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!

Feeling guilty because your Horse is Overweight or got Laminitis?

GUILT…..

Do you ever find yourself consumed by guilt because your horse is battling laminitis? Or perhaps you worry that you’re not providing enough exercise, constantly questioning if your efforts are truly making a difference?

Fearing the worst case scenario

Believe me, I’ve been there. I understand the overwhelming sense of isolation, fear, and guilt that comes with seeing your beloved horse unwell.

There is Hope!

But here’s the thing: there is hope. Laminitis isn’t the dire sentence it once was, especially compared to when I was younger. There are numerous strategies you can implement to aid your horse’s recovery.

http://clickertraining.ca

Granted, it’s not easy. It might mean making significant changes, like relocating your horse to a different boarding facility or restructuring your schedule to accommodate their needs. But trust me, prevention is key, and I’m here to guide you through it.

Challenges

I vividly recall the challenges I faced in nursing Kyra my horse, back to health. Looking back, I wish I had acted sooner, before she fell ill. She was overweight for a long, long time. But I didn’t have the knowledge or the know-how back then.

Overwhelm

I’ve learned that dwelling on worst-case scenarios only serves to paralyze us, preventing us from taking the necessary steps forward.

You can make a difference

When you’re feeling overwhelmed because your horse is overweight, has laminitis or is diagnosed with EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome), remember this:

• You have the power to make a difference for your horse
• Prevention is indeed better than cure, saving you time, energy, and lots of money in the long run
• Exercise is just one piece of the puzzle; management and diet/nutrition are equally crucial
• I’m here to support you every step of the way.

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

Help your horse recover from laminitis