Exercise Training Plan for the Recovering Laminitic Horse

When your horse foundered and is recovering you’ve probably got advice from your vet: exercise your horse more, get him fit and put him on a (restrictive) diet. When you’re a clicker trainer you might not want to lunge or round pen your horse and riding isn’t yet an option. Or, you have a non ridden horse, that you need to get in shape. The first step is to create a tailored exercise plan for your horse! Here’s how to do start.

Exercise Plan for Your Horse

Your horse needs a tailored plan. That’s why all the other training plans will fail you. Start asking yourself what your goal is and what your horse can do. If he’s recovering from a laminitis attack or is overweight, you have to ease him into an Exercise plan.

Start where your horse is at

Don’t be afraid to start were your horse is at. Even 5 minutes a day can have an impact, if your horse is at zero minutes a day and you’re consistent!

Consistency is key in exercising an overweight horse. Five minutes of hand walking your horse 7 days a week, for two months has more impact (and is safer!) than starting with 4 times 45 minutes and then dropping the ball after week 1.

I’ve had amazing results with my 5-minute, 5-day (walking) movement challenges and my 10-minute/day for 10 days.

Once you’re consistent you’ll discover amazing things: you do have time! Your horse loves it. The more you do this, the easier it gets! And so on. What you’ll discover is hard to say, but 5 days/5 minutes or the 10 days/10 minute Movement Challenge will shift things, for sure! You can start and try it out!

Use Positive Reinforcement (R+) to Motivate your Horse

A lot of overweight horses are reluctant to exercise. Is that your horse, too? Does he walk slowly or is he stopping on his way to the arena? Is he arena sour?

With positive reinforcement (clicker) training you’ll give your horse something valuable in return for his efforts! This will make him engaged! There is a Win for him, too!

In clicker training we don’t keep offering as much food rewards as we offer in the beginning. Purpose is to fade out the clicks and treats, once a behaviour (eg forward movement/walk) is consistently offered and on cue. Don’t let the amount of “treats” holding you back from using R+.

Set a CLEAR Training Goal for your Horse

Step 1 to create a tailored exercise plan for your horse is to start with a clear and measurable goal!

Most people (and you might recognize yourself in this) set goals that are either too broad, too vague or are too perfect.

Failure: Goal is too vague

• “I want my horse to be healthy”
• “I want my horse to be feeling better”
• “I want my horse to be happy”

How can you measure this? What are health indicators? If you want your horse to “feel better”, what does that mean? How is he feeling now? How can you be sure about his feelings?

If he’s lethargic and reluctant to move, of course you want him to feel better and be more energetic, but if you don’t have a proper way to measure your baseline and your goal, you have no way to measure your progress.

When you can not measure your progress, you have no idea of what you’re doing is working. Changes are that you’ll fall of the band wagon soon. Making no progress at all is a recipe for quitting.

Success: ‘Measuring is Knowing’

Can you measure your starting point, your goal and your progress in between?

You can weigh your horse if you want him to lose weight, use a measuring tape or -even less exact- make clear before and after photos.

If you want your horse to be fitter, you can use a stopwatch to measure how long he can walk or trot without stopping. You can time your exercise sessions: starting with 5 minutes of walk, then 6, then 7 and so on. This way you’ll know for sure you’re increasing his stamina!

Pick Your Exercise

How are you going to make your horse fitter or help him lose weight? What kind of exercise are you going to use? Pick something that is feasible and you like doing. Pick something that you can see easy progress. [Read Exercising Overweight Non Ridden Horses: 7 Excellent Exercises for ideas].

Don’t make it too hard for your horse, or he’ll become reluctant and you might have to start using coercion to keep him going! This blog is all about accomplishing your goals with positive reinforcement.

Know that circles are very hard on the body and lines and the HippoLogic Rectangle are easier and more fun for your horse.

Tailor your exercise Training Plan to your Horse

Most internet training plans fail because their are not tailored to your horse. When your horse is recovering from laminitis you might not even want to ride. Then starting with 10 minutes of walk and trotting for 1 minute in week 2, won’t get you to your goal. This is not tailored to your horse, your situation.

Focus on what you can do

Find exercises that you can do. When you don’t have an arena to start walking your horse, go on the road. When your horse doesn’t want to leave the barn, take a friend with you. Focus on solutions and the more you’ll do that, the more solutions you’ll see!

Tailor your Plan to your Horse

Your plan will be successful when you tailor your Exercise Plan to your horse, your environment and your schedule! You’ll stay motivated when you have ways to measure your progress.

Eager to get started?

Create your own Exercise Training Plan with HippoLogic

Are you ready to create a tailored Exercise Training Plan for your Horse? I got you covered. My 45-minute Masterclass comes with a workbook that you can fill in. I guide you a step-by-step though the process of creating a tailored training plan for your horse.

