Posted on Leave a comment

Best groundwork exercises for your horse

Groundwork is when you work with your horse on the ground, teaching him to become more submissive and responsive to your cues. Groundwork can help you develop a better relationship with your horse and can assist in building a solid foundation of training. 

The hand walk

The hand walk is a good warm-up exercise for your horse and can be used to build up muscles. It’s also a great way to improve your relationship with the animal. The purpose of this exercise is to get the horse walking forward when you call on it, either with or without a bridle, depending on how far along in training you are. It’s important that you know how much your horse can actually do when doing this exercise, so make sure to pay attention and learn how much effort they’re putting into it. You should also remember that some horses may need more time than others before they’re ready for this particular exercise!

The hindlimb lift

The hindlimb lift is a great move to teach your horse and reinforce the training from the other exercises. 

To begin, have your horse stand in a corner or close to a fence with his front feet turned out 90 degrees and his hindquarters facing you. Start by holding onto one of his reins and reaching through his neck as if you were going to grab him by it. Then pull him away from the wall or fence while keeping hold on that wriggling head! Once they’ve gotten used to this movement, try switching between pulling directly down on both reins at once (to make sure they’re balanced) or just one hand at a time (for variety). Lastly and most importantly, make sure that each session ends with praise!

The pick-up and turn-around

The pick-up and turn-around is a fun exercise, which helps to improve your horse’s balance and flexibility. It also helps to improve his attitude towards new things. 

The pick-up and turn around starts with you turning around in the saddle as you move away from a fence or wall. As soon as you’ve done this, ask him to pick up one foot when it touches down on the ground so that he stands on three legs instead of four during this phase of the exercise (the fourth leg should be lifted). Tell him ‘pick up’ before doing anything else so that he knows what’s expected of him!

Backing up

Backing up is a great exercise for teaching a horse to be calm and relaxed. It will also help your horse be obedient and confident, as well as brave. The best way to start this exercise is by using a lead rope or halter strap so you can guide your horse from behind. Start with your horse standing still, then walk beside him until he becomes accustomed to moving backward without any pressure from you. When he’s comfortable walking backward, start leading him along gently while saying “back up” as you do so, don’t pull on the lead until he starts walking away from where you’re standing!

Posted on Leave a comment

Equestrian apps every horse owner needs to try

Equestrians love their horses and try to do everything to ensure their horses are safe and comfortable. That’s why we are constantly looking for new apps they can use. While it can be easy to get overwhelmed with the variety of apps available—from horse riding apps to weight control apps, you’ll find all the best ones right here in this post.

Equilab Equestrian Tracker

This app is great for all horse owners, whether you’re a competitive rider or just a hobbyist who wants to make sure your four-legged friend is healthy, happy, and safe.

For competitive riders, this app can help you track the progress of your horses’ fitness and performance. You can use it to keep track of your horses’ heart rates, speeds, distances, and more—all while saving time at shows by not having to manually record these stats on paper forms. This means that you’ll be able to focus on what really matters: winning!

Equus Note

This is one of the best equestrian apps for keeping track of your horses and their health. It’s essentially a digital notebook for your horse, with a ton of features that will help you keep track of all the important things about your horse. It allows you to take notes on each horse’s health, including their weight, diet, medications and supplements. It also has a calendar where you can schedule appointments or events like competitions or shows. It also allows users to create lists of supplies needed for each horse and then share those lists with other people who are involved with them. In addition, it comes with a feature that lets users contact veterinarians directly from within the app if there’s an emergency (or just for general questions).

Horse Chat

If you’re looking for an easier way to connect with other horse owners, this is one of the best equestrian apps available today. Horse Chat allows users to connect with people all over the world who have similar interests in horses through live chat rooms.

What3Words

If you’re not familiar with What3Words, it’s a system that divides the world into a lot of (well, actually 50+ trillion!) 3m x 3m squares.

This means that wherever you are in the world—whether you’re at home or on vacation—you’ll never have to worry about getting lost again.

And it works for horses too! If you want to take your horse on a ride through the woods, find them a field where they can graze freely without ever having to worry about getting lost or running into other horses (or people), you can do that with the help of this amazing app. 

TestPro British Dressage

TestPro British Dressage has everything you need to make your riding experience a success, including the ability to track your horse’s performance, videos on how to train your horse, and even some fun games that will keep you entertained when you’re not riding.

The app’s sleek design makes it easy to navigate through all of its features. You can use it on its own or with other apps from TestPro, which means you’ll be able to get more out of your training program by using multiple tools at once.

It’s also great because it helps build confidence in both rider and horse—something that is not easy to do when you’re working with such large animals!