Joint-Friendly Training Strategies

It’s a constant concern with horses in sport: how to shield those all-important fetlocks, knees, elbows, hocks, stifles, shoulders and hips (the list goes on!) from wear and tear. Even the spine consists of a series of joints that are subject to injury. That’s a lot of working parts, and working parts need regular maintenance to continue working.

One day, you might notice that your horse isn’t jogging as fluidly as usual, or that he’s less flexible when working cattle, jumping a course, performing a shoulder-in or ambling down the trail. He might even start pulling up lame. Whether a horse is a “greenie” or a veteran, stiffness, heat, swelling and lameness speak to the pernicious process of degenerative joint disease known as osteoarthritis.

So how to preserve these precious parts? Each type of horse sport carries with it different risks to the joints. It’s a good idea to take stock of these risks and initiate steps to minimize them as much as possible. Here, noted equestrians in different disciplines share some of their strategies for joint protection.

SUPPLENESS AND STABILITY

One of the most elegant equestrian disciplines to watch, dressage is training in the purest sense and a building block for other horse sports.

But at the upper levels in particular, dressage horses can be vulnerable in the hocks and stifles due to the increased demand on those joints during movements that call for collection. So says Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel of Woodsboro, Maryland, who has trained horses to Grand Prix level: “In the front legs, the joints from