Horse physical training

With a horse in good shape, there is no need to resort to chemical products, vitamins, infiltrations or other “concealing agents”. Personally, I eliminated all that more than 10 years ago.
A horse does not go lame or become ill by chance. If it does, it is rather like a red light blinking: «Be careful, you are not training correctly.» Camouflaging this problem with chemical products is rather like attacking the red light with a hammer so it stops blinking. Why hide from the truth? A given rider generally finds that most of his horses suffer from the same pathologies.
Veterinary surgeons are well aware of this. Why is it that in certain stables all the horses have problems with their hocks? And why is that in another stable, it is always the same vertebra that hurts?
In these conditions, the rider is faced with a number of solutions:
. he can change his horse… but this is very expensive!
. he can call the vet… and hit the red warning light with a hammer,
.
or he can adopt the most viable long-term solution, he can take the time to search for the primary cause of this pain: perhaps a poor ground, an unsuitable way of training, the rider’s poor seat…
Why give a horse cough medicine if its box is exposed to drafts or dust? Listen to the body’s language. This is equally true for both human beings and horses.

Michel and Sissi - 1994

Sissi de la Lande was lame when she was 6 years old and was several times considered unfit to compete. Complete examinations were carried out by several veterinary surgeons in Switzerland and in other countries. They each had a different opinion, but none achieved satisfactory results.
It was my friend Alain Guerland, the manual therapist, who provided the solution. He simply ignored the fact that she was lame; he believed that her lameness was the consequence of a deeper imbalance.
With a great deal of patience, Alain managed to discover the primary cause. Following a very old traumatic event, the mare, was so to speak, “crooked’. This torsion reflected on one vertebra unbalancing her body as a whole.
In summary, it is rather like someone with a leg in plaster, all the weight is on the other leg, resulting in lumbar, sciatic or other pain.
With Sissi, thanks to manipulation and the right kind of training, we managed to completely eliminate the lameness.

There are many other stories about horses, either ill or lame, that with correct exercising returned to lead a normal life.

Horses are just like us, it is possible to mould and improve them to reveal their real potential. A good rider must be capable of taking his horse to one, two or three …levels above its current possibilities. And, as with human beings, there is no age limit for achieving this. A 15-year-old horse can still improve its suppleness and progress. One must simply do things naturally.

Unfortunately, we are provided with many opportunities for “ruining a horse”.  I am above all alluding to ill treatment, and to misinformed riders, vets or carers.
To improve a horse it is necessary to “have faith”: to believe in it, to believe in its potential for making progress.
I remember Sissi de la Lande; despite of her undeniable qualities, her temperament and irregular paces at times made her a difficult horse. And yet, together we won two silver medals at the World Championships. She was so sensitive that I worked with her practically by thought transmission. This was in fact quite hard, because I had to keep a very clear mind, or she could become very disagreeable. She needed constant rebalancing. Once again my strategy was to teach her to work on her strong points to relieve the weak ones, all this, of course, without resorting to any medication.
The system worked well and I still remember her perfect paces when she trotted up for the vet before the final round of the World Championship. And yet, that week, she had already jumped a speed class, two team classes and the last qualifying round!
There have been many other success stories; I remember my beginnings in Béligneux when I managed to win show jumping classes with the last horse left in the stables... the one nobody else wanted.

At times, believing in one’s horse allows one to do things previously considered impossible. To do this, it is necessary to bear in mind that the horse’s physical preparation - and the same applies to riders - is a crucial element in succeeding.
With a well-trained horse on the flat and in good physical shape, a jumping show becomes a game in which all that remains to be done is progressively work on the height and variety of fences.

Extract of the book "secrets and method of a great champion"