How well do you warm up and cool down your horse?

Warming up your horse prior to working him must not only be in his body, but also in his mind, getting him mentally prepared for the work he is going to do.

Put simply, warming up is getting the horse ready, relaxed and prepared for accepting what you are going to say to him. Time spent warming up will also allow you to release your own tight muscles and warm up as a rider.

During the warm up process, you will raise your horse's body and muscle temperature. This will help make the muscles more supple and loose. As you warm your horse up, gradually the heart and respiratory rate will rise, which will in turn increase blood flow around his body and through the muscles, delivering them more oxygen and nutrients. This all helps the muscles and joints in preparing for the more strenuous exercise to follow.

Start off your warm up with an easy and light activity, such as walking your horse in hand or going for a short hack around the school. Include changes of rein and large circles, making sure that you work evenly on both reins. At this stage, do not ask your horse to work in an outline, but concentrate on establishing an active, but not hurried walk.

The time that warming up takes varies from horse to horse and you will need to take into account factors such as level of fitness, the weather that day, whether your horse has been stood in the stable or just come in from the field where he will have been moving around. As a general guide, it is better to spend more rather than less time warming up.

Progress to jogging along in trot, opening his frame up but not asking for an outline whilst you maintain a soft and light contact until he starts to feel that you can gently ask for more. Then gently begin to ask for an outline. Include transitions, gentle stretches of his frame, changes of direction, soft loops and large circles, varying the tempo in the pace. Introduce suppling exercises such as flexing and leg yielding gradually, and as work progresses, start to ask more questions of him until he is ready to work.

After your work, it is essential to spend time cooling down. Cooling down is an aspect that I feel is very underused and yet is so important particularly given the lifestyle we keep many of horses in where they are stabled for the greater part of the day and night. Cooling down helps your horse's body remove the waste products that have built up in his muscles whist he was working.

When a horse works, a lot of lactates go through the muscles, then as the horse cools down and the heart rate is reduced, less blood is pumped through those muscles. With the blood no longer flushing through the muscles, the lactates are allowed to build up.

Think of yourself when you feel very stiff after a long flight or after having done some strenuous exercise. Imagine that feeling in the horse, where the muscle mass is so much bigger.

When you are working your horse regularly, listen to what he is telling you and ask yourself when he comes out of the stable in the morning with a crabby expression and his ears back: is that his character or is he just showing you how he is feeling? Is he grumpy because he is uncomfortable?

Remember whenever you finish any work session to allow at least three or four minutes to ride your horse to bring his heart rate down, then he should do another ten or so minutes of gentle but moving exercise such as trotting on a long rein to allow the blood and lactates to be pumped through, flushing his muscles and clearing his system. Then the horse can be walked off and cooled down in the normal manner.

This extra bit of time spent will be very worthwhile, will help towards reducing injury and will add to the comfort of your horse.