Become More Fit for Your Horse

By Lindsey Forkun, RN, PHN, BScN

Have you ever gone to see your horse, and afterward thought “hmmm that could have gone better”?

Have you ever considered how your own health and fitness can affect the horse?

Playing with horses and riding horses is great physical activity – and physical activity helps to reduce stress and a variety of chronic diseases and cancers. You can use your equine time to help
increase your physical activity and your health, but you should also do your
part to keep yourself healthy outside of play with your equine partner. A
healthier you will set you and your horse up for the best success possible.

A healthier you means considering your mental, emotional, and physical health.

Mentally

There are a variety of mental health issues and illnesses affecting people of all ages and backgrounds. From depression to anxiety, or personality disorders to Schizophrenia, mental health is a very
real concern.

Consult with your health care provider to ensure you are mentally healthy and able to work with horses. If you are experiencing symptoms of your mental illness, then you should consult with your
health care provider to determine what is safe to do while with your horse.

Acting within your limits is important, and knowing when is a bad day or a good day for you to spend time with your horse is also important. If you are feeling really anxious, sad, or frightened, your
horse will be able to sense something is wrong and it could put your horse on
edge and make riding or playing with your horse difficult.

Emotionally

Most people have bad days and good days. Maybe you ran late for a meeting at work, your dog passed away, or got a promotion. There are many causes of stress in our lives – some stress is good
and some is bad.

Your body can run a mix of emotions from happy, scared, sad, to nervous, ecstatic, or apathetic. Horses can really react to our emotions – some horses are more sensitive than others. Often a nervous
person can make a horse nervous, or a super happy and excited person can make a
horse excited and alert.

The first step to controlling your emotions is to be aware of what you are feeling. The next part requires you to understand your limits when working with horses if you are having an emotionally
charged day.

For example, if you are feeling particularly sad or mad about something, then you might be the type of person that wants to play patterns with your horse to challenge yourself and take your
mind off things. Contrarily you could be the type that will be sad or mad
regardless of what you are doing and you could potentially make your horse
think you are upset or mad at them… resulting in a negative experience for you
and your horse. Depending on the type of person you are, the most appropriate
decision might be to leave the horse in the paddock and instead spend your time
cleaning the tack, or scrubbing water buckets instead of trying to play with
your horse.

Understanding yourself and your emotions is really important to success with horses. Depending on how you handle different emotions will dictate how you react – but the trick is to be aware of your emotions,
and understand how your emotions can affect your horse.

Physically

Being fit for your horse doesn’t mean you need a flat stomach, washboard abs, or a physique that would compare to top athletes – but it does mean that you must be capable of completing the physical
tasks required with relative ease.

There are so many different things you can do with horses that the physical fitness required for working with horses is so varied. In general, you need to be aware of your fitness and limitations, and
you need to stick within your limits.

For example – many times I have seen horses that are called bad for mounting. The horse is told they are bad because they walk around while the person tries to get on. Except that it isn’t fair because
the person is not in good enough shape to get on the horse from the ground in a
smooth and easy fashion.

Instead the person awkwardly gets their foot in the stirrup, grabs the saddle and mane and pulls themselves into the saddle with a thud after nearly making the horse fall sideways from the awkward
weight pulling the horse to the one side. The person may be pregnant,
overweight, have an injury, or just stiff, but whatever the case this is not
fair to the horse.

It is your responsibility to know your limits, get yourself prepared, and set yourself up for success. That means if you are pregnant or overweight then you should make sure you have a mounting
block tall enough so that you can get on your horse as smoothly and gently as
possible. If you have an injury or disability then you should make sure you
have assistance if required and/or a mounting block that will work best for
you. If your joints or muscles are stiff, then you should make sure to do extra
stretching before you try getting on to limber yourself up.

If you are playing with your horse on the ground and wanting to practice trotting beside your horse or cantering beside your horse, then you need to make sure you have the fitness to keep jogging with
your horse until it is the appropriate time to stop. Remember the reward is in
the release – so if you stop jogging beside your horse because you got too
tired to wait for your horse to canter, then you have just taught your horse
not to canter beside you.

Asking your horse to do things for you when you are not fit enough to complete the tasks properly with your horse can lead to a very frustrated horse – and in some cases that frustration can lead to
dangerous behaviour like kicking, striking out, biting, or even bolting.

Becoming a healthier person for your horse will allow you to do more with your horse both on the ground and in the saddle, with the added benefit of having reduced risk of diabetes, cancers, and many
other chronic diseases.

Be the healthiest person you can be, and remember to set yourself up for success by staying within your limits and preparing yourself appropriately.

By Lindsey Forkun

www.LFEquestrian.com