Cross-Training: the Horse

In riding, it’s not too difficult to get stuck in a monotonous routine. Jumpers tend to stick to a schedule of flatwork and jumping, dressage riders tend to ride dressage all the time, etc. However, this is not always great for our horses. They like variety, as in the wild, they never stay in one place and are always moving, exploring new areas and experiencing different terrains. So why do we keep things monotonous for them? Well, there are several reasons this can happen, such as a lack of opportunity (not everyone has access to trails), lack of energy (many barns make you tear down jumps or obstacles, which makes preparing for and cleaning up after a ride take a lot more time), and a lack of confidence (not everyone is comfortable trail riding alone or setting up jumps). There’s also concern for injury or messing up your dressage training, which are valid fears. However, there are ways we can cross-train with minimal equipment and minimal trail access without messing up all the work we’ve put into our horses.

Expressions of Classical Riding

You’ve probably seen the series on the expressions of classical riding (if not, check it out!). When you start digging into the various expressions, you realize that classical riding has a lot of variety to it by nature! You can work in-hand, you can longe, you can ground-drive or long-rein, you can add a garrocha (which you can make from a closet rod really easily) or swords (cheap plastic ones are available on Amazon, and foam ones are available from LARPing stores), or you can practice pas de deux or quadrille. Now, all of these things require some instruction to get yourself going, but even so, there are a lot of books, videos, etc. if you can’t find an instructor who can teach you. Pas de deux or quadrille is fun to build camaraderie with other riders, and you can borrow the USDF quadrille tests as inspiration for choreography. While it’s not strictly “cross-training” to do pas de deux or quadrille, it is a way of mixing things up.

The beauty of practicing these expressions is that you’re just diving deeper into dressage, not necessarily going to an outside discipline. This can help riders who hesitate to stray from dressage and riders who may be lacking confidence.

Other Activities

If you really want to mix things up, here are some great other activities to really add some variety.

Cavaletti

Cavaletti are poles either set on the ground or raised slightly. The cool thing about cavaletti is you can set up all kinds of interesting patterns for walk, trot, or canter. Cavaletti help horses of all disciplines with engagement, rhythm, and balance, and cavaletti can also help horses relax their topline as they reach their noses down toward the poles. The trick to effective cavaletti work is knowing your spacing. A good rule of thumb is 9ft apart for canter poles, 4 1/2ft for trot, and 3ft for walk. However, if your horse has larger or smaller strides, it may be easier to adjust them accordingly in the beginning until they develop better balance or scope. It’s also not terribly effective to have a ton of poles all in a row; some people like to do 20 or more poles, but I find it’s better to stick to 6 or fewer so the horse has a break and doesn’t get tense. Wooden poles are the best, as PVC tends to break, but they can be very heavy if you’re not careful. To raise them, I have the ancient “used to be white” blocks that you can set on their sides, upright on the side, or up on the end to get 6, 9, and 18 inches, but there are a lot of other options out there that are less bulky and inexpensive.

The main disadvantage of cavaletti is the set-up/removal. There’s no doubt: it’s a pain. The poles tend to be heavy, and even if they’re not, they’re annoying to move. If you set them wrong, you have to dismount to fix them, and if you knock one over that you have raised, you have to dismount to fix it.

Jumping

Jumping is another step beyond cavaletti. Now, most dressage riders are known for not being terribly brave about jumping, but it’s good to practice little jumps periodically to change things up (like 18 inches). One of my favorite ways to practice is doing Prix Caprilli tests, which is dressage with one or two jumps. This way, it blends the two nicely and doesn’t require a lot of jumps. Good spacing is important; you want to aim for 9ft per stride between jumps. So if you want to jump a couple of jumps in a row, make sure they’re set apart on some interval of 9ft (so 9ft for a bounce [no stride in between], 18ft for a 1-stride in-and-out, 27 for two strides, etc.). It’s a really good idea to have a jumping instructor help you in the beginning to get a good feel, or you might develop some bad habits or fall more easily. Jumping can help the rider with balance and adjustability as well as a better understanding of space (no one understands how much space a stride takes up like a jumper!), and it can help the horse with scope and hind end strength.

The main disadvantage is similar to cavaletti, but another is that there’s a little more at stake. If your horse refuses and you’re not balanced, you may fall. This scares a lot of people off trying to jump and to stick to dressage, but if you’re courageous enough to give it a go, it’s fun to mix things up.

Working Equitation

Working equitation is almost another expression of classical riding, but it is officially a separate discipline. I personally love practicing working equitation, as it puts a purpose to the dressage and tests your seat and your relationship with your horse. It can also remove a lot of dependence a rider has on the hand, as doing things like backing between poles while moving a cup forces you to use your seat for the rein-back instead of the hand. While the obstacles phase does call for a lot of obstacles that you may not have, you can make makeshift ones from ground poles and cones. Some obstacles do require more specific construction, but you can do a lot without.

The main disadvantage is the specialized obstacles for some of the more challenging exercises (opening a gate, spearing a ring off a fake bull, ringing a bell, going over a bridge, etc.). They also require a fair amount of set-up and removal, but if you just use poles and cones, that’s minimized somewhat. I’d also recommend using an instructor with knowledge in working equitation to help you get started, as the rulebook/description of the obstacles can be a bit confusing.

