Why cooling down your horse after show jumping matters
I still remember the round at Sydney International Equestrian Centre where my mare pulled off the clearest jump-off of her career. We landed after the final fence, the crowd clapped, and I wanted to do a victory lap and call it a day. Instead, I felt her breathing hard beneath me and knew the next ten minutes mattered just as much as the minute we had spent inside the arena. The excitement of a clear round can trick you into thinking the work is over, but for the horse, it has only just begun.
Cooling down after show jumping is one of those parts of the sport that gets brushed aside in the rush of untacking, hosing, and getting ready for the next class. Plenty of riders, especially those juggling multiple horses or running back to the float, treat the post-round routine as a formality. What happens in those first few minutes after the last rail has a big say in how your horse feels the next morning, how quickly the muscles recover, and whether small issues turn into long-term soundness problems.
A proper cool down lets the heart rate come down gradually, helps clear the metabolic byproducts that build up during effort, and gives you a chance to actually feel how your horse is moving. It is a habit, like warming up properly, that separates the riders who compete horse after horse from the ones who end up with chronic soft tissue issues by mid-season. I have learned this the hard way, and I want to share what actually works on a real event day.
The Australian calendar throws everything at our horses. From the heat of a January outing at Boneo Park to a windy day on the flats, the conditions are rarely boring. That variability is exactly why a thoughtful cool down routine matters here more than in places with predictable weather. Over the next few sections, I will walk through what happens inside your horse during a round, what a proper recovery looks like, and the small mistakes I have watched even good riders make.
What a show jumping round does to your horse
When you send your horse at a course of fences, the body goes into overdrive quickly. The heart rate climbs from a resting 30 beats per minute to over 150 within the first minute of work. Breathing becomes visible, the muscles flood with oxygen-demanding blood, and core temperature can rise by a couple of degrees in a short period. Add in the adrenaline, the effort of pushing off the ground at each fence, and the mental effort of figuring out distances, and you have a system working overtime even on a single course of eight to twelve jumps.
During the round, the muscles rely heavily on anaerobic energy systems, which means lactic acid and other metabolites start to accumulate. The blood vessels in working muscles dilate to move blood around, and the spleen dumps extra red blood cells into circulation to keep up with oxygen demand. All of that is normal and necessary for performance, but it creates a situation where the body needs a controlled wind-down. If the horse stops abruptly, is tied up at the float, and left to stand still, those metabolites just sit in the muscles and the heart rate stays elevated much longer than it needs to.
This is also when the back and the soft tissues along the topline are most vulnerable. The muscles that stabilise the spine during jumping have been working hard, and the small stabilisers in the hindquarters are fatigued. A gradual cool down gives those structures a chance to ease out of work rather than locking up, and it gives you a window to feel for any heat, swelling, or sensitivity that you might have missed while focused on the course.
The first ten minutes after the last rail
The walk back from the arena is the most important part of the entire cool down, and it is the part most likely to be cut short. As soon as the bell rings or you cross the finish line, the goal is to keep your horse moving at a steady, active walk for at least eight to ten minutes. Not a slow dawdle, not a marching parade step, but a purposeful walk that lets the muscles flush and the heart rate come down naturally. I usually aim to do a couple of large circles in a quiet corner of the warm-up before heading back.
During this walk, the girth can come down one hole, but I avoid dropping it all the way or removing the saddle too early. The weight of the saddle and the gentle pressure of the girth actually help the breathing pattern return to normal. I also use this time to really feel the way the horse is moving underneath me. Short steps, hesitation in the hindquarters, tightness through the back, all of it shows up in the walk if you are paying attention. Catching it then means you can manage it before it becomes a problem at the next event.
Australian conditions make this walk especially important. On a 35-degree day at the Sydney Royal, the heat adds a whole extra layer of stress on top of the work the horse has just done. Horses lose moisture and electrolytes fast in our summers, and the walk helps regulate their temperature before you throw a bucket of cold water at them. I have watched too many riders sprint back to the float, rip the saddle off, and ice the horse down before their breathing has settled. It is a recipe for tying up, for colic, and for a horse that does not eat up that night.
Weather, wind, and the great Australian variable
One thing you can always count on at an Australian event is that the weather will do something unexpected. We compete in January heat that makes the sand shimmer, in cold fronts that come through without warning, and in foggy mornings where you can barely see the third element. Each of these changes the cool down routine, and a good rider adjusts on the fly rather than following a fixed script. A windy day in particular turns the cool down into a balancing act, because the horse is often still mentally wound up even after the physical effort has eased.
If the wind has been howling all day, your horse is likely to be more reactive on the way back to the float. They will be looking around, snorting, and a bit above the bit. That is where the walk becomes both a physical and a mental tool. Keeping the feet moving gives them something to think about, and the rhythm of the walk helps bring the brain back down alongside the heart rate. I have written before about riding in windy weather, and the cool down is a big part of how I manage those gusty days without my mare losing her mind in the warm-up.
Cold weather brings the opposite problem. On a chilly morning at the Adelaide Equestrian Festival, riders are tempted to throw a cooler on the second they get back to the float and call it done. The truth is, the horse is still warm underneath that rug, and they need to move through that walk-down before being rugged up. I like to let them walk long enough that the chest and the inside of the thighs are dry before the cooler goes on, otherwise you trap moisture against the skin and end up with a chilled horse by the end of the day.
Mistakes I have made and watched others make
The first and most common mistake is skipping the walk entirely. I have done it myself, usually because I was in a rush to swap bridles and tack up for the next class, or because I thought my horse looked fine and did not need it. The horse always pays for it, even if you do not notice straight away. They get stiff behind, they are reluctant to bend the next morning, and their recovery between days at a three-day event takes longer. Ten minutes of walking is not optional, even when the schedule is tight.
The second mistake is offering water too quickly and in too large a volume. A hot, sweaty horse will gulp water, and a big bucket of ice-cold water sloshing into a hot stomach is a recipe for tying up or colic. I offer small sips of tepid water during the walk, and I save the big drink for after the horse has been walking for at least five minutes. The same rule applies in reverse when the horse is cold. You do not want a freezing cold horse drinking buckets either, but at least the colic risk is lower.
The third mistake is treating the cool down as the rider's downtime rather than the horse's recovery time. If you are mentally spent from a tough round, it is tempting to just plod along on autopilot. The thing is, the cool down is when the horse is most likely to tell you that something is not right. A small stumble, a short stride behind, a tail swish that does not go away, all of those are easier to address when you catch them in the first ten minutes. And if the round went badly, the cool down is also a chance to reset the partnership before you load up and head home. A bad round can rattle both of you, and walking it off properly sets up the recovery after a fall or a rough day far better than rushing back in silence.
One more thing I have started to think about more in recent years is the rider's own recovery. We spend so much time fussing over the horse that we forget we have just done a serious athletic effort as well. Jumping a course takes a toll on the body, and looking after the rider is part of the same system as looking after the horse.
If you have a cool down routine that works, I would love to hear it. Drop a comment, share your hacks for the Aussie heat, or tag me in your post-round walk videos on Instagram. And if you are serious about making it through a long season, do not forget that the rider is part of the system too. A few minutes of morning mobility work the day after a big outing can save you a world of stiffness by event number three. Come and follow along at Mania in the Middle for more honest stories from the back of the float and the warm-up arena.