Episode #104: Why Walking Horses Doesn’t Create Fitness (or prepare them for sport!)

What we practice is what we get. Walking horses prepares them for…. (insert drumroll here)…Walking.

The true fitness of a horse dictates what happens in a bodywork session and what homework will be left for the horse between sessions.

There are many aspects to fitness: general fitness, sport specific skill acquisition, and tissue training.

This last type of fitness is what is most commonly overlooked and misunderstood by practitioners. It includes ROM, control of ROM, strength in ROM and lastly, stamina. 

The specific exercises left for horses by a bodyworker should come from an understanding of tissue training. This is the key to moving forward with a horse’s training!

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Please note: The ideas expressed in this podcast are opinions only, and are not substitutes for proper veterinary care, veterinary medicine and other forms of bodywork. The opinions are not intended to be prescriptive or diagnostic in nature.

Judith Rathbone