How to Prepare the Day Before an Equestrian Event

When preparing for an equestrian event, it is easy to get nervous. What do you do the day before? Do you continue training as usual? Do you take a break? Every horse and rider is different. Your horse may have specific needs that you need to tend to. If your horse gets nervous easily, a break from the routine may be devastating. If you have a tough competition coming up, you may need to rest as much as possible. Here is how you should handle the day before in most cases.

Do Light Work Before a Competition

Don’t be unprepared for the equestrian events Northampton MA riders look forward to. The day before your event, you should do everything that you can to ease your anxiety and to lessen the pressure of the event. Spend time with your horse. While you don’t want to wear down your horse by running it the day before a competition, you can take your horse on a brief gallop. You can also do jumping exercises to work off any nervous energy.

Stick to Your Routine Before a Competition

Horses are very routine animals. When you change the routine, it can make the horse anxious. You should try to limit your horse’s anxiety as much as possible, especially before an event. If you’re worried about your horse becoming nervous, then do try to stick to it. You do not have to rigorously train, but if you normally walk or ride your horse, then you may want to do so before and after the event. Do not change the feeding or grooming schedules unless necessary.

Before a competition, you and your horse need to be performing at 100 percent. If you trained hard leading up to the competition, then a day of rest should not be a problem for you or the horse. Keep in mind that you do not want to burn out or exhaust yourself or your horse either. If you stick to a routine and a light workout, it should help.