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Release Your Shoulders For Better Rein Contact

As a horse owner your shoulders take a bit of a battering. Firstly there’s all the mucking out, lifting feed etc. Then there’s the extra “fun” of your horse dragging you off for some grass, maybe having a mad gallop on the lunge……

 

Alongside this you may also have a desk job, do a lot of driving and therefore spend a lot of time hunched over.

 

Add to this the stressful nature of life and horse owning sometimes and you might find your shoulders are solid bricks stuck to your ear lobes most of the time.

 

However when we ride those shoulders are in charge of the hands attached to the reins. Your shoulder is the joint at which your arm is attached and therefore it’s function is vital to the function of your arms. If they are stiff or weak they aren’t going to be that soft, steady contact we want to give out horse.

 

Here are a couple of simple exercises to help you first release your shoulders and then activate them to keep them strong and ready to ride.

 

 

Yoga for Equestrians

Last week we looked at the benefits of Pilates for riders, so this week let’s look at Yoga for riders. I use both in my classes as I think they are equally beneficial, however they do differ slightly. 

 

Yoga tends to focus on the lengthening of muscles and often there is a relaxation element. However I teach specifically Sports Yoga which adds in the stability element found in Pilates. Yoga is also a really good way of teaching Proprioception and body awareness due to some of the postures requiring movement and balance, as well as being able to join movements together to create a flow that will challenge coordination and concentration alongside stability and strength.

 

Sports Yoga specifically looks at the demands of a sport, the areas that may become shortened/tight and then the areas that need strengthening to improve performance. 

 

For riders this would be a focus on 

 

  • Symmetry 
  • Both mobility & stability in the hips
  • Stability in the core
  • Stability of the shoulders
  • Mobility and shock absorption of the ankles -I’m going to look at this next week 
  • Body awareness 

 

Adding yoga to your routine needn’t take up hours of your time, just 10 minutes a couple of times per week is enough for you to feel the benefit.

 

Here is a short flow you can use to improve your body’s performance for riding.

Pilates for Riders

I don’t think it’s a new concept that Pilates is good for riders, but exactly why is it such a good off horse training method.

Pilates cites it fundamental principles as.

  • Breath
  • Concentration
  • Centring
  • Control
  • Precision
  • Flow

 

So, if we were masters of these qualities in our own bodies do you reckon that would make you a better rider? Damn right it would!

As an Equipilates ™️ instructor I often incorporate breathing exercises into my classes, in particular exercises that can then be used on horse to address issues such as tension, straightness or the obvious not breathing during a lesson! 

Concentration is a vital part of riding. It can be so difficult to completely focus on what you are doing  when often there can be lots of distractions in the form of other horses and people, maybe general activity in and around the yard and topped off with whatever else is going on in your life and therefore your head right now. Concentration can be practiced as a skill which over time will transfer to your riding and other areas of your life.

Centering is connecting with your core. I’m sure you’re aware that a good core is a huge benefit for riding, and being able to really connect and control it whilst on a horse will improve your balance and aids no end. Your arms and legs need a solid base from which to move, this alongside the ability to absorb the horses movement underneath you is the job of a stable core.

Control-Being able to have awareness and control of the muscles being activated enables you give precise, clear aids. It enables you to correct yourself where necessary and assist in correcting your horse and remain n balance.

Precision-As just mentioned, controlled precise aids are clear aids. Your horse may well be listening to you but you aren’t getting the answer that you want because your question isn’t right. Precision is key.

Flow. This really ties to principles together. The ability to move fluidly with control and precision is when riding looks to outsiders to be effortless. Harmony in your own body will help to create harmony with your horse.

 

Here are a couple of my favourite Equipilates™️ exercises to help with these key principles.

 

Drop drop Dead Bug

 

Teaser

Bridge March

 

Fit to Ride?

It’s difficult to assess fitness for riding because it contains so many components-one being a wild animal. Others being experience, technical ability and then the question as to whether you are fit for intro Dressage or Badminton as they would be different levels of fitness.

 

However Jockeys have to pass a fitness test to gain their licence so I thought I would have a look at what that entails-ignoring the fact I eat too much food to ever make weight as a female jockey!

 

There are various different tests for muscular endurance, core power and cardio fitness-The Bleep Test, for which I still have psychological issues with from school and I’m not ready to tackle those demons yet.

 

However muscular endurance I reckon I could give a crack.

 

So just for fun (ok I have different ideas of fun) I picked out these two tests from the Jockey fitness Test. 

 

You get a score out of 100 based on the time you achieve.

 

Stupidly I did my first attempt at these after a heavy training session so I was nowhere near fresh! However I managed a 2 minute plank which would be 50% so not great p. The leg repetition and hold I managed the full 2 minutes though so I was pretty pleased with that; I’m not going to lie it burned like hell!

 

Plank -on Forearms and toes for up to 4 minutes. 

60-25%

120-50%

180-75%

240-100%

 

Exercise Ball leg repetitions and hold.

