Top Tips for Warming Up with Amy Tilston
Whether you’re heading out for a local dressage show or an Area Festival Championship, warming up is always a key factor to get both horse and rider ready for the test ahead.
We asked Petplan Equine Ambassador Amy Tilston for her top tips on warming up at a competition. Here are her top three…
1 - Use similar warm up patterns.
- These are familiar for your horse and you which can be hugely beneficial for you both in what may be an unknown environment - it can act like a comfort blanket when all other factors have changed.
- Sticking to a known pattern helps both horse and rider, calming any nerves and helping focus. Remember, you are trying to build your horses confidence so staying pressure free and positive will give you both the best chance of smashing out the best test or round you can!
2 – Balance your corners.
Balanced corners make a dressage test so much more fluent, easier to ride and can help you to prepare for the next movements. Keeping the horse off your inside leg and therefore off their inside shoulder is the key to this.
- Starting in the walk on a 20m circle, slowly spiral inward down to 10/12m meters - then leg yield your horse back out onto the 20m circle. Be careful that you don't allow the horse to fall through the outside shoulder and be strict with your lines and accuracy.
- Once established, this can be done in trot and canter (don't come into a circle too small at this pace, 15m is good).
- This exercise can then be used on the short sides and corners to encourage the horse to take the weight equally through the body and not lean to the inside.
- This exercise is particularly helpful on young or shoulder heavy horses.
3 - Half transitions and full transitions.
It is so easy to forget about these, or even avoid them when they are not good enough. Don't!! Get stuck in, the more you do the better they will get (but remember to keep it easy at a competition - home is the place to train).
- Take your time and really think about rhythm, relaxation and fluency. With two equal reins and an elastic forward thinking contact, use your body to bring your horse back. It’s good to see how little aid is required.
- In the upwards part of the transition for a hot horse, think forward gradually but for a lazier horse you can ask them to be quicker off the leg.
- The aim is to create really smooth transitions where your horse stays relaxed in the same frame and can open and collect within a gait without losing balance or connectivity.