Cross-training is commonly defined as training in sports other than the one in which an athlete competes; I take my horse Discansano out on the dyke at the beach and school the piaffe there, because the environment perks him up and improves his performance of that movement.
The following is only a partial list of activities and exercises that I use with my own horses and with my students to put some variety and cross-training into the training program:
Out of the Box, Literally
There is no simpler way to vary your rides than to leave the arena. Trail riding builds cardiovascular fitness, even at the walk, which is low-impact. Dressage horses tend to excel in strength and flexibility, but they are often not cardio-fit. Hill work improves cardio fitness and hind leg muscular strength in the horse’s gaskin. If the footing is good and your horse is not too hot to cope mentally, a slow, stretching gallop is not only good for fitness, it will be a thrill for both you and the horse.
Even at competitions you can use different warm-up areas to keep your horse from becoming bored in the ring. At one venue here in BC there is a small training track with good footing I often use to warm up, rather than one of the rings. In between shows or in the off-season, take your horse to other venues and expose him to new places. The benefits are two-fold: the horse learns to be confident away from the familiar surroundings of home, and is also given a change of scenery.
Go Beyond the Discipline
Bringing in exercises from outside dressage is true cross-training. It can be as easy as working over poles or low cavaletti one day a week to help a horse learn to stretch into the contact and develop suppleness in the back while becoming more active with the hind legs.
I sometimes use “Western games” with my students at home. I will set up traffic cones and have the riders “pole bend” through them, or I set them up in a barrel race configuration and have the riders trot around them as if barrel racing. These activities improve the horse’s suppleness, as well as the rider’s use of diagonal aids while going forward. If the rider doesn’t correctly apply both the yielding/turning aids and the forward driving aids, cones will be knocked over. I have also introduced reining patterns, which can be found on the NRHA website (www.nrha.com) and easily adapted for dressage horses. Many of the figures are similar to dressage tests, and I replace some of the reining movements with dressage movements: the spins become working walk pirouettes, with emphasis on having the rider pay attention to the control needed for the required number of rotations. We don’t do sliding stops, but I do have riders go forward in trot or canter before collecting to a halt.
Keep Pace with a Partner
If you have enough interested riders at your barn, create a quadrille team and practice together once a week. Riding side-by-side with another horse teaches riders pace control. Young horses in particular are often nervous at shows when other horses in the warm-up pass on the inside or come directly toward them. The quadrille conditions horses to accept other horses being in their space without reacting with fear or aggression.
