If we have ridden for a long time it is possible you’ve picked up a few bad habits along the way and you now find them hard to undo.

Now think about all those little postural habits you have throughout the day. They might be related to how you perform your job, how you stand, drive or sit at a desk. You may be in variants of this for 8-10 hours per day for 40+ hours per week!

Then you ride your horse aiming to be straight and symmetrical .

It’s a tough ask if you’ve spent your day possibly hunched left with more weight on one foot than the other!

Firstly, this emphasises the importance of a warm up to open up these tight spots and activate the under used muscles.

It also means we need to be more mindful of how these daily postures may be affecting our position when we get on our horse.

Unfortunately for many it’s not realistic to suggest that they adapt their posture more at work, some jobs just require awkward positions and movements………..

So, what do we do?

If you can spot the patterns then you can be more mindful of trying to adapt your position when you ride.

You can do work off horse to try and improve the weaknesses and even up the asymmetry.

Have a pre ride warm up specifically designed to uncurl you and wake up those muscles ready to ride.

In areas where you are able to such as driving to the yard, carrying buckets etc be mindful of your posture. Level torso left to right and front to back, feet pointing forward, shoulders activated and aiming to keep your body free of prolonged tension in any one area.

Equestrian Fitness can help you with:

Off Horse Training -Online and In person

On Horse Training in person to identify your patterns and help you find ways to use your body more effectively when you ride.