Trail Riding

This is the most popular form of cross-training, and it is relatively self-explanatory. However, what many don’t realize is how you can mix it up on the trail by adding exercises to test your horse. You can do leg-yield zig-zags around trees, add transitions, and so much more. Trail riding helps horses with balance and proprioception, as the terrain is not consistent and makes them coordinate themselves a little more. It also helps them satisfy their desire explore and relax as they do so. Trail riding can also help you find hills to work on to build hind end strength. You can also go for long periods of time to build stamina, sort of a low-key endurance ride. However, the biggest advantage people use trail riding for is that there’s “no pressure.” You can just stroll on the trails on a long or loose rein, letting the stresses just melt away. One of my favorite things to do is find a safe, relatively straight trail and let the horses go for a gallop. Yes, a gallop. It does a horse so much good to get to just cut loose and go as fast as they can for a short while. However, make sure your trail is really safe, as a misstep could be disastrous.

There are several disadvantages to trail riding, however. One is that people think it’s “just” trail riding. It’s really not. You have to be more vigilant and secure in yourself to trail ride effectively. Your horse, too, has to be obedient to your aids and has to trust you, or things can turn ugly really fast. People often don’t realize that preparing a horse to be a good trail horse takes a lot of training to build the foundations to make for a safe trail horse. If things go wrong on the trail, you’re also far away from your barn and therefore your tools and equipment. I always make sure I have my phone on my when I go for a trail ride, and I often ride with extra tools and first aid items in case something happens (hoof pick, bandage, knife, and definitely cell phone). I often put a halter on the horse and tie the rope in a cavalry knot around its neck in case I have to dismount and tie it somewhere. I also always ride with a whip, not for the horse but for other things. I’ve had stray dogs lunge at me on the trail, and having a whip helps me to protect my horse. It’s also really useful if there’s a nasty fly bothering you and your horse… If you’re just riding 10 minutes around a field, that’s one thing, but if you’re going out for a few hours on public land, you really want to be prepared. Another disadvantage is access. Many of the public trails are beginning to vanish, and this is really hurting the horse world. Some farms have private trails, but those are becoming few and far between.

Don’t take all my warnings to say “never trail ride;” I don’t mean that at all! But I do feel that a lot of people underestimate the risks of trail riding and therefore set themselves up for failure. I love riding trails and exploring with my horses, and they seem to love it as well. I take my greenies out once we have basic trust and control (even riding on a halter) so they get early exposure, and they love it. However, I’ve also dealt with the issues of trail riding and want to make sure people understand it’s not all sunshine and butterflies.

Driving

Driving is a whole ‘nother world of cross-training, but it can be very rewarding. You learn a lot about handling the reins with driving, and I find nothing teaches the importance of the outside rein better than driving. It’s so much fun, but it is an entirely different way of working with horses. Additionally, not all horses are suitable for driving, and the equipment is VERY expensive (a good harness can be $1000-$2000, and carriages can be anywhere from $4000 to $20k+). However, it is really fun to do with the right horse and can teach your horse a lot about pushing power (one of my horses struggled figuring out the extended trot until we drove; they figured it out very quickly when in harness).

Packing

Packing is another really fun way of bonding with your horse. I take the ponies packing to forage and even just to carry things while we go strolling through the woods. While you have to make sure your horse is okay with what you’re putting on the pack saddle, it is a fun way to just take your horse out and maybe stop and have a picnic (while you don’t have to carry anything except the lead rope!). It doesn’t tax the horse a lot if you’re just casually packing a light load, so it’s a good mental release. You do have to find a pack saddle if you want to do it safely, but there are many inexpensive options out there. The main disadvantages are the need for a pack saddle as well as the accessibility of trails where you can go packing.

A Reasonable Schedule

If you’re looking for a way to consistently mix things up, here’s a weekly training schedule/plan I’ve used quite a while:

Day 1: rest

Day 2: trail ride/gallop/cavaletti/packing/longeing (light something that’s different)

Day 3: light dressage

Day 4: heavier dressage

Day 5: in-hand/long-reining/ground driving (with or without regular dressage added)

Day 6: garrocha/sword/working equitation obstacles/jumping

Day 7: practice a test (can be dressage, working equitation dressage, Baroque Equestrian Games test, Prix Caprilli, western dressage, etc.)

So on one week, you can do a trail ride for day 2, ground-driving day 5, garrocha day 6, and a test from the USDF test book; the next week cavaletti, in-hand, working equitation obstacles, and a test from the BEGI handbook; the next packing, in-hand a different style, jumping, and a test from the working equitation rulebook. Or, you can swap out any of those days for regular dressage if you feel you need to focus a little harder.

If you only ride a few days a week, here’s a good plan as well:

Day 1: rest

Day 2: trail ride/gallop/cavaletti/packing/longeing (light something that’s different)

Day 3: rest

Day 4: dressage

Day 5: rest

Day 6: in-hand/long-reining/ground driving (with or without regular dressage added)

Day 7: short dressage or practice a test

You can mix the exact activities and days up, but a general rule of thumb is start light, work toward something harder, then end fairly light on the last day of the week before resting. I like to use the last day of the week as a test to see how the training over the week helped the horse and therefore measure progress. If you are preparing for a show, this would let you somewhat keep a similar schedule, except you’re riding your test at a show instead of at home.

In Summary

There are a lot of different ways we can cross-train our horses that can be mentally stimulating as well as physically challenging. While you can stay within the traditional “dressage” disciplines by adding various expressions of classical riding, you can also add other disciplines that mix things up a little more. The important thing is to have fun with your horse and to keep things interesting for both of your sakes.