Set your goal based on the 30 points covered in the workbook, to make sure your goal will be super clear, that it’s is measurable and feasible for your horse and a proven 3-step framework to set you up for success!

Free for HippoLogic Academy members!

Click the image ⬆️ to learn more and get the Masterclass and Workbook, so you can make your own training plan.

You might be interested in these blogs

• 3 Steps to Successfully build an Exercise routine for your Overweight Horse or Whoa-Horse
• Treats in training for Overweight Horses?

Happy Horse training! You are the trainer!

Sandra Poppema, HippoLogic

Treats in TRAINING for Overweight Horses?

I can hear you think already:
“But…

– my horse is already overweight
– my horse can’t have treats
– my horse has EMS/ Cushing’s/ is ill”

Clicker training uses food rewards

Clicker Training uses “treats” in training, but not the way you might think… 

•  The ‘treats’ you use for exercising obese/recovering laminitis horses can be normal horse food: grass pellets, hay cubes or whatever you serve your horse. It can be herbs or grass or even simply hay!
• You Click and give a food reward for everything your horse does well at first. After your horse understands the desired behaviour(s), like forward movement (walk, trot) you fade out clicks and treats
•  Fading out clicks and treats makes behaviour even stronger, if you do it right.

But, a Click makes my horse STOP

Or my horse stops for a treat… This is not ‘Exercising’.

 Yes, that’s right! And that’s a good thing for 4 reasons:

1) Your horse probably LOVES to have a break. If he wasn’t, you wouldn’t be here. So click and treat, AND have a break is extra bonus for those reluctant horses.

2) When he STOPS moving, he gets ANOTHER opportunity to offer DESIRED behaviour: start moving

3) YOU get another opportunity to click and treat. Your horse learns by repetition! The more you repeat, the more you reward, the more your horse gets interested: Hey there is something GOOD in it for me!

4) Safety: it’s way safer to feed a standing horse, than a horse that moves.

It DOES NOT STAY like that: click-stop-treat

Remember: this is ONLY in the first phase that you click and give treats very often and have a high Rate of Reinforcement (click & treat). Once your horse knows the behaviour, you go to the next phase. In my course you’ll learn all 4 phases of training a behaviour with clicker training.

The goal

The goal is to teach your horse that Exercise is Fun, so he will offer the behaviours walk, trot ,canter on cue and by choice! No more coercion!

Once a behaviour is on cue, you don’t click and treat for every walk, trot, canter anymore. You can build on duration and ‘quality’ of the movement! That’s also a lot of fun!

My horse Kyra from Fat to Fit in a few months

Advanced benefits of At Liberty Movement Training

Sandra Poppema, BSc
Founder of HippoLogic & creator of the Confident Clicker Trainer

Become a Confident Clicker Trainer

When you want to do more with positive reinforcement and feel confident training your own horse, this is the course for you!
The Confident Clicker Trainer course is a high quality, online training program that you can do yourself. You’ll become automatically confident in your skills when you get predictable results. This course is aimed at novice and advanced clicker trainers who want to make their foundation really, really strong so that they can train everything else you want, faster and easier.

Enjoy Your Horse More

When you implement more positive reinforcement in your training and daily interactions with your horse, you ‘ll develop a strong bond. You’ll enhance the communication and built mutual trust and understanding. Clicker Training is so much more than a training method!

Exercising Overweight Non Ridden Horses: 7 Excellent Exercises

Do you have a herd bound horse that you can only work in the arena? You can’t ride your horse and he desperate needs to lose weight. Are you looking to help your horse get fit with non ridden exercise?

Weight loss for Equines

Before we look at R+ Movement Training, lets get the big picture first. Weight loss for equines is based on 3 pillars:

• Management; How we keep our horses
• Nutrition/Diet; What and how we feed them
• Exercise/Movement; How to they burn off calories

Force Free Movement Training for Horses

There is a lot you can do to influence each pillar. I’ve tons of experience exercising non ridden equines with positive reinforcement and helping people get fat horses fit.

In 2016 I started with my own horse Kyra, who was diagnosed with EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome) when she got laminitis. Exercising my horse with R+ was my #1 priority. She was overweight and exercising was hard. I was a clicker coach with an online business and online R+ courses , therefor I wanted to exercise Kyra with positive reinforcement.

Long story short: I found ways to do it and got better and better at it. I started to help other horse owners who struggled with getting their reluctant, overweight horses in better shape. I’ve seen many horse owners successfully clicker train their overweight horses, using non ridden exercises!

From Reluctant to Move, to Eager to Exercise

The horses who were reluctant to move at first, started to enjoy their exercises with Force Free Movement Training!

