Hill Work With a Yearling

Exercise is as important for young horses as it is for young people. The mental model that some people have for their horses as being babies who must be treated in ways analogous to a human infant is dangerous to the horse's long term health. Exercise for horses, like that for children must be age appropriate.

Parelli uses a lunging system that he calls hill therapy that can transform a horse's physique in as little as two months. The exercises need not be strenuous or done with any degree of speed to be effective. I urge readers to do a bit of research to get down his exact prescription for hill therapy.

What we do is derived from his method. I have a round pen that is set on a slight slope. By using a round pen instead of a lunge line I can exercise more than one horses at a time. We use a simple formula of jogging five minutes in each direction everyday for a week and gradually decrease the number of days the exercise is done per week while increasing the length of each session.

The incline very slight. The horse eventually canters for part of the sessions, but speed is not the object of the exercise, especially with a young horse.

This exercise gives the horse nothing more than the kind of exercise it would naturally get in the wild. It increases muscle mass and I would be shocked if it does not also increase bone density to a degree. Although some might adhere to the idea that a yearling is just a baby and should be left alone to enjoy his baby time, there simply is no science to support such misplaced sentimentality. Horses love movement. They are designed to move and it is restriction of that movement that causes physical and emotional problems for the horse.

Katilina is a Corolla yearling and her young owner did a great job of disciplining herself to show up for the exercise sessions. The payoff has been tremendous. Katilina is stronger and has a much stronger bond with her young owner than before the sessions began.

The best thing that my riders could all do for their horses is to put their horses through this gentle exercise program. Exercise physiology for horses differs as much from exercise physiology for humans as equine psychology differs from human psychology. A human who followed this exercise plan would receive little benefit from it, yet a horse can build many pound of muscle from these sessions.

I do not understand it, but I like it.

These pictures are just glimpses of what is possible with solid, consistent exercise. The neck development is most apparent in these pictures.