Your
Horse’s Core Muscles
Your horse’s core muscles are essential for good engagement.
Engagement is your horse’s ability to bring the hind end under and power off.
Some of the essential muscles are the Tensor Fasiae Latae as well as the Middle Gluteal and Biceps Femoris. If you do some specific
exercises in this region you can greatly improve your horse’s performance and
prevent future injury to the back and hocks. All of these exercises are from Hillary
Clayton’s book “Activate Your Horses Core”.
These are just a taste of
what you can do to improve your horse’s physical ability. Dressage to just
Trail Riding can be improved with these and many more exercises. It is always a
good idea to have your horse’s biomechanical integrity checked before starting
these activities. Your Equine Chiropractor will check for any subluxations and
areas of poor function first and after the adjustments these exercises along
with many more will enhance the post adjustment effects. So many owners just exercise their horse and
never have the chiropractor check them first. If a spinal subluxation exists
then the exercises can actually hurt your horse more that help them, since they
will compensate to get the carrot that you will be using as the incentive to
perform.
