The dangers of infrequent exercise for your horse (and you)

The dangers of infrequent exercise for horses and riders really depend on the situation. My last post addressed my current weekend-warrior state (Being a weekend warrior). Real life has forced me to ride only on Saturday and Sunday. Because I do endurance, and am not in any real hurry to get Jazz trained or conditioned, it’s working for me. Much of last fall and winter I only rode a few times a week, if that, even though I had plenty of time. My mare Fantazia didn’t need the work, however. In fact, she needed rest, because we were doing frequent, sometimes multi-day, rides.

That’s why endurance is the perfect equine discipline for those of us whose work interferes with regular riding. Not only is it ok to give horses days or weeks off, they need that time to recover after rides.

That said, recovery must include movement. A horse that is stalled 24/7 needs to be taken out every day. I’ve heard many veteran endurance riders recommend “ignoring” your horse for days or weeks after rides, and this is not bad advice. But it does not apply to horses that live in stalls.

In fact, most of the dangers of infrequent exercise are much more likely to occur in (with) horses that have limited or no turn-out. Below I will list all the dangers I can think of… might need to add per reader suggestions or later inspiration!

1. Horse that is overweight and/or develops metabolic syndrome

This first danger is avoidable if you feed the horse according to the work it does. Just like humans, horses get fat when their caloric intake is more than their energy expenditure. Unlike humans, horses don’t have to depend on their own self-control to manage their caloric intake. Unfortunately, some humans find it just as difficult to restrict their animals to a diet appropriate to their energy needs as they do themselves. Even more unfortunately, many humans want their horses to be on the fat side.

It is far beyond the scope of this short blog post to address feeding horses according to their needs (age, workload, gestation/lactation, etc.). Suffice it to say that it is more difficult to keep an idle horse at a good weight. Horses that do not get regular riding/working tend to be idle, especially if they are kept in small quarters. This leads to fat (very unhealthy for all of us) and, in some horses, Equine Metabolic Syndrome. EMS is complicated, but I like to think of it as Type II diabetes for horses. It involves dysfuction in glucose regulation that predispose horses to fat and laminitis. It is much easier to manage if the horse gets regular exercise (just like diabetes in humans, both Type I and II).

2. Tying up

Another of the more serious dangers of infrequent exercise in horses is tying up. Known as azoturia or, more formally, exertional rhabdomyolysis, tying-up was once called Monday morning disease. Work horses that were given Sundays off on full feed were more likely to cramp up on Monday. I remember memorizing that for Youth of the Year and 4-H contests!

Tying up is still not fully understood, but it is easy to recognize. Just like in humans, rhabdomyolysis is muscle damage that results from over-exerting muscles. The damaged muscle cells release proteins (creatine kinase (CK) and aspartate transaminase (AST) are the two I know about, but there may be more) into the blood stream. The kdineys cannot deal with the waste and the horse (or human) will have very dark urine and, if not treated and the episode is severe, kidney damage.

Tying up also means really sore muscles. Essentially, it’s a system-wide muscle cramp. The large hindend muscles are most obviously affected; shoulders (triceps) can also make the front end stiff. Horses may appear to be colicking. I’ve seen them shaking and sweating. If severe, the horse cannot move. Nor should it be moved; if at all possible have a vet come and put the horse on fluids ASAP. Urine will be dark brown.

Above: Fantazia at the Wild West Pioneer ride last summer. She had a sudden muscle cramp when I got off after the first loop. It was probably due to my mismanagement: too much alfalfa at home, not enough electrolyting at the ride.

Causes of tying up

There are many causes of tying-up, including electrolyte imbalances. Fantazia’s cramp at Wild West last summer were a sort of mini-tying up caused by my mismanagement. There are also several disorders that cause chronic tying up: recurrent exertional rhabdomyolysis (RER), type 1 polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM1), type 2 polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM2), malignant hyperthermia (MH) and myofibrillar myopathy (MFM). (Source.) All of these are more difficult to manage in sedentary horses.

Even horses without apparent disorders may be genetically predisposed to tie up. This appears to be the dcase with some Thoroughbred bloodlines. But any horse can tie up, and there’s no way to know if yours is genetically predisposed. (Note that PSSM1 is more common in some breeds, such as Quarter Horses. It’s rare to nonexistent in Arabians.)

I’ve seen far more fillies or mares than colts/geldings/stallions tie up. I believe–and I have no scientific proof of this–that this is because fillies/mares tend to be more emotional. This article from Kentucy Equine Research claims it occurs more frequently in fillies with nervous dispositions, so it’s not only me.

Importantly for our topic, horses exercised after rest on full feed are more likely to tie up. I’m sure there’s an explanation for this… in fact, i have a vague memory of having read it at some point in my life. But I don’t remember.