Squat with gym ball behind you for 20 reps, then hold a 5kg weight and hold with thighs at 90 degrees for up 2 minutes.

 

30-25%

60-50%

90-75%

120-100%

 

Why don’t you challenge your yard friends and see how you score!

 

Do you switch on before you ride?

When you first get on your horse you warm him up don’t you? You ask him to start gently moving, warm up and wake up his muscles to prepare him for the work you are about to ask him to do.

 

What about you? Do you wake up your muscles before you ride? Ok you may have done some yard work so you are not physically cold but have you activated and prepared the specific muscles you are about to use to ride your horse? Thought not.

 

In terms of specific warm up these are individual to the riders needs. 

 

However there are some common muscles we all use when riding that will benefit from being activated before you get on. It should only take a couple of minutes and can all be done at that yard in your riding gear. 

 

I’ve collectively referred to the muscles as the areas they refer to so it makes it relevant to what you are doing it for.

 

Seat muscles-Stand side on to a wall, lift the leg closest to the wall up, knee bent at 90 degrees. Press the leg right from the outer hip to knee into the wall for 30 seconds, release and then repeat 3-4 times. Then change leg. If you have a block or foam roller handy you can put this against the wall to press against as this makes it slightly easier to get a good press.

Rein Contact.

Stand in a door way, point your elbows into your sides and press your forearms against the doorway-keep your elbows pointing in. Push for 30 secs repeat 3-4 times. 

Stabilise your T Spine

 

After looking at Thoracic mobility last week, this week let’s look at Thoracic stability.

 

Thoracic stability is a major part of core stability. Stability in the Thoracic Spine (think mid back/rib cage) enables effective shock absorption of the horse underneath you and assists you in keeping level front to back and left to right;  the stacking of your rib cage directly over your pelvis. Which incidentally is what helps with the shock absorption but also with keeping your horse straight both on straight lines and turns and circles.

 

When training the Thoracic Spine region for riding specifically we want to bear in mind it’s just of resisting forces and maintaining straightness so here are a couple of exercises I like to use to do just that. You will also note that the abdominal muscles are involved in these exercises as they are attached on the rib cage and therefore form part of this stabilisation network. 

 

Dart. Lying on your front, you can keep your hands under your shoulders for support if you wish. Looking straight ahead lift your chest forward off the mat-think forward not up! . Keep your bottom rib on the mat and peel the ribs away as if you could separate them.

Pallof press-using a band attached at the side / or a cable machine if you are at the gym. Take a step sideways away from the band and then with the handle in both hands push it forward straight in front of you resisting the sideways pull from the band.

Turn your T Spine

I was watching a talk by Ashleigh Wallace who is a physio on the Equestrian World Class Programme.

 

She discussed lack of mobility through the Thoracic Spine, in that she had reviewed 65 riders of varying levels and the majority lacked Thoracic mobility.

 

The Thoracic Spine is essentially your mid back and it forms part of your core stability. Core stability is the ability to absorb the force/movement of the horse underneath you, for that it needs both mobility and stability. The mobility is required to make tiny micro adjustments to dissipate the impact and the stability is all of the muscles working together to keep the spine aligned. 

 

If there is too much mobility the spine moves around too much and you will be unbalanced. If there is too much stability without mobility the force does not dissipate and it becomes an impact to the spine-think whiplash.

 

This week let’s start with mobility of the Thoracic Spine.

 

Here are 3 of my favourite exercises to mobilise the Thoracic Spine.

 

Lying on the floor, knees and arms to one side stacked on top of one another. Open the top arm, sweep it out following with your head then bring it back. You can either take it straight up and out or sweep it over your head and round.

It is also useful to try and incorporate the breathing and breathe in to prepare and out to move the arm.

 

In a 4 point position, take one arm to the back of your head. Leading with the elbow open up and then close back down. Try to keep your hips still -they will try and sway away to gain more movement but that’s cheating!

Seated on a chair or I often do this with clients on a gym ball. Place a pole (your schooling whip will do) over the back of your shoulders, then add a ball or something between your knees to engage your core and help to stabilise your hips. Rotate the torso left to right, breathing out as you turn.

React Fast

One thing to always expect when riding is ……...the unexpected.

There is the spooking at nothing, the cheeky buck and No matter how bombproof your horse may be sometimes he may just trip up potentially sending you somersaulting over his head!

So as well as a core of steel it helps to have good reaction times. In team sports such as hockey they will work on this stuff as part of their regular training but I don’t think it’s something as riders we really think about . Yet when things do go wrong how fast we can react and re-balance can make a huge difference as whether you hit the deck or stay on board and keep riding forwards (usually muttering a few choice words….)

Here’s a couple of suggestions for training your reflexes that we use in class and with 1 2 1 clients.

