Legs · Bodyweight
Horse Stance Squat
How to do the horse stance squat, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Logged as
- Weighted reps
- Movement
- Squat
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Stand with feet wider than shoulder width and toes pointed slightly out. Sit your hips straight down into a wide squat until your thighs are near parallel, keeping your torso upright and knees tracking over your toes, then hold or drive back up.
- 1Your quads, glutes, and inner thighs sharing the load
- 2An upright torso with the chest tall throughout
- 3Knees pressing out in line with your toes
Common mistakes
- Letting the knees collapse inward
- Leaning the torso forward out of the squat
- Letting the heels lift off the floor
Muscles worked
The horse stance squat mainly works the quads, glutes, and adductors, with the lower back, lower abs, and hamstrings assisting.
- QuadsPrimary
- GlutesPrimary
- AdductorsPrimary
- Lower BackSupport
- Lower AbsSupport
- HamstringsSupport
- Upper AbsMinor
- ObliquesMinor
- CalvesMinor
- Hip FlexorsMinor
Kovo programs the horse stance squat for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More quads exercises
- How to do the resistance band squat
- How to do the resistance band squat to press
- How to do the resistance band thruster
- How to do the resistance band squat walk
- How to do the barbell squat
- How to do the barbell bulgarian split squat
Last reviewed June 2026.