Avoiding tying up

The important thing is that I know how to manage my horses so they don’t tie up. Ahem. Better now than pre-endurance! I’ve known for decades to feed the work. In other words, establish a base feed quantity (what the horse needs for an average day), and then feed more on heavy work days and less on rest days. For the purposes of this post (the dangers of infrequent exercise), that’s enough. If the horse isn’t working, it shouldn’t be eating as if it were. This will address Danger 1 too.

Don’t overdo it on the first day after a break. Of course, you shouldn’t do more than the horse is conditioned for at any time. On the other hand, to increase fitness, you must increase the training load (more distance or more speed). You can decrease the probability of injury in general and muscle soreness specifically by making sure to always have an easy day before a strenuous or even moderately challenging loading day.

***As I learned last summer, electrolyte imbalance can also cause muscle cramping. That may be the subject of a future post, if I can get an expert to weigh in.

3. Overtraining to “make up for” lost time

The risk of overdoing it is greater because it’s so easy to want to’make up for all the not-riding you did all week. Not only can this lead to tying up or other physical injury, it can also be counter-productive to the mental state of the horse. Overtraining can lead to anxiety, sourness, and confusion in the horse. You really cannot pack three days of training into one, even if you never move faster than a walk. Horses get mentally exhausted just like people do. They need time and rest to process new skills. (So no, riding in the morning and in the evening to split it up isn’t going to solve this problem.)

It’s better to train lightly, get one good response, and let it go for the next weekend than to repeat it until the horse is stressed, exhausted, and burnt out.

4. Aggravated arthritis or stiffness

If horses have issues such as arthritis or anything else that worsens with lack of movement, letting them sit around all week can make it worse. Most horses will move sufficiently when turned out in large paddocks, but some will just stand around. (Being pastured with an active buddy can help these calmer sorts!) Being in a stall or small paddock is worse, of course. Unfortunately, standing around during the week can make weekend rides uncomfortable for the horse.

5. Fire-breathing dragon and/or inattentive pupil

For some, one of the most worrisome dangers of infrequent exercise is having an overly fresh horse. Younger horses in particular tend to be more distractible and spooky when too many days go by. For more timid riders, this can make the ride miserable. For short-tempered riders, this can ruin the day for horse and rider.

Once a horse is truly trained, it shouldn’t make much difference if a week or even several months go by between rides. Some horses are born that way–even when green they just don’t suffer as much from infrequent attention. But those are in the minority. Most horses take longer to settle down when they are fresh, especially when green and/or building condition.

Above: My gelding Beroni was great for infrequent riding. When we were in Oklahoma, I would ride him once every 4-6 weeks and he was the same every time. Here in California, he was my “second” horse, so got much less attention than Fantazia. Still, he was always ready to go on an adventure.

6. Slow progress

Face it, infrequent riding means slow progress towards your goals. A larger proportion of your riding time will be spent in just getting the horse settled. You won’t be able to teach new as quickly. You cannot increase fitness effectively if you only ride on weekends.

7. Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage

Thanks to Ashley Burns’ comment on my post in the Equine Wellness and Nutrition group on Facebook, I’ve added pulmonary bleeding. It’s a real danger that I had completely forgotten! This is because it’s very unusual in endurance horses. However, my very first racehorse was a bleeder, so it’s not like I don’t have experience with it. Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) happens when pulmonary capillaries (small blood vessels in the lungs) burst during extreme exertion. Sometimes the horse bleeds from one or both nostrils, which is called epistaxis. Often there is no external bleeding however. Sometimes you can hear the accumulated blood in the lungs (just like you can hear it when a horse has a lot of mucus). Most times the first clue you will have of EIPH is listless performance. A tracheal endoscopy can confirm bleeding. We used to have the vet on stand-by after every fast workout until we figured out how to manage certain horses.

Bleeding is common in racehorses, including barrel racing (Ashley’s experience). Some people believe that all race horses bleed to some extent, but for most it is not enough to become a problem. It is certainly more common in horses that are asked to perform above their level of fitness. It’s also more common when the horse acclerates quickly. So I am not surprised to hear it’s an issue for barrel racers. As Ashley commented, being a weekend warrior puts horses in greater danger of bleeding. They are asked to perform at speed (with great bursts of speed) without being in top condition that can only be maintained with more frequent exercise.

That said, it isn’t all bad

Horses do need time off after a challenging day. Their muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments must heal (hard and soft tissues must break down to build up stronger). Their brains need time to digest new information.

Once a horse is fit, it really doesn’t need more than a couple of days a week to maintain that fitness. (Provided it can move around the rest of the time.) And a horse will get fit with infrequent exercise… it will just take longer.

Above: Jazz tackling our closest very steep hill for the first time last Sunday. He did great for his first time.

Below: Fantazia cantering up the same hill last fall.