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I want you to think about you and your horse as an electrical circuit. The lights only come on if the circuit is complete. Or if there is a weak link in the circuit the light may come on but it may be flickering.

Your partnership only performs at its best if the circuit is complete. If there is a weak link somewhere in the circuit it is not as powerful-or it doesn’t perform at all.

This is why I focus on the rider element of this partnership. You could be sat on the perfect athlete of a horse but if you are not a capable athlete yourself the circuit will not be complete and you will not perform at your best as a partnership. There are some great trainers etc. that can work on your horse as the athlete and also help to train you to work together as a partnership, but for that to really happen you also need to work on you.

Essentially your horse is a complete circuit and he needs to be performing well from head to hoof for him to create a full circuit and switch the lights on.

You are also a circuit and in order to switch the lights on within you, you also need to be performing as best you can from head to toe.

This is where your fitness comes in. Now I’ve said before I don’t believe that all riders need to be pounding the treadmill and lifting heavy weights in order to be fit to ride. However I do think we need to have our best function possible throughout our body.

Run through a checklist.

How does your body feel generally day to day? Do you feel tired, stiff or weak?

Or do you feel energetic, mobile and strong?

Can you balance equally on your left leg compared to your right?

Can you move your arms around without hunching your shoulders?

I believe the most important things a rider can focus on are being both mobile and stable throughout their body.

If for example you have greatly efficient legs and a strong core but unstable shoulders that creates a weak link in your circuit.

If your horse is overall performing really well except that they are tight in the left shoulder this creates a weak link in the circuit.

Equally when you and your horse combine to create your partnership circuit only one of these weaknesses needs to be present to have a weak link in the circuit.

So, I just want you to think about you as a circuit, look for the weak links and learn how you can improve them.

If you need any help with this I offer Rider Biomechanics Assessments,  1 2 1 Training and Sports Massage at my Studio so hit reply if you would like to work with me.

A few weeks ago I looked at hunched shoulders when riding and gave you some releases to do that may help to open up your chest. http://www.equestrianfitness.co.uk/uncategorized/are-you-on-your-forehand/

I’m going to go through another exercise you can try on your horse to help you open up your chest.

As mentioned previously, hunching forward places more weight on the front of your horse. Obviously our aim is to be centrally weighted on the horse.

Another issue with being hunched or collapsed forward is our ability to breathe. If we are collapsed through the chest we are unable to take in full breaths and we are also almost definitely not using our diaphragm.

The chest must be open to allow our lungs to take in oxygen. This oxygen provides energy for our entire body not just in cell renewal but also as energy for our muscles. If we deny them of this energy we will not be riding to the best of our ability and we will become tired quicker.

We will also be aware as riders how in tune our horses are to our breathing pattern. If we are taking short, shallow breaths this mimics the kind of breathing we might do in a stressful situation and our may well respond accordingly-think invisible monsters in hedges!

Another reason to breathe fully whilst riding is to activate the diaphragm. The diaphragm flattens as we breathe in to create more space for oxygen. The Diaphragm is not directly connected to the Psoas but it for want of a better phrase “holds hands” with it as they both have attachments in the low back. Muscles work in teams and any dysfunctional muscles will inhibit its neighbours. A Diaphragm that does not contract/flatten will create an upward pull in the low back and therefore an upward pull on your Psoas. Yes that muscle you are trying to relax all the time may be being pulled upward by your breathing!

So, I have two things I want you to try out today.

The first one is an exercise to help you open your chest without leaning back or sticking your erm headlights out i.e. we are aiming to as always keep the front and back the same length to create balance and also enable our core to work effectively. Once your chest is open this will increase the capacity in your lungs to take in oxygen-as well as now having lovely alignment!

The second exercise is to look at breathing into your diaphragm and encouraging a relaxed Psoas whilst on your horse. The Diaphragmatic breathing as mentioned not only increases your oxygen inhale and therefore energy but also enables your Psoas to fully relax. This exercise is also great to do if you or your horse is particularly tense or nervous; the breathing alone will calm your nervous system down and will translate to your horse. This may be through the Psoas release or it may just be telepathic witchcraft-whichever you believe is fine.

