Neck Stretch
The old carrot enticement stretch. Feel free to user apples, sugar cubes or any other goodies to make it happen. Its a great stretch but bring enough tidbits to make the stretch long enough to be of value and at varying degrees of height off the ground. Of course do both sides. It really stretches a number of muscles if you look at the anatomy of the neck. Serratus, trapezius, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, omotransfersarius, sternomandibularis, just to name a few. This stretch can also be done while mounted, but I think a session where you stretch the entire body for 15-20 minutes from the ground works best overall.
The horse has the ability to relax after a hard training session and if you preceded the stretching with a bit of equine massage techniques, you will add great deal of extra value. If you don’t have a lot of time to do the equine massage work, just spend a few minute like five on the back, they will appreciate it and you will see it’s quite astounding to see the difference in their temperament and performance when you regularly stretch them and apply manual therapy techniques. You can hold the carrot as far as you can away from her head when stretching her but, not so much that she has to move her feet to reach it. Just use different levels and spend a carrot or two on each side or a sugar cube, pellet etc. I like using the horse pellets because I can load my pockets up. Whatever your horse loves use that. If you have an assistant one can use the myofascial techniques we teach or that you already know, on the side that is being stretched. Its a very powerful technique. Its especially good if the horse is recovering from an injury to the head or neck as well.
Foreleg Stretch
This front leg exercise can be done by yourself, but it is easier with someone helping you especially if they can do myofascial work simultaneously. 3 repetitions of of 15-30 seconds with applied myofascial equine type massage, using origins and insertions can be very powerful!
You can see the general area all the way from the nuchal ligament of the top line right down to the hoof is getting a good stretch.
Again all these techniques, in my not so humble opinion, are better preceded by a few minutes of equine massage work of your choice to limber the muscles up and accelerate the process of removing the by products of the metabolic process. Try to go slowly. It s great stretch for Dressage and cutting horses!
Learn more about equine myofascial massage with our Equine Myofascial Massage course.