I spent Wednesday listening to a talk by Charlie Unwin and Jason Webb. Charlie said some interesting things about athletes during a game, about to start a race etc still being in a stressed state but being able to think clearly and perform well. 

This makes sense as anyone about to go into a competition will have a level of adrenalin and that is not necessarily a bad thing, but you need to be able to perform with that high state of arousal and not let it overwhelm you.

This gave me some ideas for training this in the Equestrian without having to continuously go out competing. 

As I predominantly work with riders off horse I thought of some fun ways this skill could be incorporated into a gym session.

Here’s some ideas I’m thinking of testing out with my clients.

Reciting Dressage tests whilst doing something else.

On the Rower-Row to a point at which you start to breathe fairly heavy but can still talk, continue rowing whilst reciting a Dressage test. If you can keep an eye on your stroke rate try and keep it the same!

You could use any cardio I’m just basing this around what I’ve got in my gym.

Performing stability and co-ordination exercises whilst reciting a Dressage test. So, maybe standing on balance pods or kneeling on a gym ball, throwing and catching a ball. 

It doesn’t have to be a Dressage test it could be a jumping course you talk through or a X Country round you memorise and talk yourself through the flow of the course, the striding etc whilst doing something else taxing.

Obviously these activities won’t necessarily create the same adrenaline but going full Squid Game seems a bit harsh! 

Have you got any other fun ideas for incorporating this into gym work?

Are you going to have a go at one of these?

I’ve come across a couple of professionals in the Equestrian sector recently who are of the opinion that gym work and/or weightlifting is not useful or indeed could be detrimental to riding. The problem I have with this is that the people saying this are not exercise professionals, ( as in they are not Personal Trainer, Strength and Conditioning coaches or Sports Scientists) and they are basing their opinion on people they’ve seen who for whatever reason have issues that may not have been helped by their gym training. There is no mention of how these people moved or felt before or whether they were working with a professional in their workouts. 

The thing is I’ve seen plenty of people who aren’t riders go solo in the gym and end up finding themselves in more pain and/or injured because they had no clue what they were doing. It’s not the gym equipment that was at fault, it was the application that was wrong.

The thing is as riders it’s not just the riding we have to be fit enough for. It’s all the other stuff! 

A bag of feed weighs 20kg so do we really think that there is no benefit to someone get stronger so that, that 20kg feed bag isn’t such a big deal anymore. To be trained to carry that bag of feed with good technique and have the strength to move it without being worn out means your less likely to be injured and you’ll have more energy for the rest of your jobs and the riding.

If you’re fit enough that you can muck out your stable, do any other yard work, fetching and carrying then ride without being overly fatigued you will not only feel better day to day, you’re also less likely to injure yourself in the process. You’ll also of course ride better because you aren’t knackered!

I think the belief that weight training is bad for you comes from seeing it done badly. None of my clients over the last 10 years has gotten stronger but less flexible in the process. In fact they’ve all moved better, had less pain and better body awareness as a result of their training. 

That’s because we don’t just focus on how heavy they lift or how much they sweat or if they’re crawling out of the session at the end and unable to walk for days. That’s not productive nor beneficial to an Equestrian. 

A well balanced gym programme could have some heavy lifting in there, but it will also have some lighter accessory work to build weaknesses and balance out asymmetries as well as some conditioning of the heart and lungs (that’s cardio but not necessarily a long run!) 

We warm up and prepare with mobility and activation exercises and we deal with any niggles that might have occurred in the past week-there’s often something when a horse is involved!

So, if you do train at the gym in a bid to improve your performance riding, or to help manage pain or injuries bear these things in mind when planning your sessions.

And if you’d been put off because you thought it wouldn’t help…….my cocky answer is “you’re wrong!” but in all seriousness if you plan it well and if you’re able to; work with a professional who truly understands your needs (might be one you’re reading now……) you absolutely will get results. 

End of mild rant!

