hi it's Josie and today I would like to share with you how and why I warm my horse up in the way I do
so first of all you've probably heard and if you haven't heard you need to know that you should do
a good 10 minutes of walk with your horse before you ask him to do any harder type of work and why
do we need to do that we need to do that for the same reasons as humans that we need to warm up
before we do anything once the body gets moving and weight starts being put onto the joints and
they're moving the joints tell the body little sensors in there tell the body that exercise is
happening this is quite a simplistic version guys but it's what happens and so then the body begins
to secrete some more joint fluid within the joints which help with the cushioning and the lubrication
of the joint and therefore decrease the chance of injury obviously it also helps the muscles because
the muscles get good boy the muscles get a little bit of more blood supply so because
they're getting ready to do some more work as well the lungs work a little bit better they start to
suck a little bit more oxygen up and distribute that around the body so the warm-up is actually
very important for the longevity and health and safety of your horse for for decreasing the chance
of injuries so I have done five minutes of walking like this now if your horse comes out of a stable
if your horses are stable my horses live out 24 /7 so they can move around a lot but if your horse is
stable 24 hours a day or 23 hours a day then you really need to make sure that you do your warm up
and you should also perhaps look for somewhere where your horse can get some turnout not only
for his physical health bet for his mental health but that's a completely another story
so we have done five minutes on a completely long rein and whilst I do that with rebel I often
have my feet out of the stirrups and I do some stretching and bending and suppling of my own body
we work as a team so not only do I need him to be Supple and ready to go I need my body to be
Supple and ready to go as well and Rebel's definitely looking very ready to go today
once I've done my five minutes at a um on a completely long rein I will
do the next five minutes and I do use my Watch I'll do the next five minutes
on
a contact or a connection now it depends where your horse is at as to whether you have it on
a contact or a connection so if you've got a green horse it's really just should be a
connection so I have I will in a minute anyway a connection with Rebel's mouth here now it's not
um it's not that um he that I can I haven't got him on the contact uh coming onto the bit
I've got a connection I can feel his mouth and he can feel my hands so if I wanted to flex him this
way I just have to close my ring finger and you can see that I can tip his nose in there
and that's just my ring finger because I have just the lightest connection with his mouth as
if my reins were two cotton threads and we're just out my hand follows his mouth so you follow your
horse he does not follow you that is not how it works in contact and connection so if it's a green
horse this might be your uh the rest of your warm up in walk and then Trot and then Canter on just a
connection while the horse is learning to accept that before he goes to a contact but Rebel can
walk up onto a contact because he actually is a lot further along and you might notice that he was
um like jig jogging a little bit earlier I'm not picking him up on that today he's had a
few lessons on going forward so um the fact of the matter is that's just him being very forward
and telling me he's Keen to go so why would I then tell him off for something that I've been
training him for that's just a side note so now I've got him walking up so I will do five
minutes like this and I won't just walk around like this though guys I will change the flexion
here I will ask him off my leg I will check that he will move sideways I'll ask him to stop going
sideways go forward I'll change the flexion and then I'll ask him to leg yield back to the track
I have not done any warm up on him so you are seeing Rebel in his warm-up I
have not done one iota other than a five minute walk on a loose rein
so the reason I do a little bit of um lateral work like leg yielding work is just to help him
with it or first of all is just to check that he's listening to my AIDS and then secondly is
just to help him with suppleness so I'm going to leg yield him off the track again here
he needs to go a little bit more forward there rather than so much sideways now I want him to
do a few steps straight for me then I'm going to change the bend and flexion and
ask him to go back to the track or there's not a great deal of Bend in leg yield but
there's definitely a change of flexion and he needs to come off my right leg a little bit
better there so I'm doing five minutes of this I may also see if I can bring his shoulders in
you'll see me doing that there and his shoulders this way I'm just checking that I can move the
front half of his body and the back half of his body I might ask him to go around
do a bit of a turn on the forehand in motion
he got a bit stuck there that's okay so this is what I do for a warm-up this is
actually warming him up and bending and stretching all sides of his body good boy
and I do that for five minutes and as I said I watch my clock I might halt