As riders we can be very aware of the feeling of our hips. Very often they can feel “tight” or sore and we will often to be told to stretch them.

In some cases this may help, however riding in its very nature encourages out hips to stretch.

The opening of the hips to take our legs around the horse stretches out our adductors/inner thigh and the position of our thigh which will be at around 45⁰ or indeed much less in a Dressage Saddle means the Psoas is in a lengthened position. So, in reality any time you are on a horse you are stretching out the front of your hips.
The nature of muscles is that they work in pairs synergistically, something called Reciprocal Inhibition This means when one is lengthened its opposite muscle shortens. For example if you bend your knee your hamstrings at the back shorten and your quads at the front lengthen.
More specifically in relation to riding as your Psoas lengthens the Glutes at the back contract I,e shorten.

This is actually a very clever mechanism designed to protect us as if all of our muscles were to be loose and floppy we wouldn’t be able to stand up!

In day to day life most of us will spend the majority of our time sat down at desks, on the sofa or bending forward mucking out, sweeping the yard etc. This whole time your glutes are being lengthened and in its simplest terms-not being used!

Then we get on a horse and ask those glutes to work hard!

Let’s be honest they just aren’t prepared for it, and it means all the other surrounding stabiliser muscles also not prepared; try and help out . And if they aren’t up to the job then the Psoas isn’t able to fully relax and has to work in contraction. The Psoas hasn’t been trained to do all of this work . In simplest terms the muscles are not working as a team and individually they are too weak. This weakness instead causes them to tense up/over tighten and potentially go into spasm.

Stretching muscles in spasm can actually make them worse!

For any of my 1 2 1 clients that I see with hip pain I actually programme hip strengthening work, but first we have to take care of any muscle spasm. Here are 3 “anti spasm” releases I recommend you do for a couple of weeks before you begin any strength work.

There was an interesting write up in Horse and Hound last week about the increasing incidence of Knee Surgery in Riders. It was written by a surgeon who said Riders need to acknowledge problems early on and get them dealt with by a specialist rather than ignoring it and just carrying on. Very wise words as I know we Equestrians are a tough bunch and despite calling the Vet over the slightest worry with our horse, the same does not go for ourselves. We will just put up with pain and carry on hoping it will go away!

Firstly, if you do have a problem it really is best to just go and get it seen by a professional. From personal experience I find Sports Physiotherapists (or indeed one that is an equestrian) much happier to help you get back in the saddle pain free than others who can be a little wary.*Not all I’m sure there are loads of great physios out there I’m going from personal experience and I have seen a lot of physios in my time! Mine works at Harris and Ross if you are in need of one and you are in the North West-Just tell Dave I sent you!

Anyway, there are also things we can do to prevent ever having a knee problem at all. And the secret is………………….strong legs! You see there are lots of big muscles in your legs, unfortunately as we become more accustomed to riding we can get a little lazy with the muscles we are using and well in a nutshell not really use all of them! If you saw last week’s blog……..I took you through a Sports Yoga circuit that will help will full body strength so that’s a great place to start, but this week I want to be a little more specific.

With that in mind I think we should do a couple of exercises to target the two big muscle groups in our legs. The Quads at the front and the Hamstrings at the back.

Wall Squat & Squat Hold.

 

Hamstring Curl On Ball

Bulgarian Split Squat

 

There has been a recent wave of Professional Riders shouting about their weight lifting routines. I think this is great that finally Equestrians are recognising they are as much the athlete as the horse is.

I think it has been a long held opinion that the only way to improve your riding is to do more riding. Whilst of course more riding will help, sometimes with so much else going on as you ride (that half a ton underneath spooking at crisp packets…)it can be difficult to really focus on you. Secondly the issue you are struggling with may not be “riding” specific it’s just that you notice it when riding as it prevents you from doing something or at least makes things more difficult.