Do you ever check into your feet when you ride?

Do you think about how they feel in the stirrup?

Do you press down into them or are they lightly placed?

Are they equally weighted each side?

Are your toes facing forward or out to the side?

We know that our horses feet can have a huge impact on his soundness and performance, but what about our feet?

Firstly, your feet should be placed lightly in the stirrup, they don’t bear your weight your thighs you be doing that. If you press down into your feet you will pop yourself up and lock your knees. They should be relaxed to allow the ankle to absorb the movement.

Having equal, light weight in your feet is a great step for ensuring your symmetry so checking into this should be a regular check in when you first get on.

If your toes are facing forward this gives a good indication that your thighs are gently on the saddle.

Commonly I see a lot of toes turning out which means the hip stabilisers are not working and the hamstrings have taken over. I’ll write more about this another day.

For now try bringing some focus to your feet.

If you have trouble connecting with them, try doing this off horse.

Roll them over a ball and see how it feels You might find tense bits, maybe bits you hadn’t really checked into before and a heightened sensation or feeling of grounding.

Then next time you ride, check back in and see if you can have them light, equal and facing forward throughout. If not…….you’ve got stuff to work on.

It’s been dark when I’ve been starting and leaving work this week, which means Autumn has finally set in. I’ve already started to think about how I’ll fit in training my ponies over winter and how I will fit that all in around the lack of daylight, weather changes etc.

That also means I need to consider my own training.

Once the weather isn’t so nice we tend to not be outside on the go as much and prefer to spend evenings and weekends snuggled up on the sofa, usually with snacks!

However winter onset is no excuse to slack on your fitness regime. In fact if you’re riding less that’s even more reason (and time) to focus on your own fitness.

But I get it, going out for a run when it’s dark, wet and windy doesn’t seem so appealing.

Of course there are certain forms of exercise that I think would be more beneficial to your riding than others. Including some resistance training and some body awareness would be top of my list. However, in reality any exercise that you will actually turn up and do consistently is beneficial.

If you like a social element why not join a class (There’s space in my classes if you’re interested…..)

If you really want to do that run, walk or cycle outside buy yourself some good warm and waterproof kit so it doesn’t feel so grim- I reward myself with a hot bath and a hot chocolate if I do this!

If you want to make time to commit to the gym you can be really tactical at improving your riding performance with weights and cardio equipment available.

And if you really can’t face leaving the house there are lots of online workouts you can do. Just a hint I’ve got an online programme that’s only £5 per month….

So, there are lot’s of options to keep yourself in training alongside your horse through the darker months. You’ve just got to find something you’ll stick to and remember that 2022 season you will thank you for your efforts!

How hard are you trying?

How much time do you put in?

Ok, so this one comes from both my recent horse training experiences and from years of both my own training and training other people-both on and off horse.

How much time do you give to trying something before you give up.

Try it once, decide it’s too hard and don’t bother again?

Give it a couple of goes and if you don’t get it properly then give up?

Or do you keep trying, hopefully making tiny incremental gains along the way, so that one day a little in the future you have got it?

It’s something I’ve had to do with pony training recently with both Gwydion and Panda, but if you’ve seen my other social media you’ll see that Panda has gone from scared, aggressive and Panda to a little scritch obsessed sweetie finally learning the arena isn’t a scary place. Gwydion has gone from being a total anxious wreck just being tied up to having a rider on his back again, and I can assure you that even a few months ago I wasn’t sure we’d be getting there! But I just kept chipping away……along with some tears and tantrums!

The same goes for riding. I’ve had new things taught to me that I’ve really not been able to get the hang of the first few goes but I’ll just keep chipping away and eventually it clicks. It might take days, weeks or even months but I’ll keep trying.

Then with my training, there are loads of exercises that I couldn’t do at first. Olympic lifting definitely a case in point! You didn’t lift heavy on your first session, you start low and add a little more as you get stronger.

