Strategies to Prevent Injuries in the Performance Horse

Raising and training a performance horse is an experience filled with challenges. Not only do you need to determine how to bring out the best in your horse — especially in the days leading up to competitions or races — but you also have to contend with potential injuries. With even minor injuries sidelining your horse for months, and more serious ones possibly being career-ending, injury prevention techniques are a must in your routine.

The following five tips can help you to prevent injuries in your performance horse.

1. Implement proper warm-up and cool-down techniques. A proper warm-up and cool-down can make a significant contribution toward keeping your horse healthy and preventing injuries. Warm-ups give your horse time to literally warm up his muscles before moving into a demanding workout. With the increased blood circulation promoted by a warmup, your horse’s muscles, tendons and ligaments are better able to stretch and flex, reducing the chance of an injury during a stumble, fall or other incident.
   
   Cool-downs are equally as important, giving your horse’s body a chance to recover after a hard workout. As your horse’s heart rate and respiration rate return to normal, he also has the chance to relax at the walk. This provides valuable physical benefits, but it’s also an important mental release after training.
   
   Both warm-up and cool-down periods are easy to implement, but they’re also often shorted or skipped over, putting horses at unnecessary risk for injury.
   
   
2. Understand conditioning. It’s tempting to get your horse ready for a big upcoming event, but unless you have the time to do it well, you’re better off passing up the competition and focusing on one further in the future. Conditioning your horse is a gradual process that requires an awareness of the individual horse’s fitness and health; no two horses respond to conditioning programs in quite the same way. It can’t be rushed, so perfecting your conditioning approach can help to keep your horse healthy and sound.
   
   
3. Work in a quality arena or on a quality track. When you’re working with a performance horse, always try to train on the best quality surface available. Whether it’s an arena or a track, the surface that you work your horse on can play an integral role not only in his soundness, but also in his preparation for competition. There are many expenses in training and competing a horse, but finding a safe, quality training surface is most definitely worth any costs that you’ll incur in the process.
   
   
4. Find a way to monitor your performance horse’s daily condition. Picking up on the early signs of an injury or weakness in your horse can help to prevent a much larger injury down the line. Day-to-day detailed monitoring of your horse can help you quickly identify when something isn’t right.
   
   If you’re not the one to perform your horse’s hands-on daily care, then hire a knowledgeable groom to work with your horse daily. A dedicated groom will get to know your horse well – and quickly. A detailed recordkeeping and a training journal can also help to monitor your horse’s well-being.
   
   
5. Give your performance horse the best health possible. In addition to the best hay and feed possible, you can further enhance your horse’s health with a number of supplements from BRL.
   
   EQ-Royal’s blood-building properties boost your horse’s muscle performance, strength, speed and stamina for a competitive edge. By safely stimulating your horse’s body to produce more erythropoietin hormone, your horse’s red blood cells and oxygen-carrying capacity are increased, as well. This blend of natural horse vitamins is designed specifically for safe, daily use to support your horse’s athletic performance.
   
   Give your horse the natural support that he needs today. Learn more about EQ-Royal and place your order now.