Winter Exercises

Because winter is the off-season for competitive riders, we use this time to prepare for the upcoming season to be the best pair that you can be. We use the time to do some gymnastic exercises (not what it's like for people, I'll get into that below), basic dressage (again, below), and developing the bond between horse and rider.

Gymnastics can be a lot of fun for both horse and riders. Gymnastic exercises usually involve a straight series of jumps, or combinations, which require a lot of athleticism from the horse and force them to stretch and use all of the muscles in their body. Taking 4 jumps, each with only one stride between them, is fairly demanding on both horse and rider, and these also show up in shows. Changing the stride distance between the fences, by having the first as one long stride, followed by one short stride, would be another example of a type of gymnastic. Gymnastics don't always have to be over fences, and often the flat (non-jumping) gymnastics have the best, and most beneficial effects to the horse and rider. Take a look at this site, because they'll get into more depth than I do:

Speaking of flatwork, dressage is a great way to improve your jumping abilities and strengthen the communication between horse and rider. Though dressage does have it's drawbacks and heated areas of discussion, working on your basic dressage skills differentiate you from being an able competitor to a fierce one. Dressage was first developed to help riders during war, as they could ask the horse to move sideways without changing the direction of their body, but changing the direction of their legs (ie. crossing their legs over each other, instead of moving forward as they naturally do), get them to back up, and collect and extend their stride. Since it's origin, dressage has become a booming equine sport and is actually in the Summer Olympics. In layman's terms, dressage looks like a horse and rider are dancing together, and to me, is best performed at the Grand Prix, or highest level. Dressage can be very demanding on the horse, and often tends to "blow their mind" and be too stressful, often resulting in early retirements and short careers. Sometimes it's even performed to music, which I think is a great way to make it more attractive to a wider audience, and if you're lucky, you might even hear some pop music instead of straight classical. A few years ago at the Royal Winter Fair, I actually saw a dressage routine performed to 50 Cent "In Da Club" which I obviously thought was fantastic. Hilarious culture clash there. Check out this fantastic performance: