Keeping Fit Over Winter and Losing Christmas Fat

Make sure your horses get plenty of Exercise this Winter

Forget Christmas shopping - want to know one of the toughest challenges of the festive season? Losing that winter weight of course! 

Now, one of the most satisfying things to do over Christmas is bulk up on the fat and devour pretty much everything in sight. But there comes a point where we need cut a few pounds and get everything back in working order. 

Horses are no different, so here's a few tips on how to use exercise to stay fit, healthy and in great shape over Christmas.

Trails are a great place to start. They help take the “boring” out of a really long ride, and the different terrain and obstacles are great for your horse, too. Some ideas:

Walk up hills - This builds your horse’s rear, and helps with canter work. Horses can walk up quite steep hills, but start out with smaller ones at first, and be sure to check the footing.

Trot over small, fallen logs - This will make your horse pick his legs up higher, building muscle. For a back-muscle workout, walk over small logs going uphill and downhill. This causes horses to pick up their shoulders and use their back muscles, therefore increasing self-carriage and collection ability.

Trot (slowly) downhill - This builds the back leg strength needed for jumping, and can actually help your horse jump higher and do better extensions. As an even harder workout, start out trotting downhill at a medium-slow trot, and then slow to a very collected trot. This exercise uses momentum to make it harder. Remember to only trot down slight to medium hills, never steep ones.

Trot and canter up medium hills - Horses will naturally trot and canter with a longer, loftier stride uphill, and so this will increase fitness for eventually doing the same back on flat ground. Also, you can add extra weight with saddlebags full of water bottles or weights for a cardiovascular workout, also good for the leg muscles.

Jump! - Jumping can improve fitness in any horse, no matter the discipline, and it is fun. Start low, and increase height gradually.

Always warm up and cool down before every ride, to prevent colic and pulled tendons.

If possible, ride every day - Never let a horse sit in his stall all week and then ride him hard on the weekends.

Getting a horse in shape takes time. It may take longer for older horses to get their muscular body to be healthy, so have patience!

Remember, always have fun with your horse - make sure that he is having fun as much as you are! As any rider knows, the ultimate goal of riding is to be a partner with your horse, not a dictator!!