The reason being physically fit and strong improves your riding is because your body will in general perform better as a unit. This is one reason why big compound movements like Squats and Deadlifts are popular along with full body movements like Clean and Press etc. These movements teach you to remain stable whilst moving limbs, which is what we actually do on a horse just much smaller.

Also, if you are strong and very stable in your own body a horse that is perhaps not as balanced for example a young horse, will be unable to move you around as much and you will in turn be able to help balance the horse yourself. A strong rider will find it easier to correct things like falling in or out on turns and lateral work.

So, if you need a little nudge to get to the gym there is your reason-get strong to improve your riding!

Now if you are reading this and the idea of going to the gym and lifting heavy weights horrifies you, don’t panic. It has become my mission to help riders like you improve without spending hours in the gym alongside your work, family and horse commitments. It is still possible to make a huge difference to your riding strength by being just a bit clever with what exercises you do and what muscles you focus on.

As mentioned we want a full functioning body that works as a unit from top to bottom. We need it be strong and flexible as well as having good co-ordination and proprioception(awareness of your body in the space around you). To help you I have designed a little Sports Yoga Routine that will help you with all of that. Sports Yoga is unlike “regular yoga” (which is also great) as it incorporates the stability we find in Pilates and then has areas to incorporate further strength work when required.

So here is my short routine to get you started. I love to hear how you get on and if you enjoyed it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVRRFQUSsZ4&t=72s

 

 

I often see riders with rounded shoulders, perhaps it’s consequence of our lifestyles spent increasingly hunched over desks , phones and tablets etc. or maybe it is a consequence of the professional rider being continually pulled forward by a strong horse, who knows?

I have previously mentioned the importance of strengthening the upper and mid back muscles along with those between the shoulder blades and strength in this area will certainly help. However sometimes persistent over use or pro longed poor posture can cause muscles to shorten.

In order to aid those back muscles in holding your shoulders open we need to free up the muscles at the front of the chest.

In terms of riding there are a couple of reasons why rounded shoulders may be causing a problem. In many riders with rounded shoulders they also tend to have a forward head tilt. This puts extra weight onto the front of the horse and can contribute to a horse being on the forehand. It of course also encourages the rider to lean forward with the extra weight.

Another reason rounded shoulders may be affecting your riding is your ability to breathe. If your chest is closed you will be unable to take full, deep breaths. The breath is vital for a few reasons in particular we know that horses respond to our breathing rate so short, shallow breathing may communicate to your horse that you are anxious, another reason is the oxygen from the breath is transferred to your muscles around the body to help fuel them to work. The more oxygen you take in the more that can be sent to your muscles.

In order to successfully open up your chest muscles we must first consider whether they may be in a low grade spasm, so the first exercise I want you to do may seem a little strange but I promise you if you have problems in this area it will have a great affect.

After doing the anti-spasm for a couple of weeks move onto stretching the chest muscles. We can do this two ways, one standing up and one lying down. It is important to note that the chest fibres run in a couple of different directions so to stretch effectively you need to stretch the diagonal fibres and the horizontal fibres. This is easily done in the same stretch just by moving your arm position.

Open Shoulders are now yours! I love to hear from you if you have tried these out and how you find them, or if you have a particular topic you would like me to cover.

 

It’s Just a quick one today as I have been so busy finishing off the studio in order for me to get on with creating real life content for you.

Today I wanted to talk about working with what you have and consistency.

You may have noticed the Para European Dressage Championships taking place this week. I love watching the Para Dressage as it always make me challenge my beliefs about how we need to use our bodies in order to communicate effectively with our horse.

There were riders competing with various “problems” including riding with no legs! What these riders all do is work with that they DO have and use that to the best of their ability. They look for alternative ways to get the job done.

Secondly they are consistent. Realistically your horse has been trained to respond to certain aids but he doesn’t know if these are the same aids other horses understand does he? If you really wanted you could train your horse to trot by saying monkey and each time he gets it right you reward him and eventually he will understand that monkey means trot!

