Horse Show Preparation: Training, Nutrition, and Mental Readiness

Preparing for equestrian competitions can be both exciting and nerve-racking. You want to make sure that your horse is both physically and mentally prepared to handle these events to reduce the risk of injuries and boost your odds of triumph. Preparing for a horse show can take several months to build a solid foundation, with more challenging competitions requiring up to 12 to 16 months or more. Let’s review tips to optimize training, nutrition, and mental readiness to help your horse live up to their full potential. 

Training Horses for Endurance

It can be tough to determine whether a horse is physically ready to perform. You don’t want to wait too long to start training, as this could increase your horse’s risk of injury. However, you don’t want to start too early, as this could cause excess strain. Once you’ve determined the best time to start, the most important thing is to be consistent. Maintain a regular training schedule and aim to gradually increase intensity over time.

Training should involve a variety of exercises. Incorporate many different types of workouts that challenge your horse, such as small jumps, dressage work, gallop tracks, and trail riding. These exercises can also improve your horse’s strength, flexibility, and endurance. Also, don’t overlook the importance of backing exercises. These workouts can help strengthen muscles in the hind end and sacroiliac area.

Before and after workouts, be sure to engage in warm-ups and cool-downs. Your horse needs adequate time to prepare for a workout before starting any strenuous exercises to reduce the risk of injury. After a workout, a cool-down period can help your horse’s body recover by gradually lowering heart rate and blood pressure to normal levels. Cool-downs also support muscle recovery.

Meeting Your Horse’s Nutritional Needs

In the months leading up to your next show, reevaluate your horse’s feeding schedule and nutritional needs. Each horse is unique in what it needs nutritionally. Consider the age, breed, weight, physical condition, and overall workload of the animal when determining its dietary requirements. Develop a feeding schedule with input from your veterinarian and/or equine nutritionist to find the best fit for your unique horse.

Forage should make up the bulk of your horse’s diet. Performance horses require ample forage for their digestive health and mental wellness. Offer your horse as much forage as they will eat, with smaller amounts offered prior to exercise to help prevent gastric splashing. Ideally, horses should consume at least 1.5 to 2 percent on a dry-matter basis of their body weight in forages each day.

Several types of food are suitable for horses, each with their own benefits. Hay is one of the most common horse feeds, providing roughage that supports a well-functioning digestive system. Grains like barley, oats, and corn are considered high-energy feeds that deliver fuel for performance. Concentrates are feeds that should be fed in smaller amounts and can include supplements and pellet feeds.

When preparing for a horse show, consider feeding schedules. It’s recommended to provide access to forage throughout the day to maintain gut health and prevent issues like ulcers. Avoid feeding your horse a large meal before exercise, as this could cause discomfort. Work with your vet to create a feeding schedule that contributes to your horse’s overall health and performance.

Establishing Mental Readiness

It’s important to remember that mental readiness is just as important as physical readiness. Begin the process by setting realistic goals for yourself and your horse. Don’t only focus on winning but rather on improvements that can be made in terms of performance over time. Visualization can be a useful practice that helps you mentally prepare for shows by experiencing the competition ahead of time in your mind.

Building a bond with your horse can make a significant difference in how they perform in competitions. Be sure to spend lots of time with your horse outside of training. You want to develop trust, which can be achieved through trust-building exercises. Leading exercises can help encourage your horse to respect your space and follow your guidance. You’ll also want to try ground working activities to help reinforce boundaries.

Some horses can become stressed when preparing for shows. One of the best ways to help de-stress a performance horse is to provide adequate enrichment to keep them mentally stimulated and reduce boredom. Before traveling to larger shows, get your horse used to low-stress events first. Give them the chance to acclimate to the show environment by making it more appealing and engaging.

Preparing for Your Next Horse Show

No matter the riding level, participating in a horse show can be an exciting experience. It’s normal to feel nervous about whether you and your horse are fully prepared both physically and mentally. However, proper preparation can help calm your nerves.

When you sign up for a horse show, you should do so with the intent of giving it your all. Take the necessary steps to properly care for, train, and prepare your horse to reduce the risk of injury and help your horse improve their performance over time. While you may not win in every show you enter, you can feel the accomplishment of a job well done.