and i broke my wrist. shes getting really fat cuz i cant run her very fast on the barrels. ive tried doing groundwork with her, but she doesnt get very hot (even when i keep her at a trot). plz help me keep my horse fit and beautiful!
Answers:
call a vet to see what kind of diet your horse needs to go on. or call a farrier. they will be able to help you. are you feeding your horse grain,hay etc? barrel horses need grain for energy from what my cousin says because she barrel races in Oklahoma. good luck and hope you feel better
look at her diet,what are you feeding her, what is she getting on her own? Have her checked by a vet.
i have 6 horses. try a good strict diet and try to not overwork but push her limits. dont make her do the impossible because you will only grind down her bones. keep an eye on her and care for her
My advice. lots and lots of exercise.
I remember my first barrel horse. Green broke homozygous paint mare. She was basically wild. I purchased a book called "101 Arena Exercises" and we had a new challenge for every day.
If she isn't getting the exercise she's used to, you should almost expect a little bit of weight gain. Try to establish different types of exercise with her. Challenge her brain and her body. You don't have to run her. but keep her moving. Obviously if she's not getting very hot when you are able to work her, she's in great shape.
Take her out for a ride and practice leads, bending, stopping. Spend more time doing groundwork like lounging. Her only source of exercise shouldn't be. just running barrels.
And. while this will help preserve her muscle and health, it will also keep her mind fit! :)
Best of luck!
Try putting her on a diet. Since your wrist is broken, I don't know if you can lunge her (If she pulls, I wouldn't recommend it, but if she's good about it, you might be able to lunge her with one hand.) with a lunge line, but you might be able to free lunge her if you have a smaller arena. Lunging always burns off energy with my little bronco :)
When I can't ride (I have some major back problems, and sometimes I'm banished to the ground for long periods of time.) I work on showmanship (trotting on the leadline, turning on the hindquarters, backing, walking, stopping, squaring up--you don't necessarily have to start competing in showmanship, but the maneuvers make your horse much easier to work with on the ground.) and trail obstacles (Our local horse club offers lead-in trail.) such as trotting over jump poles, walking over tarps and wood, weaving through traffic cones, and sidepassing from the ground. You could always take her on walks down a trail or driveway, if you have one that's long enough and you think she'd be okay near traffic. I also do small figure-eights with my horse when I can't ride to keep him flexible.
I'm told that daily currying is good for keeping a horse's coat very shiny and keeping the muscles looking toned.
Sorry you broke your wrist, hope you get better! Good luck with keeping your horse fit and mentally stimulated!
Checking her diet is good, but if you can't exercise her with your arm you might try round pen work or having someone work her a couple times a week till your back on your feet.
if you were feeding her more food or high protein food while you were barreling her i would cut down on it and then make sure that your horse can go outside, and run around. you can lunge her do, alternating trot to canter circles just for some exercise cause all u are really insterested in is keeping her fit, not making her more fit so if you give her pasture access where she can run around and lunging, and then ride her if you can, you don't even have to necessarily worry about doing barrels with her cause she may get too quick on you, just do walk, trot, canter, ring exercise. sorry about your wrist, hope you recover fast
Cut back on the feed. If you have been feeding for a horse under hard work cut back to pleasure feeding.
Also trail ride her if you can. Lots of hill work and long periods of trot.
If you are an area where you can keep her at a trot for about 20 minutes that would burn off calories. Or if you have an area where you can run her like they do for race horses.
Run her for about a mile or so hard and cool her out.
check what you are feeding her and try lunging her more, and at a canter. If she still isn't getting hot, try getting maybe one of your friends to ride her for you.
You will need to learn how to lunge. Three really helpful tools are a set of German side reins, a caveson, and surcingle. A really good website to get this stuff that isnt really expensive is: https://greenrivertack.com/catalog/index. You can work a horse in the round pen too. You will need to work her at all paces to keep her in shape, not just at a trot. Dont forget to figure out why you were thrown too, it could be nothing or it could be a sore back ect.
If you have the money, you could put your horse in a riding stable, and ask the owner if the stable workers could work her out until you are healed.
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