The ABC's of Exercise By Jec Aristotle Ballou Topline Ink Equestrian Journal l Published 2010 Topline Ink Magazine Online Extra Featured Article |
At its core, dressage training requires that our horses become better athletes, primarily in the areas of strength and agility. Fortunately, it is in the realm of strength that the greatest scope of improvement in the conditioning of dressage horses can happen. By increasing muscle conditioning (and the supporting tissues of bone, tendon, ligament), performance can reach a higher level due to the horse gaining better aerobic and/or anaerobic capacities and reducing the causes of fatigue, which result in more refined locomotion by greater coordination and power output in movement.
While it is exciting to observe these changes in a dressage horse, it always takes more time than anyone expects. It also requires a strict focus and a lot of work on the rider’s part as muscle and fitness do not change without much consistent exercise. There simply are no shortcuts.
The dressage horse’s skeletal muscles have a remarkable ability to adapt to our demands if properly conditioned. Equine skeletal muscle has considerable potential to change in ways that bear physiological implications that influence power generation, resistance to fatigue, and speed. These changes factor into the more refined and skillful locomotion we seek in dressage horses as they advance through the levels. Studies have proven dressage training for 20 weeks to induce enlargement of slow-twitch muscle fibers (the ones necessary for finely controlled and slow-moving motions like dressage) and a six-fold increase in the ratio of these fiber types to others in the horse’s body. This means that as a horse becomes conditioned in dressage, his body becomes more efficient at recruiting the best fiber types for these movements and these fibers then become more resistant to fatigue. Higher degrees of coordination and power show up in the gaits due to this efficient fiber recruitment and also, due to patterns of “memories” in the motor neurons responsible for stimulating the muscles required for the intricate movements of higher level dressage. Force output is proportional to total cross-sectional area of fiber mass recruited.
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A majority of today’s dressage horses are stuck in a training rut because they are not getting basic conditioning needs met, which predisposes them to injury, soreness, and burnout. Rather than become more efficient and powerful, they become stiffer and shorter in their movement. The problem lies in whether or not the needs of their body are met. Riders must remember that a dressage horse needs just as much physical conditioning as he does skill refinement. Too many time-crunched riders rely on their daily practice of dressage movements and skills to also strengthen the horse and improve the fitness necessary to get to the next level. However, drilling dressage movements will never improve the horse’s conditioning. This is why I urge riders to follow what I call the 50/50 rule: 50 percent of riding time gets spent on refining skills, 50 percent gets dedicated to physical conditioning. This is the only way to progress.
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