Exercise and Therapeutic Training For Horses and Riders

Equetec provides individualized exercise training programs for horses and riders to develop strength and flexiblity. The exercises are good for training, warming up, increasing overall conditioning and fitness. Exercise therapy and training improves overall health, performance and longevity.

Exercise therapy and training are available for horse and rider. Equetec has now opened a gym in Propsect Hill for riders to work on their strength and flexibility too.

Is your horse willing, strong and supple enough?---Are you?
Equetec and Ginger Long provide specific programs for horses and riders based on their individual goals and abilities for optimum health and performance. The programs include gait evaluation, groundwork, conditioning, exercise therapy and results! Equetec provides lessons, training, rehabilitation, clinics and education for horse owners.  Please contact us to schedule your initial evaluation and individual program today.

Equetec specializes in Exercise Training for the Equine Athlete. Ginger Long is certified by the British Horse Society and has 20 years of practical experience with various professionals, disciplines and breeds.
Contact us in Prospect Hill, NC by emailing ginger@equetec.com or by calling 336-562-8053.

Click here to download our history form, email us to make an appt and we'll get started right now. History Form download

Exercise Training Benefits:

• Hot, sensitive dressage horses improved strength and relaxation to move up to the next level
• Stiff, resistant horses that lack flexibility and swing in their backs were able to unlock movement; supple in flatwork and bascule over gymnastics, stadium and cross country fences
• Ataxic or uncoordinated horses learned to balance by developing their backs and hindquarters
• Behavioral cases including, rearing, bucking, run away, worried/insecure horses improve confidence, obedience and trust
• Geriatric horses that were losing their top lines were able to build their backs up again and be ridden
• Back, hip, stifle and hindquarter weakness, asymmetries and injuries were rehabilitated and brought back to full use
• Podiatry cases that due to improper hoof balance, led to asymmetry throughout the body improved
• Young impressionable and mature horses were trained and developed in a relaxed, strong body, happy mind and progressed the training scale in harmony with their riders.

Want to know more, read on.....

1. Equine Exercise and Rehabilitation Programs include: consultation, evaluation and specific guidelines for conditioning, strenthening, performance or behavioral issues. Rehabilitation and physical therapy may be included in programs as necessary. The goal of your individualized program is to encourage positive horse-rider interaction while improving overall health, performance and longevity.

Included are 4-6 phase program suggestions with an extensive written evaluation report. Programs include exercises and goals per phase.

Program follow up sessions are available. Follow-ups can be performed at your place (add travel expense), in clinics, at Equetec or by video made using the Equetec's evaluation video checklist or videos can be setup live at Equetec.

2. Programs may include an Exercise Program for the Rider. Sessions for the rider include body awareness, stretching and strengthening are available mounted and unmounted. Equetec has a gym and seasonal pool for unmounted sessions for the rider. Rider sessions also include seat lessons with your horse or with one of ours.

Exercise Programs for the Rider
Contact me to schedule your personalized rider exercise strength and stretching program.
Instructional exercsie training programs for the rider will be presented in our basement gym and in a seat lesson on your horse or on one of ours. Followup sessions can be scheduled and homework will be given per phase. For more information contact ginger@equetec.com

GET with the Program!
GET = Ground Exercise Training
GET is a program of exercise training that can be useful to develop flexibility, strength and discipline in horses. GET can also improve communication and horsemanship skills. GET is basic to all horses and disciplines.

Exercise Programs for Horses include strength, flexibility, training and therapeutic benefits.

Click here to view a before and after picture of the work done on Rhett, 4 year old QH/TH gelding.

Click here to view a before and after picture of the work done on Ecco Domani, 6 year old Trakehner gelding

Click here to view a before and after picture of the work done on Nikkita STV, 9 year old Dutch warmblood mare. The file will open in Adobe Acrobat Reader within your browser. Please email us if you have any problems.

Before and after photos of Katie, 11 year old QH Mare for more history on this case click here and read more on the news and articles page, scroll down to Becky and Katie story.

Programs and evaluations are available in person at Equetec, at your location if you add our travel fee and by video. Please email us for more information on how to get your personal 4-6 phase program specifically designed to meet your performance and strength goals. We will send you the history form and/or video checklist via fax or email upon request, then, you can make your appointment for your comprehensive evaluation.

Applications For GET, Ground Exercise Therapy and the Equetec Programs:

These exercises and Programs are designed to help horses with:

1. Post injury: Once your horse has undergone the first phase of healing, and your veterinarian has released your horse for work, these exercises will help strengthen the horse that has lost muscle tone and/or learned to compensate. Your horse will learn to move freely again for correct exercise and training. Ground Exercise Therapy will help establish balance, strength and symmetry. Be sure your veterinarian recommends these exercises before proceeding.
GET your horse exercising and strong again

2. Resistance: Resistance can be in the form of mental or physical noncompliance. The horse seems to “shutdown” and not move forward. A horse may resist for many reasons but often it is due to a lack of understanding, muscle tension or a lack of development and/or weakness or any combination thereof. Resistance can be physical or mental tightness, not giving or softening, a lack of yield. Ex: Bucking, rearing, refusing to go forward or jump and stiffness can be signs of resistance.
GET moving forward willingly.

