I know we haven’t got Christmas out the way yet but I’m already busy planning both my business and my personal life for next year.

When I am planning business I like to have a look at what is going to be popular I fitness and nutrition for 2017. I don’t necessarily follow the trends if they don’t align with what I am interested in but it is good to be aware of them and actually quite often than not I’m already ahead of the game!

So, I think the Equestrian Fitness world has bubbling and slowly growing for a few years now. The likes of Lindsay Wilcox-Reid of EquiPilates and Jon Pitt from RideSmart have been teaching the benefits of riding for several years however in the main this has been to the Professional Riders rather than Joan and Elsie the happy hackers at your local yard-or indeed you!

Mary Wanless was ahead of her time in teaching how very subtle movements and/or imbalances in our body could affect our horses way of going and knowing that in order to improve we must work on correcting this and being better able to control finite movements in our own bodies.

With this in mind, you will now see the Equestrian Magazines including the odd fitness based article (Yours truly has so far been in Northern Horse and Carriage Driving Magazine) as well as various Equestrian Centres holding classes and workshops for fitness and/or EquiPilates. So, I think Fitness is finally going to come to the fore in the Equestrian World in 2017.

However, what I think will be really cool is the Equestrian Specific classes. Don’t get me wrong if you enjoy going the gym lifting heavy stuff, or sweating it out at a boot camp that is cool and being fitter does help your riding, but what I am really interested in is the specific stuff that seems very little but makes a huuuuuge difference. I’m talking about the stretch that stops you collapsing at the hip, the gym ball exercise that helps to perfect your turns and all the other stuff that they won’t teach you at the gym. Perhaps mixing that with some other fitness stuff could turn you into the all-round Equestrian Athlete!

With this in mind 2017 is the year I want to really get out there and work with the Equestrian Community, so hit reply and tell me what your riding problems are!
What do you struggle with when riding?

What problems do you have when it comes to exercise? Do you like the gym? Can you make the time to commit to an exercise programme?

Would you like to train at the yard as a group with your friends or in your own home?
Let me know what you want to see in 2017 and I will do my best to deliver through my blog, through my online programmes and through workshops and/or classes.