A step-by-step approach to training that focuses on suppleness as well as impulsion, addresses your horse’s fitness from head to tail. Whether you cut cows or trail ride, a well-balanced training program can improve your horse’s athleticism, achieve a deeper level of communication and responsiveness and enhance his overall well-being – a fit, flexible horse has greater endurance and resistance to injury.
“Exercises that ask your horse to bend and move sideways, such as two-tracking, shoulder in/shoulder out and counterbending, improve your horse’s balance by increasing his ability to use his hind end. These lateral exercises, which include any of a series of exercises that move either your entire horse and/or an isolated section of his body to the left or the right of a path on which he’s traveling, are excellent for developing the muscles of the topline and hindquarters, which your horse needs for slow, collected gaits,” Clinton says. “When it comes to preparing your horse for collected canter transitions, spins and lead changes, these exercises are indispensable.”
In the fall 2014 edition of the No Worries Journal, Clinton explains step-by-step how to teach your horse to counterbend. Log in to the No Worries Club website to read the article “Counterbend for a Softer, Suppler Horse” now.
