Fitness and Performance


California-based trainer and clinician Jec A. Ballou believes that to perform at his best, your horse must be an athlete first. With fitness as the top priority, she focuses on the tools that allow the horse to perform confidently and comfortably — ease of movement, body balance, and flexibility. Jec's goal is to empower you with the skills, vision, and timelines necessary to have a positive and effective working relationship with your horse. 

Horse Respiration and the Equine Heart Rate


At some point, most riders aboard a horse that is breathing heavily will draw a conclusion about its fitness. Respiration, though, can be a fickle fitness marker. And it might sometimes tell you more about a horse’s mental state, physical tension, or plain old natural aptitude than about his current fitness.

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Exploring Leg-Yield


Leg-yield offers valuable physiological benefits that improve a novice horse’s balance while also resolving specific impediments to an advanced horse’s quality of movement. It helps tunes up a number of shortcomings in how a horse is carrying himself.

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Equine Rehab for the Not-Quite-Right Horse


Subtle lameness or signs of pain that do not lead to a clear veterinary diagnosis can be extremely frustrating, costly, and time-consuming. Unfortunately, they are also quite common, leaving many owners feeling helpless to plot a path forward.

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Walking Workouts for Your Horse


Many classical dressage masters from the past often praised the merits of long schooling sessions at only the walk. This kind of training refines muscle recruitment, releases tension stored in poor postural habits, and stimulates the slow-twitch fibers used for stabilizing the skeleton.


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Adjust Your Horse Stretches to Make Progress


It's easy to keep your horse's fitness training fresh by adding novelty to his routine with baited stabilization exercises often fondly called carrot stretches. 


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Introducing Your Horse to Lateral Work


While they used to be predominantly the domain of prancing dressage horses, lateral movements like shoulder-in and haunches-in offer unrivaled conditioning effects for almost any equine athlete.


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The Longe Cavesson


Due to its effectiveness in helping the horse carry his body with good form, the longe cavesson is arguably one of the most useful pieces of equipment to own, yet only a surprisingly small number of riders know about it.


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The Benefits of Cantering Your Horse


When it comes to cantering, riders seem to divide in two camps. In one camp are those who favour it above all else, while the other camp includes those who find it scary or unpleasant. I would like to add a third camp: riders who understand the unparalleled physiological benefits of cantering their horses. 


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