Next, focus on mobilizing the haunches and shoulders. Practice lateral movements, such as leg-yields and shoulder-ins, to encourage suppleness and flexibility. These exercises help your horse engage their hindquarters and develop better coordination, both of which are essential for advanced maneuvers.

Step 4: Transitions and Canter

Transitions play a vital role in the warm-up process, serving as valuable tools for maintaining impulsion and balance. They involve smoothly changing gaits or transitioning within the same gait.

Working on transitions during the warm-up helps your horse find their rhythm and establish self-carriage. Start with simple walk-trot-walk transitions and progress to trot-canter-trot transitions as your horse warms up further. Focus on achieving prompt responses, maintaining a consistent tempo, and ensuring smooth departures and landings.

Make sure you can vary your horse’s canter, on straight lines and circles. You can also do a couple leg-yields or flexions and counter-flexions to loosen up the withers and hindquarters.

Step 5: Trial-Specific Preparation

Now that your horse has gone through the common phase of the warm-up, it’s time to tailor the exercises to match the requirements of the test you’re going to perform. Let’s dive into some specific preparations to enhance your horse’s performance:

Dressage trial: Quality of the Gait and Precision

The Dressage trial is all about the quality of the gaits. 

During the warm-up, focus on refining your horse’s responsiveness to your aids. Work on softening exercises like circles, serpentines, and lateral work to encourage bend and flexion. Incorporate transitions between collected, medium, and extended gaits. Check the rhythm of the trot and canter, make sure it is active enough without rushing. 

Of course, depending on the category you fall under, your preparation will go deeper, checking also the more advanced maneuvers, like half-pirouette or flying change, but keep in mind that at this point you’re not checking the actual movement itself, your horse already knows how to do it, you’re checking the quality of the movement: the straightness, impulsion, bending, rhythm. 

Above all, it isn’t about performing the actual exercise, again your horse knows his job - and if he doesn’t, now isn't the time to teach him anything - the point is to make sure you horse is ready to perform, so making sure he listens to your aids and gives a prompt answer on the lightest cues possible. 

Ease of Handling round: Transitions and Tight Curves

The Ease of Handling trial is all about the quality of the canter, canter-walk-canter transitions and tight curves. 

During the warm-up, focus on stabilizing the horse's halt. Practice lateral movements and backing up, making sure you’re in control of each step. Practice canter-walk transitions, half-turns, and small circles. Additionally, checking your flying changes depending on the competition level, and canter collection.

Speed stage: Agility and Quick Reflexes

In the speed test, agility and quick reflexes are essential. Design a warm-up routine that emphasizes on acceleration, maneuverability, and tight turns.

Focus on exercises that encourage quick response, such as serpentine patterns, rollbacks, and quick stops. Set up cones or barrels to practice precise turns, adjusting your approach angle and timing. Don’t forget to build up speed gradually to prevent unnecessary strain on your horse’s tendons and ligaments.

Cattle Sorting trial: Calm and Control

The cattle sorting trial requires the horse to be calm first and foremost, and also extremely responsive to your aids, especially to control the shoulders, to be able to follow the cow and switch direction quickly.

Since the cow is most likely to run off, stop suddenly to turn around and run off again, your horse needs to be ready to do the same. So that’s also something to include in your warm-up for the cattle sorting trial.

How Long Should the Warm-Up routine Take? 

This is THE question that every rider asks, but unfortunately there isn’t one answer that fits all horses. Every horse is different and might need more or less time, depending on his temperament - if he’s more hot or more slow - and depending on his physical abilities and challenges. 

Some horses may need more time to loosen up, some may need a very short warm-up in order to save their energy for the test, and some may need a very long warm-up in order to release their excess energy and be more receptive and focused during the test. 

As a general rule - it will vary depending on your horse’s specific needs - the common phase of the warm-up should last about 10-15 minutes and the specific phase another 10-15 minutes.

Recap

As an equestrian, your horse’s welfare should always be a top priority. Taking the time to execute a thoughtful warm-up not only optimizes their physical abilities but also strengthens the partnership between you and your horse. 

Investing time and effort in a proper warm-up sets the stage for success.

Remember that the warm-up is a preparation for the test. You don’t need to perform well in the warm-up, you only need to check if everything is in place so you can be at your maximum potential during the test.

Looking for specific exercises you can use as a part of your warm-up routine?