When I’m training clients whether that’s on or off horse often they can get frustrated and want to give up when they try something for the first time and it’s hard. But you didn’t learn to ride in your first lesson did you? If you want to keep getting better you’ve got to keep pushing yourself to do things that seem hard at first.

Just think if you started exercising now and did a couple of session a week, you might feel useless at first. It might not immediately fix all the problems you thought it was -you don’t stabilise your seat in 1 Pliates class!

However if you just keep turning up and leaning into that uncomfortable place where it feels like you can’t quite do it and aiming to get just a little bit better each time; you may well just look back in a few months time and not be able to believe how far you’ve come.

I want to talk to you about being present, in the zone of whatever you call it.

It’s not just a skill we should practice whilst riding but also on the ground with our horses; and as I’ll go on to discuss other times too!

This is something I’ve had to really focus on lately as my Fell pony Gwydion really requires this from me as we’ve restarted him with groundwork. If I’m not fully present and in control of my energy and emotions he isn’t engaging in the process. Basically, I’m all in or he’s all out. It’s been frustrating but it’s an important lesson to learn.

When riding we should be fully present, not just in what we’re asking the horse to do, but also how our horse feels and how our own body feels.

Being able to tune into how your body feels and moves as you ride is a skill that takes practice. As does being able to feel how your horse responds to your own movements as sometimes these can be really subtle.

This is why I suggest mastering it off horse first.

Of course, there’s practicing it whilst doing ground work with your horse, if that’s something you do together. In fact it’s a great way of testing out how you can change your energy by changing your body language; can you back your horse up or move him sideways with just a change in your body language and movement but without actually touching him? Can you get him to stand still doing this?

However, I’m a fitness professional so let’s look at this from an exercise perspective.

If you can learn to fully focus on your body, it’s movements and how it feels during exercise this will tell you a lot about your body. Being on the ground means you can fully focus on your body without the complication of the wild animal with a mind of its own.

If I ask someone to move, then ask them to check in with what they’re actually doing often they’ve no idea they weren’t fully engaging all the muscles required.

If I ask if they have equal weight in the feet, are their shoulders level, can they feel their abs engage etc. They often need to really concentrate when they do this.

Then when we move onto a riding specific exercise and I ask them if they can now feel their abs, back, outer hip etc. they may be surprised to find these muscles are supposed to be involved!

Are you fully present when you ride? Do you focus on the muscles you should be using, how it feels, how your horse reacts and how your energy and body language can change that?

Give it a go both on and off horse and see if it changes some things for you. I’d love to know if it does.

Do you ever check in with your body?

When you’re riding do you ever mentally check in with how you feel today rather than just checking in with your horse?

Does everything feel stacked up the way it usually does, or feel as mobile or stable as always?

I reckon the answer lies somewhere between no I don’t, and everything hurts!

It can be easy to fall into this system of just plodding considering how your horse feels day to day and whether he might need some physio, a massage, a different workload etc. But never considering how your body feels and whether it needs attention.

Your body has a huge impact on how your horse feels and moves being ridden and then of course than may impact on his overall wellbeing.

There are a couple of ways you can check in with your body.

Sometimes at the beginning or end of a Yoga session in my online programme we just lie on the floor or stand still and do a mental check in of our bodies from top to bottom.

Try lying on the floor, taking some deep breaths, and then starting at the top squeeze then relax each part of your body and see how it feels. Which areas of your body feel like they don’t relax? Those areas might need some more attention.

In my in person classes, we do regular stretch weeks where the sole purpose is to reconnect with your body and deal with those areas of tension. We do this with movement patterns such as opening and closing the chest, mobilising the spine etc. and self - massage with physio balls and foam rollers.  It gives everyone a chance to check in with their own bodies and deal with any niggles that may be affecting their riding.

If you put time into making sure your horse’s body is in tip top shape surely it makes sense to make sense yours is too.