So if you really can’t get your leg exactly where you need it to be, if you consistently give aids with your leg where it will go eventually your horse will learn to respond.

This doesn’t give you an excuse to not try and improve yourself as I have already said it is about making use of what you have got; and with that comes making what you do have be the absolute best it can be. Continue to work on that hollow back or wobbly hands etc. but don’t beat yourself and think that you can’t ever achieve your goals it will just take hard work and consistent training. You work hard to improve your horse as an athlete and you should therefore work to improve yourself as an athlete but just remember even the best of the best have their problems they just don’t let them get in the way-Usian Bolt has Scoliosis and he’s the fastest man in the world!

I have just got back from a weekend at BHS Camp at Aintree Racecourse where I spent the weekend working with a lovely bunch of ladies.

One of the things I did was look at Rider position and alignment. The starting point of this is always the pelvis, and more specifically the seat bones.

The Seat bones are one of our main communication tools when we ride. Your horse knows where they are, he knows if they are moving or if they are still and if one is sat somewhere different than the other.

Your instructor may sometimes ask if you can feel your seat bones and I bet many of you give a kind of nod not really knowing if you can or you can’t. Or you may be able to feel them but they aren’t level and you don’t know what to do about it.

First things first let’s find your seat bones. There are a couple of ways you can do this. Most simply you can just sit on a firm chair and sit on your hands, and you should be able to feel a bony lump in each cheek (yes even through any extra padding…..).

Another great way is using small, spiky physio balls. Just pop one under your bum and have a roll around. If this feels a little uncomfortable you may be inhibited in you glutes which will in turn affect your riding and I would suggest spending a little more time using a ball in this way to release them.

You can also try riding (if you have a bombproof horse!) with the physio balls under your seat bones and see how this affects your position in the saddle. If you find you lift a seat bone on corners and circles this will help you to stay level as you will be trying to keep the ball in place.

If you are un-level in your seat bones a gym ball should become your new chair of choice. Just sitting on the ball and lifting your feet will help you to get the feel of a level seat. Obviously if you aren’t level you won’t be able to lift both feet! Feel free to hold onto something solid to help you get your balance first that way you can feel which way you need to shift your balance to find your central point. Just doing this alone has improved my position and balance in the saddle.

Once you have found your seat bones try this little challenge to show you how much your seat bones affect your aids. In walk feel your seat bones move forward and back in time with your horse, now try to slow your seat bones down and then make them still. What does your horse do? If you did it right he will have hopefully slowed down or stopped completely-clever pony!

 

I’d love to know how you get on with these exercises, either hit reply or tag Equestrian Fitness on Social Media!

 

 

Hopefully after last week you have a healthy breakfast ready to go all week.

So now we are going to move onto lunch. To be honest I keep my lunches pretty simple but there are loads of options you could do that you could either keep fresh in the fridge all week or freeze to get out the evening before to defrost.

I love to just have Chicken Sausages  (www.heckfood.co.uk) with some veg such as broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. The key to stopping them going mushy is to only boil them for a couple of minutes so they are still pretty crunchy. To pimp them up I sometimes add spices such as Paprika, Turmeric, Cumin and Chilli or I use a pre mixed selection of herbs.

You could make a huge Spanish omelette (Eggs, Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms, New Potatoes, maybe add some ham or chorizo) cut it into decent slices and just add fresh salad each day (you can buy pre bagged I won’t tell).

If you are up for doing some actual proper cooking you could make a lean turkey or beef chilli style dish by light frying it with whatever vegetables you like (things like peppers, onions and courgette work well) add tinned tomatoes and some paprika and/or chilli, and maybe some kidney, butter or adzuki beans or butter nut squash. This should keep in the fridge but you could also freeze it in portions and just take it out the night before. If you add fewer tomatoes so it is not really in a sauce this would be tasty eaten cold but if you happen to have access to a microwave it would only take a few minutes to heat up.

This could also be easily made into a stir fry, or cook some of your favourite veg and add to rice or pasta and add a spice mix or marinade.

