Winter Stiffness

​A question I get a lot in the winter is ‘why is my horse stiff and their back tight.’ Whether a horse is on indoor board or outdoor board they don’t move around as much due to the footing. You will often notice the path in the snow of your horse walking from the hay to the water and back to the hay. As similar to humans when we decrease movement our bodies become stiffer until we warm them up by moving and increasing the blood flow to the muscles. Muscles not being used are shorter and under contraction, overtime this can cause pulling and damage.  The best thing to do to help your horse is creating a good warm up and stretching routine. A consistent routine will help you and your horse succeed and bring more balance. In the next blog posting we are going to go into a little more detail on the importance of stretching.