Once horses overcome their first hurdle: aversive association with the arena and/or exercising, changes happen fast!

When moving/excising becomes a habit for the horse and he’ll know it won’t be boring, endlessly long and hard, but fun, easy to do, short and they will get something in return they LIKE, their attitude changes completely!

7 Ways to Exercise Non Ridden Overweight Horses

In my Facebook group many horse owners are struggling with exercising their horses consistently! Exercising Laminitis EMS Horses is aimed at force free (R+) exercising laminitis EMS horses, who are often overweight and reluctant to move. You’re welcome to join.

Some people think: ‘There is nothing that I can change’ and .this is exactly what it feels like, when you’re stuck.

At that point you don’t see what others see (from the outside in). It can feel there is no hope and you might have to fall back on traditional (coercive) training methods to get your fat horse fit.

I’ve been helping people with overweight horses since 2017. Teaching R+ non ridden exercises and sharing my At Liberty Rectangle (I used to call it Reverse Rectangle because I adusted the Reverse Round Pen idea to something easier for horses) exercise that works really good to exercise a horse force free.

I’ve found that there is always something we can do, change or improve to help our equine. A bit of support and inspiration from others in the same boat ,can help a ton!

7 Excellent Exercises for non ridden horses:

1. Hand walks in the arena
2. Hand walks outside the arena (off premises, on the road, in nature)
3. Cycling with your horse
4. Long reins (this is really fun and you can do a lot of dressage exercises to get your horse in shape, when advanced)
5. At liberty in the arena (tons of exercises that you can do with R+)
6. Driving/ground driving
7. Swimming

Cycling with Sholto

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How to Start Exercising an Overweight Horse

Depending on where your horse is at right now, walking can be a great start. With clicker training you can teach your horse quickly to *offer* movement. The first step to start enjoying his movement training.

Start where your horse is at!

The aim for walking is one steady, brisk pace. That’s probably not where you’re at right now, but that’s what you can accomplish with R+ real quick.

It’s not necessary to start with trot or transitions right away. Most important is to start the *habit* of regular exercise and make it fun for your equine, right from the start. Positive reinforcement an amazing tool to help horses change their minds about aversive things.

I’ve found that starting with short, 10-20 minutes hand walking/long reining a day, you can accomplish a positive impact. Keep in mind, this is only the beginning. It’s a start!

Related blogs

• 5 Tips for Clicker Training Overweight Horses
• Pitfalls to get my fat horse fit with clicker training (and how I overcame them!)
• Using clicker training to get my fat horse fit
• Exercising your laminitis horse
• Best Tip to making Clicker Training Your Horse Easy

Force Free Movement Training for Horses

Is your horse overweight? Are you facing laminitis? Did the vet recommended: No more treats!” or “You have to exercise more” to get your horse in shape? Do you struggle getting your horse in shape with non ridden exercises, trained without coercion?

Consider my program R+ Movement Training for Horses. We’ll address your biggest struggle in getting your horse to move with positive reinforcement. You can apply to this one year program with this application form or by having a conversation with me. I tailor this online coaching program towards your horse, your situation and your needs!

To see if you’re a fit I offer a free assessment. In the assessment we’ll find out what’s holding you back and you’ll find out what you can change to get your horse in shape. There is no obligation to join my program afterwards. People have told me the assessment is a great tool and gave them lots of insights.  Book a free assessment

• Building duration in exercising your horse with R+
• Getting your horse in shape and lose weight without a crash diet
• Teach your horse to move by himself, at liberty and other non ridden exercises

Sandra Poppema, BSc

Founder of the HippoLogic and creator of Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses

2-week online program to get your horse moving!

New to Clicker Training?

Get my Confident Clicker Trainer course, an high quality, extended online program that teaches you to clicker train your horse.
No matter when you’re new or already advanced (clicker training 2-6 years) this course will offer you many new angles and approaches to enhance and deepen your skills.

You’ll get:

• My proven R+ training step-by-step system that gives you predictable results (It tells you when and how to introduce a cue, when and how to strengthen a behaviour, raise your criteria and get behaviour under stimulus control and so on)
• Includes 6 Keys to Success for Trainers from creating Accountability to Shaping plans
• 8 Modules to teach your horse 6 basic behaviours, the Key Lessons for Horses, that will help you train all future behaviours faster
• Tons of instruction and step-by-step training videos
  
  

5 Tips for Clicker Training Overweight Horses

When your vet just told you: “No more treats for your horse! She needs to lose weight immediately!”. You might worry how to clicker train your horse, now treats are forbidden by a professional you trust! 5 Tips to keep clicker training your overweight horse.