3. Gait irregularity or abnormality: Any movement of the horse that does not maintain the desired tempo, rhythm or straightness for any one or multiple reasons is a gait irregularity.
GET regular movement.

4. Rein lameness: a term used for a gait irregularity that is present when a rider is mounted but is not as noticeable without a rider. Rein lameness can manifest itself as a “catrot” (½ trot, ½ canter) or similar to any type of lameness. It is diagnosed by putting the horse on a lunge line or under a different rider and the horse goes “freer.”
GET true gaits with a steady tempo.

5. Stiffness: A lack of elasticity or flexibility whether it is due to conformation, muscle or joint tightness, non-use, hard work or aging. These exercises are excellent for warming up a horse before any ride. These exercises produce relaxation.
GET flexible.

6. In-coordination and Weakness: The young horse that is just starting to work or the horse that is taking up a new athletic activity needs to improve strength and coordination. Larger horses or horses performing an activity that may not be common to their breed can have coordination problems.
GET strong and coordinated.

7. Slow development and mild neurologic problems: Horses that develop slowly, recovering horses, can benefit from these exercises. Since the rider is on the ground, safety is being addressed. The rider gets the opportunity to see how balanced the horse is and can watch the horse progress.
GET balanced.

8. Asymmetry: A horse that has developed unevenly due to training, conformation and/or compensation from a previous injury can be helped by these exercises.
GET symmetry.

9. Fitness: Proper strength and conditioning contribute to every horses performance. These exercises initiate a plan to make your horse stronger and fitter, developing elastic, symmetrical muscle.
GET fit.

10. Training: Ground exercise will correct improper training and teach you and your horse basic movement necessary to train a horse. These exercises will teach you more about your horses mental and physical abilities and teach you how achieve greater performance levels in your training. These exercises produce mental and physical relaxation for training.
GET trained.

11. Communication: These exercises will improve communication and “feel” between horse and rider. Awareness is a part of communication and correlating an action to a response. The rider must train the horse on the ground with as much precision as when they are riding.
GET feel and awareness to communicate.

12. Overall health and performance: GET with the Program = The basic 5 exercises are a good way to warm up and evaluate your horse's overall progress. Ground Exercise Training helps you build a measurable program throughout your horse's career regardless of the discipline. Ground Exercise Training and Equetec provide specific programs based on your individual goals and abilities.
GET improved overall health and performance.

Thank You, 2007
Thank you all for the opportunity to work with you and your horses in 2007. Thank you to the Equetec team of professionals that helped through each of the various cases. 2007 included many successful equine rehabs such as fractured withers, epm, neurologic cases, mild wobblers, fractured pastern joint, club feet, uneven mis-shaped feet, uneven jumping bump, hock and joint degeneration, chip and bone fragment removal, suspensory injuries and desmitis, managed joint degeneration, bowed tendonds, collateral ligament injuries, weak, locking stifles, rein lameness, strengthened dropped backs and improved stiffness in geriatric cases, navicular syndrome, laminitis, treads, white line disease, thrush, skin problems, rain rot, abscesses, bruises, abrasions, incisions, punctures, lumbosacral tears, adhesions, scar tissue, traumatic damage including nerve damage to soft tissues including shoulders, sarcoids, hematoma, managed cancer, multiple types of equine behavioral problems, kissing spines, bruised and crushed heels, hormone or estrus problems, managed ringbone and side bone, seizures, sleep disorders, narcolepsy, breeding difficulities, infection, metabolic disorders, Cushings, thyroid and epssm cases, anhydrosis, bog spavin, castration, lymphangitis, cellulitis, thoroughpin, bucked shins, stringhalt, quittor, low heel long toed horses, contracted heels, splints, anemia, stomach ulcers, ulcers and damage to the eye, moon blindness, COPD, tying up syndrome or azoturia, pharyngitis, fibrotic myopathy, neck and back pain, colic surgery, bowed tendons, sprains, strains, muscle pain, spasm, asymmetric, stiff and weak cases.

Many performance horses were able to move up to the next level, compete and win due to strength and suppling exercises provided by Equetec. Many injuries and accidents were prevented due to Equetec programs.  