Perhaps you could batch cook some strips of chicken, beef or pork with a Piri Piri marinade, make a bean salad (you can buy mixed beans in tins and just add other veg if you like such as carrots, peppers, celery, onions) and mix together to either eat on its own or with a wrap or pitta.

It’s not really the weather right now but Soup is really easy to make in bulk, portion out and you can either heat up that morning and keep in a flask until lunch or heat up at work if you have facilities. Just add yourself a bread roll and it will make a really filling lunch. Covent Garden do some great recipe books with some really simple but tasty options as well as some more adventurous.

Pinterest also has some great ideas for meal prep recipes, there are literally hundreds so it really boils down to what you like to eat and how much cooking you want to do, but taking just a little time on Sunday to prepare for the week will not only help you to make healthier choices it will also save you time during the week and save you money!

I’d love you to share your own meal prep ideas with me!

 

A post I did about food prep got a lot of interest last week and I was asked for more details on what sort of food I eat that I can prepare on a Sunday and still have fresh from the fridge on Friday.

I’ll be honest I eat fairly simply, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be tasty or that you couldn’t make up your own versions.

I’m going to start with Breakfast  so you have a week to up your breakfast game before adding in lunch.

I either make Overnight Oats or Granola, Yoghurt and Fruit. They are both pretty similar to be honest but you can play around with the recipes to make different flavour combinations so that it doesn’t become boring.

Overnight Oats.

Makes 5 Portions.

300g oats

300g natural yoghurt

500g frozen mixed berries

Roughly 400ml milk depending on consistency.

Just add oats, yoghurt and fruit together and mix whilst adding the milk to get it to required consistency. I like mine quite thick and gooey some prefer it more liquid. Either put it all in a jar/tub and leave in the fridge &  portion out when you need it or if you have the space (and the Tupperware) portion it out into pots ready to go.

You can mix up the ingredients to whatever combination you like. You can also add a scoop of protein powder to make it more filling if you like (I use either vanilla as it effects the flavour very little or chocolate because it tastes nice)

Other combinations could be - banana and cocoa powder or frozen dark cherries and cocoa. Basically just use the formula of oats, yoghurt in whatever flavour, any milk and add things to it! Sometimes I add chia seeds and a shot of coffee to chocolate and cherry oats.

The Granola is pretty much the same system except its just granola, yoghurt and frozen fruit without the milk. I’ve been using blueberry and mango or apple and raspberry but again you can experiment with whatever you like.

I also only buy plain oats, nothing fancy at all, supermarket own brand is fine. As with the Granola I actually find a really tasty one in B &M that is just oats and chocolate chips. I find the cheaper granolas actually have less sugars etc. added but whatever you like to read the ingredients list and try to get one without sugar added if you can.

Other quick Breakfast Options could be:

Omelette Muffins

I make these in advance in a muffin tray and keep sealed in the fridge so they are ready to grab on the go, although you could reheat them if you wished. Using eggs and bacon or ham (quantities will vary depending on how many you make, however for a 12 case muffin tray I use around 10 eggs and 200g of ham or bacon) Whisk eggs, add chopped ham and some mixed herbs, pour into muffin tray and bake in oven on 180° for around 15-20mins, until the top starts to turn golden brown. You could use all kinds of ingredients in these like adding, mushrooms, a little cheese, some veg (peppers, onion. Maybe) or salmon and broccoli whatever you like!

 

Porridge-You can buy it in pre-done pots and sachets you just add water to so you can eat it at the yard or your desk.

Or you could make a smoothie with just some milk, a banana and other fruit (frozen is fine as long as your blender is strong enough!) and maybe add some peanut butter or protein powder to make it more filling. Again the flavour options are endless. I like Chocolate protein powder, almond milk, banana, and mixed berries or Chocolate, peanut butter and a shot of coffee.

As long as you have a plan in the morning these need only take minutes to put together.

So, make a plan now, make a shopping list and spend just half an hour of Sunday making healthy breakfasts for the entire week!