09/16/2026
I get asked all the time, “What can I do to help my horse stay sound and not need to be adjusted as often?”
One of my biggest answers is simple:
“GIVE YOUR HORSE A PROPER WARM UP”
As both a chiropractor and a competitor, I see horses from both sides. One common thing I notice in horses that are frequently sore, tight, or dealing with different issues is that many are going from standing around to strenuous exercise with very little warm-up in between.
There is science behind why that matters.
A proper warm up is doing much more than just “loosening them up” or “riding the edge off one”.
As your horse begins warming up this is what begins to happen:
• Blood flow and tissue temperature increase
• Muscles become better prepared for contraction and movement
• Tendons and ligaments are progressively exposed to increasing loads and preparing for stretch
• The cardiovascular system prepares for harder exercise
• The joints begin moving and their natural lubrication system gets to working to lubricate the joints
This last part is especially important: SYNOVIAL FLUID.
Many don’t know it exists or if they do they don’t understand its function. Synovial fluid is the slippery, lubricating fluid found inside your horse's joints. It helps reduce friction between joint surfaces and supports the health of the articular cartilage.
Movement changes how synovial fluid behaves
As the joint repeatedly bends and straightens, synovial fluid becomes easier to flow and distribute across the joint surfaces. At the same time, repeated loading and unloading of the cartilage helps move fluid within the cartilage and supports normal joint lubrication and nutrient exchange.
Think of the warm-up as giving the joints time to cycle through movement before they're asked to handle maximum forces.
That becomes pretty important when the next thing we're asking that joint to do is stop hard, turn a barrel, jump, collect, or accelerate.
⏱️ Preparing the body takes TIME.
One equine study measured temperature changes in the lower limbs during different warm-up durations. In trained sport horses, 25 minutes was still not enough to significantly increase temperature in every area measured, while the highest measured temperatures across all studied limb regions occurred after approximately 30 minutes of warm-up.
That does not mean every horse must warm up for exactly 30 minutes.
But it does tell us that walking for 5 minutes and then asking for maximal effort isn't the same thing as progressively preparing the body for strenuous work.
For a performance horse, I generally like to think in terms of a 15–30+ minute progressive warm-up, depending on the horse, weather, fitness level, discipline, and what you're preparing them to do.
Start with relaxed walking. Gradually add trotting and loping, bending, large circles, and changes of direction. Then begin introducing movements and intensity specific to their job.
🐴 Being YOUNG doesn't mean they need less warm-up.
A 4-year-old may feel loose, fresh, and ready to run.
But energy does not equal warmed up and ready to perform.
Their muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, and cardiovascular system still need time to transition from rest to strenuous exercise.
Think about what we ask of a barrel horse:
Accelerate → rate → collect → load the limbs → turn → push off → accelerate again.
That's a tremendous amount of force being placed on the body in only a few seconds.
A good warm-up can't always prevent every injury or soundness problem, but we can give the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints a better opportunity to prepare for the forces we're about to place on them.
If we're going to ask our horses to perform like athletes, we need to prepare them like athletes.
—Dr. Hope Lockhart, DC
Pictured is my personal horse JJ, you can see how much stress is really put on the horses body when we ask them to perform.
📸: the gritty lens