Feeding Treats vs Using Food Appetitives

I find that there is a difference when someone with a traditional background tells you “No more treats”. In the ‘general horse world’ treats mean: commercial horse treats made with lots of molasses, apples (high in sugar), carrots (also high in sugar), maybe even sugar cubes (when I was a kid I was told that horses love them!).

Horses need to eat! Even fat horses need forage. That’s tip #1.

Tip #1 Use Food Reinforcers From Your Horse’s Diet

The reason equine vets are against feeding obese horses treats is obviously for health reasons! Remember: they are the ones that see all the bad things that are a result of overfeeding horses, or feeding the wrong diets! We usually don’t call our vet to check on our healthy horses, unless when we buy a horse. So vets have plenty of good reasons for this advise!

Instead of adding treats or food reinforcers to your horse’s diet, subtract them from his diet, so that you can use them to train!

Does your horse get hay cubes or soaked beetpulp? Those can be great appetitives in training. You already know that your horse loves these! Even vitamin/mineral pellets (in small quantities!) can be used in training.

Tip #2: Measure the Amount of Appetitives

Before you start clicker training your horse, take out the total amount of food your horse is able to have that day. Put that amount aside for training. Don’t add anything else!

I have two mini horses now and they are getting chubby. So I really am strict to set aside two little hands of normal grass pellets (no molasses) for their training. It looks so little! It’s difficult!

I made up a rule for myself to help me: once my treat bag is empty I can’t have any refills! When I had Kyra, who was 14.2 hands tall, I could use way bigger amounts. I realize that this is just something in my head. I will get used to it

Tip #3 Feed Smaller Portions (Without Frustration)

I don’t recommend being really frugal with treats in training, but using a high rate of reinforcement (RoR) can help train faster. I prefer 3 or 4 pellets for each click, use a high RoR and also give general amounts for really good outcomes. Keep in mind that I train mini horses! But this might work for your horse, too

I rather train a bit shorter (because the daily ration is used up) than train longer and get worried about feeding more calories in training than they use up.

Feeding less food in training will help you become more clear about your goal! If you’re worried that the calorie intake during your sessions are bigger than than that your horse burns off: choose movement behaviours.

Tip #4 Focus on Movement in Training!

Ask your horse to burn some calories with clicker training! This will make Force Free Movement Training FUN for your horse. Even though exercising is aversive for most overweight horses, they are also often highly motivated by food! There is a reason they are obese.

Tip #5 Use Non Food Reinforcers

Did you know you can reinforce behaviour with … behaviour!

When you have a limited amount of food for training, find those things your horse loves to do, to reinforce the behaviour! Most overweight horses like to do ‘nothing’. I’ve successfully used Key Lesson Mat Training as reinforcer for high energy behaviours in the beginning of our Force Free Movement Training.

You can also make a ‘behaviour chain’ (I like to back chain behaviours for quick results) so that you get more behaviour for one appetitive.

Train without Frustration!

Make sure your horse doesn’t get frustrated in training, or you might have to fall back on a high RoR or even feeding more, instead of less. It can happen to the best of us. Point is that we learn (quickly) from our mistakes and avoid them in the future!

Force Free Movement Training for Horses

Is your horse overweight? Are you facing laminitis? Did the vet recommended: No more treats!” or “You have to exercise more” to get your horse in shape? Do you struggle getting your horse in shape with non ridden exercises, trained without coercion?

Consider my program R+ Movement Training for Horses. We’ll address your biggest struggle in getting your horse to move with positive reinforcement. You can apply to this one year program with this application form or by having a conversation with me. I tailor this online coaching program towards your horse, your situation and your needs!

To see if you’re a fit I offer a free assessment. In the assessment we’ll find out what’s holding you back and you’ll find out what you can change to get your horse in shape. There is no obligation to join my program afterwards. People have told me the assessment is a great tool and gave them lots of insights.  Book a free assessment

• Building duration in exercising your horse with R+
• Getting your horse in shape and lose weight without a crash diet
• Teach your horse to move by himself, at liberty and other non ridden exercises

Sandra Poppema, BSc

Founder of the HippoLogic and creator of Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses

2-week online program to get your horse moving!

New to Clicker Training?

Get my Confident Clicker Trainer course, an high quality, extended online program that teaches you to clicker train your horse.
No matter when you’re new or already advanced (clicker training 2-6 years) this course will offer you many new angles and approaches to enhance and deepen your skills.

You’ll get:

• My proven R+ training step-by-step system that gives you predictable results (It tells you when and how to introduce a cue, when and how to strengthen a behaviour, raise your criteria and get behaviour under stimulus control and so on)
• Includes 6 Keys to Success for Trainers from creating Accountability to Shaping plans
• 8 Modules to teach your horse 6 basic behaviours, the Key Lessons for Horses, that will help you train all future behaviours faster
• Tons of instruction and step-by-step training videos