  • A reaction ball is an odd shaped bouncy ball, that when you throw on the floor can bounce off in any direction meaning you have to be ready to grab it at any angle-it’s sooooo tough and we have lots of fun playing this as a group in class.
  • The humble gym ball essentially teaches you to constantly re adjust your balance just to stay sitting, kneeling whatever. If you have mastered staying still why not try adding throwing and catching a ball, if you do this with a group of friends you can throw to each other whilst shouting out someone else’s name….so you’ve no idea where the Ball is actually heading.
  • And a game we played this week I’ve called  Musical S!ut drops! If you are in a group with whatever track you fancy on squat as normal then someone stops the music and you drop to a low squat -holding your reins so like a two point seat as fast as you can. If you’re on your own use a track with a repeated word or phrase and each time it says it drop down as fast you can-Try Bring Sally Up…..or set a timer for every 20 secs or so but face away from it so you can’t see it.

Running for Riding?

I’ve been thinking lately about cardio for Equestrians. There’s quite a few of the ladies in my classes that have started couch to 5k which I think is great and several others including myself who already run as part of their fitness. 

 

I’ve seen various opinions as to whether running is beneficial to Equestrians so here’s my thoughts on it.

 

Firstly when considering what kind of cardio to do you need to consider the requirements of your sport.

 

For example a show jumper will ordinarily go into the ring for about a minute so that’s quite a short burst and would lead me towards HIIT. So short bursts of fast work.

 

A Dressage rider will be in the ring for up to around 5 minutes so this makes the demand more endurance based.

 

An eventer will need a huge amount of endurance to get round a cross country course, alongside the short burst required for the showjumping. 

 

Endurance riding kind of speaks for itself and showing again can be a long time in the ring so endurance based (particularly if it’s in hand!).

 

There are also a couple of other things to take into account such as what you do at home training horses. 

 

For example I spend a lot of time long reining with two of my ponies so that can be 40mins to an hour of walking and trotting with a pony which is basically a cardio workout for me. So my at home training requires  a certain level of endurance even though if I’m Carriage Driving I only really need my upper body. 

 

So take into account your home training too. 

 

I think from that though we’ve pretty much confirmed that endurance is a requirement of most aspects of Equestrian sport.

 

Back to running then. Well it uses your heart and lungs, legs, bum and core so ✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️ all of those are required to ride so making them stronger will help.

 

If you are generally fitter those riding lessons that feel more like boot camp will become just a little easier so you will be more effective for longer.

 

So if you fancy upping your game then give a couch to 5k a go. One of the other benefits of running is that it only requires some decent running trainers and some basic Lycra (I’ve run plenty of time in stretchy breeches and riding socks!) You don’t need a gym membership etc. Just some will power to get out there. You could always rope in a yard buddy or join a running club to help. I use  my collie dogs as running buddies.

 

 There are of course other ways to train your endurance so as cycling, rowing , swimming etc and maybe I’ll look at the benefits of those another time.

 

How many of you already run as part of your fitness training?

2 Year Anniversary

This week my little Equestrian Fitness Studio turned 2 years old!

 

I started with 1 class which has now built to 5 classes and also 1 2 1 clients for both training and sports massage.

 

This is not a “look how great I am” blog but I do want to talk about the little community we have in our classes.

 

Each class is filled with women from different back grounds, different horses, experience and aspirations and each week we come together with the same goal in mind “to get better for the benefit of our horses”. 

 

It’s become more than that though. Each week we talk about our horse trials and tribulations, we just listen and don’t judge different approaches and of course we celebrate the wins. By this I don’t just mean the competitions although we celebrate a clear round as much as a qualification to the nationals; but it’s also the other stuff that happens from hard work.

 

E.g riding a straight line on a young horse! Surviving a tiny hack up the road, in fact sometimes it’s surviving just mounting up and walking around an area on a lead rein as these are all huge achievements at some point on the journey.

 

Genuine friendships have been formed, often other class members are cheering each other on at shows, and on social media. 

 

I think what we help each other with is realising that you are not alone. It’s realising that even those who go out competing every week suffer with nerves, it’s realising that the girl riding the warmblood has the same problems and worries as the girl riding the cob.

 

I think we have all learnt to be a little easier on ourselves, as let’s face it having horses is sometimes hard. We do it in the most part for fun and as a hobby, but add in work and family, the financial implications of horses etc sometimes fitting it in and paying for it can be a struggle and when stuff isn’t going right that can make it tough. 

 

So firstly be kinder to yourself for going out there every day and still just being with your horses at whatever level that is. Follow your own journey to your own destination and don’t compare it to someone else’s.

 

Secondly just be kinder to your fellow Equestrians. For the most part most of us are just doing our best for our horses with the knowledge and tools we have available. We may disagree on certain things but it’s important to remember there is more than one route to most destinations so let others take their own path.

 

Also, don’t be too sucked into the perfection you see on Social Media….the ones where their financial status and lifestyle is so far removed from yours but there you are berating yourself for not being as good as them.

 

Let me tell you,  the average Equestrian woman comes to my class and she is anything but average, in fact they’re all bloody amazing…..so if you’re reading this you probably are too!

 

Right, enough motivational chat from me back to working on your muscle next week! 

 

However if you’d like to join us amazing Equestrians I have space in Tuesday 7.30pm and Wednesday 9.30am so hit reply of you would like to join us.