My horse, is a 16 hands tall, 8 year old , and still very fit. There are days where I cannot ride him because he must be ridden in lessons due to the fact he's still in training and a bit crazy so its safer to have an instructor there in case but my trainer is not always available.
Today for example, my trainer has to go take a lesson himself so I need more ways to exercise my horse. Now that he has been improving we have stopped lunging or free lunging so he has become very unresponsive to that. I would usually just put him in a pen but he'll only roll then wait by the fence for me to come get him. I do play little games with him where he'll trot after me and chase me around but I was curious to know if there was anything more I could do. I can walk him around for a while but i'm scared that is not enough. Any advice?
Is your boy kept in a stall, then? Simply providing turnout time will give him some exercise; the more, the better.
Simply hand-walking him isn't going to provide much in the way of exercise, unless you put on your hiking boots and really _go_, but it is great for bonding with your horse, and therefore highly worthwhile. A nice walk around the fence line to graze on the "greener grass" on the other side is high quality time for him, and a great opportunity for you to enjoy your friend for what he is rather than what he can do.
If your goal is simply to provide a workout, lunging or round-pen work is probably your best bet.
If you cannot hop on him, I suggest doing some groundwork and lunging exercises. They can be very beneficial while at the same time, giving him exercise. You don't want him to get too bored. Turning him out to the pasture will also help, if he's stalled.
Lunging (on a line or free) is the best way to exercise him when he can't be ridden. You can work him at all paces and keep everything very focused and disciplined
Handwalking is OK but unless you've got a lot of time and energy to walk for a few miles its likely not enough though better than nothing
I would strongly discourage any games that involve him chasing you around or playing with you like a dog and a human might - far too many awful accidents happening to people doing that
Make him lunge with respect. While I don't believe in endlessly or mindlessly lunging a horse, I also believe if you do lunge him, the horse lunges with respect, and becoming 'un responsive ' lunging, crossses over to being the same under saddle
Agree that playing tag with a horse, like with a dog, is counter productive, can be dangerous, and certainly has a horse questioning as to who can make whose feet move, and a principle their herd order is based on
You do not need to play with him, but the horse needs to be able to move, out in a pasture, playing with equine buddies-that is great exercise, for both his body and his mind
True, but one of the main problems, far as I see, is a horse that lacks respect, has decided not to lunge even using a single lunge line, has issues under saddle still, directly related to poor respect on the ground, amplified by the horse being treated like a big dog, playing tag.
Thus before you can do anything effective , far as exercising this horse, getting respect has to be number one,
Turn out with other horses, is also key, and not just turned out in a pen, allowed to do his own thing, which seems to be ;nothing at times
In fact, if you can't effectively exercise a horse in hand, better to not handle him period, and just give him turn out
My new Mare and I work on this daily. She is young, has a big motor and a big gas tank. She is a good girl and I feel completely comfortable getting on her fresh out of the turnout.
The point of lunging for us isn't just the exercise but the practice. She was taught to go like her butt is on fire if you raise a lunge whip. If you just want to wear a horse down so you can ride them, I guess that works. Our purpose is to do things smoothly and quietly and deliberately. I think it helps her focus on her work too, which is a plus.
One of my favorite "games" is to do up and down transitions on a lunge line. We are still working on that, but it gives us something constructive to do other than go like a pin ball machine until she is sweaty
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