How to Strengthen Your Horse's Hindquarters

Your horse needs strong hindquarters, whether he's a competitive show horse or a horse that spends hours on the trail. Hindquarter strength means your horse won't pull himself along with his front legs, so he'll start jumping better, give you slow and correct gaits for your western pleasure class, stop better in your reining patterns or go longer on your trail ride.

Things You'll Need

  • Site with hills
  • Poles
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Instructions

    • 1

      Find an open area or riding arena with a gentle slope. In both "Are His Stifles Strong Enough?" and "Develop Power with Hill Work," the authors recommend you avoid steep hills; though you can work on steep hills later, working on steep hills at first can be too hard on your horse's muscles.

    • 2

      Let your horse trot up the hill the first couple of times and walk down to work off some excess energy. Keep to a walk for the rest of the exercise. Working slowly builds your horse's muscles up more than letting him race up the hill like he wants to do. Go up and down only a few times at first.

    • 3

      Trot your horse up and down the hill when he is able to hold the walk without wanting to get faster. This point can take weeks to work up to. Again, don't let your horse get faster.

    • 4

      Set up five wooden poles, such as jump poles, about 3 feet apart in an area that's flat and not slippery. If you don't have poles, you can use landscaping timbers or small logs. With poles or landscape timbers, try to lift them about 6 inches on pieces of wood or something else they'll fall off easily if your horse hits them.

    • 5

      Walk your horse over the poles, called cavalletti, on a long rein so he can stretch his head and neck down. He may hesitate at first; just give him a gentle nudge with your legs to ask him to walk on.

    • 6

      Walk straight forward until your horse has cleared the last pole, then turn him on a big half-circle and walk back over the poles from the other direction.

    • 7

      Practice with the cavalletti every other day for the first week, then every day starting the second week. If your horse isn't sore, you can add more walking over the poles each new week.