17/12/2019
Observation of the week - there are too many barrel racers (and other event/discipline competitors too) that do not warmup their horses properly. This is not a “rip people apart” post, but rather an important lesson. I honestly believe many people don’t truly think about this. If even one person learns from this, it’s worth me posting. I know it’s a bit long but please read 😊
This is one of the things I try to instill in my students; always warmup your horse before a lesson, training session, competition etc. While it’s important in ALL disciplines... with barrels, jumping, reining, etc. it’s even more important due to the intensity and athleticism we ask of our horses. Yet, I can’t count how many times I watch someone take a horse that has been stalled overnight or tied for hours, lead it to the pen, walk maybe a circle and immediately start loping. Then after loping circles for several minutes, they then walk to the holding pen, stand for several drags, and then go in and ask their horse to give their all. (Or some similar variation of this). Is this truly setting your horse up for success?
Think about it in terms of high school sports... do teams not do stretching, jogging, and basic prep before ever taking the court or field? There’s several valid reasons for doing warmups.
1) Preventing injuries
2) Maximizing performance
Both of these I could go into depth on but I believe they are fairly self explanatory.
So what should be a proper warmup? While there’s no “set formula”, gradual warming up is best....walk, trot, long trot, lope, flexing, bending, and yes even stretching your horse before mounting are great starts. And it takes time! I am certainly guilty myself of sometimes cutting it close on time, but it’s not an excuse. There’s a very well known dressage trainer that believes walking for a MINIMUM of 20 minutes is critical. Just for thought...
First time at IBRA Nationals in Indiana with BayBay, she got injured in her 1st go round. It was cold. Wasn’t a good area to warm up away from the arena. (She doesn’t work well near commotion of competition). I did not do near as much of my normal warmup routine. And because I was late getting ready, I didn’t walk her very long either. Sadly, when I came out of the pen after our run, her stifle area was literally quivering and she was dead lame. She pulled a muscle. Badly. I did not have a backup horse. A terribly depressing, more broke (think vet bills and no earnings), and a VERY long trip home to Florida. She was off for about 4 months for recovery. Plenty of tears of regret. Although she took a bad step in her turn, I still blamed myself as I did not set her up for success. If I had done a better job warming her up, would have she been fine despite the funky step in her turn? I wouldn’t wish that scenario on anyone reading this.
So especially this time of year, when days are cooler, I encourage everyone to look at your warmup routine and ask yourself, am I prepping my horse enough?
All the mangacu, BOT, poultices, liniments, patches, and pastes we give....they are great...but none of it substitutes an old fashioned proper warmup. 😉❤️