to make sure he'll hald nicely and then ask him to go so I don't just walk around
I actually do exercises I might leg yield him out on the half circle here
good boy good boy then I might slow the shoulders and push the hindquarter out a little bit good boy
so he went from just a bit of a leg yield and we'll do that this way a little bit of a leg yield
to stop the shoulder and ask the hindquarter to keep going or not stop a bit slow the shoulder
so we get more of a turn on the forehand in motion good boy and this is all suppling I'll
ask him to see if he can stretch out in the contact for me this is a dressage movement
and actually if I remember rightly I think it's actually a double dressage movement
like you get it's a times two and then I will see if I can pick him up without him
jogging off because you'll lose points in your tests for that and he did that quite nicely
and then I might ask him to stretch out a bit more and give me a little bit more of a long rein walk
and then come up back into a medium walk
a little warm I might see if I can get a little bit of shoulder in out of him and walk
and he's leaning on my left there that's a good boy and we might turn across here walk on good boy
then I might change the flexion and we might go down this way so my five minutes of um connection
work is nearly up which nearly which makes my 10 minutes of walking warm-up done and once I'm ready
for that and I think that's done and I'm pretty happy with what he's doing I will go off in trot
first thing I'm thinking about is rhythm and relaxation because that's the first
part of the training scale has he got a nice Rhythm yep for a warm-up
he has is he forward enough for me well I'm not having to ask him to
keep trotting and he feels for the start of a warm-up for Rebel feels quite good
and I need to start to shorten the frame in him in Trot so what I will do
is I'll just come down here and first of all whoops I'll probably
overshot the line there but I'll ask a few steps of leg yield back to the track
I'll bend him in the corner good good boy I'll come down the quarter line here
I'll ask him to leg yield good boy good
on this half circle here if he leans against my inside leg I would
um move him out leg yield him out I'll change the rein
good boy
so the aim of the warm-up is for to warm him up get him Supple get him on the AIDS
move him off of my left leg boy you can I can feel that shortening and shortening him up
make sure he's nice and supple I want to get him from the forehand
back you taking a little bit more weight behind good
so now he's doing both of those quite nicely
good boy what I'm going to do let's come around here and we're going to leg yeild it off the
track a few steps and then back to the track for a few steps and this is going to shorten him up
nicely for me come on he needs to go forward there it's just lagging behind me a little bit
Leg yield him off the track thank you and back
to the track whoops need to change diagonal there habit
okay good boy I'm gonna change the rein
steady good boy so I'm going to change the rein here now I'm going to change flexion and Direction
and I'm actually going to leg you in off for the last few steps back to the track there do the same
thing from this side come on I'm going to just leg yield him off in change flexion leg yield him back
he tries to pull long through my left rein this horse quite often
now I'm going to do a little bit of go forward come back half halting listening good boy and come
back not heavier not heavier in the rein good boy so we Dove a bit there that's better that's better
a little bit of shoulder fore here shoulder in off good make sure he is supple through my right rein
so I need to be able to give the right rein and shoulder in because you shouldn't be holding the
horse with your rein on the track it should be between your inside leg and your outside rein
steady good boy little half circle here return to the track
always picking my spots that I'm going to guys I always was coming back to R here
never just randomly riding I always ride lines
I'll just do a little shoulder fore this way his stiff side
that's a boy so you might have seen me give him a little kick there if we get him off
my left leg and now I'm going to just go forward into Canter
just do a I'm going to be in a bit of a light seat and allow him just to bowl along nicely in Canter
and warm up in Canter as well I don't want him rolled under like that that's no good for anybody
turn from my outside rein I don't want him deep like that good
now we do the other way
good boy good boy good
a nice little Canter this way a bit of a light two point I do not want him to roll over
oops come back to try it was crooked in that down transition badly
will he stretched through beautiful
so if you ask your horse to stretch like that and he snatches you can bet your bottom dollar
you've been holding on to him he has not how do I explain this he's not been because the horse
Takes the contact you don't make it and horses that snatch out of your hand you've usually been
sitting hanging on to the contact not getting them through for want of the better word anyway
that is how I've worn Rebel up at the moment how I wore most of my horses up depending on their
training level I hope that helps you I'd love to hear if you use a technique to warm your horse
up or if you just randomly do it let me know in the comments below thanks for watching [Music]