I look forward to helping each of you and your team of equine professionals reach your strength, relaxation, suppleness, behavioral and exercise training goals this year.   We'll have fun while getting you and your horses sounder, happier, symmetrical and "strong enough" no matter which discipline or simply for pleasure.  Exercise training and rehabilitation are only a portion of what Equetec can do for you.  Please come and join us for a rider session in the gym in our basement so you too can be "strong enough."  We also have the above ground pool so this summer, when it's too hot to ride, work on core strength with our water resistance training.  Learn to apply your new found flexibility, strength, awareness and mechanics in a seat lesson aboard your horse or one of our  horses.  Come and join the team.

Thinline affiliate program. Click here to order and receive Equetec rewards from purchasing: www.thinlineinc.com/affiliates/Equetec

Thinline pads and boots not only help performance horses but rehabilitative weak, asymmetric horses too…

Equetec provides exercise programs for asymmetric, weak, stiff or uncoordinated performance horses and we rehabilitate horses post surgery and/or injury. So often a horse needs an Equetec program due to physical and/or behavioral problems where alleviating back pressure and pain is primary. Once a horse heals, he is relieved with a saddle and pad that is properly fitted and well applied. Under saddle work can begin. Thinline pads have facilitated Equetec's training and rehabilitation horses by reducing concussion, saddle slippage and improving saddle balance. The Thinline pads work well for transitioning a horse as it is adapting and developing. The Thinline 1/2 back correction pad allows us to transition asymmetrical backs to symmetrical by adding and/or removing inserts. Each horse is taught to move freely, evenly and properly then gradually remove an insert or two as strong, symmetrical muscle replaces pain, weakness and asymmetry. This allows owners to invest in a correctly fitted tree in their saddle and use the Thinline pad and inserts as the horse?s body changes throughout its exercise, training and rehabilitation program. Once the horse is "strong enough" from rehabilitation or fit for the level of activity required for performance, the final flocking and saddle adjustments are made. Thinline pads are adjusted and continued even once a horse is back to normal work. The Thinline boots and shaped pads with inserts are great for daily exercise. Used daily, they support, reduce concussion and eliminate pressure which encourages correct posture: round, soft and supple backs. Thinline boots and pads make happy horses that move freely through their backs, not only for rehabilitation but through daily training in dressage, stadium and cross country jumping. Encouraging soft supple backs with Thinline pads and using Thinline boots are a part of Equetec's daily routine. We recommend Thinline to all of our customer's horses for daily preventive care, rehabilitation, to improve performance, stamina and longevity.

Equetec and Thinline have synergistically improved the following types of cases:

• Hot, sensitive dressage horses improved strength and relaxation to move up to the next level
• Stiff, resistant horses that lack flexibility and swing in their backs were able to unlock movement; supple in flatwork and bascule over gymnastics, stadium and cross country fences
• Ataxic or uncoordinated horses learned to balance by developing their backs and hindquarters
• Behavioral cases including, rearing, bucking, run away, worried/insecure horses improve confidence, obedience and trust
• Geriatric horses that were losing their top lines were able to build their backs up again and be ridden
• Back, hip, stifle and hindquarter weakness and injuries were rehabilitated and brought back to full use
• Podiatry cases that due to improper hoof balance, led to asymmetry throughout the body improved
• Young impressionable and mature horses were trained and developed in a relaxed, strong body, happy mind and progressed the training scale in harmony with their riders.?

For more information, contact Ginger Long and visit the Equetec website: www.equetec.com or email ginger@equetec.com If this testimonial encouraged you to purchase Thinline products, please click on this link to the Equetec Affiliate Thinline store. By using this link you are supporting our affiliate program with your purchases: www.thinlineinc.com/affiliates/Equetec

 

Booklet Available Online Now

Ground Exercise Therapy For All Horses
by Ginger S. Long and Dr. Richard A. Mansman VMD, PhD


This book of basic ground exercise training teaches the first principles of a program. It includes five basic ground exercise for all types of horses producing a sound, relaxed, freely forward moving horse. These ground exercises prevent and correct various resistances, stiffness, bridle lameness, muscle asymmetry,
in-coordination and other problems listed in the following pages. The exercises can be beneficial to the owner/rider, herein called “handler” who is having communication difficulties. As these basic exercises are perfected, the handler’s horsemanship skills will develop. This horse/handler relationship will produce understanding and improve responsiveness.

These basic ground exercises are performed with the rider safely on the ground yet can be performed while mounted. These exercises do not discriminate; they are helpful to all horses and handlers. Performing the exercises precisely is critical to achieve the desired results.

Don't miss out on this valuable educational tool helpful to every person interested in horses.

DVD and booklet coming soon!

Discounts are available for quantities of 15 or more or for pre-print orders.

For phone/Fax orders or discounts send your request below via email.
To order by phone call 336-562-8053 or fax: 336-562-8054
or email us at Equetec

Mail order Form

Email us for more information

This is the canter of the horse pictured above today-- fuzzy and dirty but strong, willing, obedient and collected.

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