Tag: equestrian fitness

Often when people do tricky exercises they stop breathing.

Ever wonder why so many horses get tense between the white boards that were fine in the warm up? 

How many riders say they don’t breathe during their dressage test? 

Perhaps there’s a link there!

If you’re not breathing your tense within your body. 

Tensing muscles really tight isn’t what you’re after. Tension isn’t stability. Stability is relaxed muscular integrity. That is muscles that are still soft, able to move and absorb movement whist still remaining in control.

In order to ride stable without tension you need to be able to breathe whilst activating the muscles required to create that stability.

So if you’re struggling with it on horse try mastering it off horse. 

Whenever you’re exercising focus on form with breathing-can you execute your Pilates or Yoga moves well whilst breathing softly? 

Can you time a core activation with an out breath during a heavy lift?

Perhaps you have to really concentrate at first but the more you practice the more second nature it becomes. 

Then you can transfer that to on horse exercises. 

Make an out breath every time you make a transition……..then do a schooling session involving lots of transitions.

It will soon become second nature to breathe whilst you ride!

There’s a nerve in your body that is linked to almost every part of you-the vagus nerve! It’s the longest Cranial Nerve starting from the base of your brain travelling through the throat, ears, face right through your all of your organs -think heart, lungs, stomach etc. 

This means it has a huge impact on so many functions of your body. 

One of the most important things I think for Equestrians is Gut Instinct. As mentioned above, the nervous system really is connected to your gut. It’s why you can feel sick with nerves.

With Horses as we can’t directly speak to them our Gut Instinct can tell us so much about what is the right answer for our horse. We just have to learn to listen. Check out Dr Susan Fay if you want to learn more about that.

In relation to your own performance as the Vagus nerve affects so much of your body it can have a huge impact.

As the Vagus Nerve is part of your Stress Response learning to manage it can be crucial in your life with horses. Horses aren’t stressful are they??

This time of year can be stressful too. You may have so many other things on you try and rush through your horse stuff too. Then they don’t go to plan because your horse picks up on this and it escalates.

This is when the Vagus Nerve is on high alert and we’re in flight mode. Our horse senses this and more than likely decides he should be in flight mode too. You’re stressed, he’s stressed…….

Sound familiar?

Just breathe.

Sounds simple but being able to focus on your breath, to tune out the busyness of your brain and be fully present with your horse can change your interactions as well as your training sessions. So often we can be creating tension in ourselves and our horse just because we aren’t breathing. Make this your first step. 

As the Vagus Nerve is connected to your ears, listening to soothing music or something like ASMR can lower your stress levels transferring that soothing effect through your ears to your whole body. This is why I like to listen to music when I’m with my horses, if I’m relaxed my ponies are more likely to be relaxed.

Movement can lower your stress levels. That’s why often we find a focused schooling session can make you feel on top of the world, but if your brain isn’t there other forms of movement can help you. A walk somewhere quiet, yoga or whatever helps you zone out can help you calm your Vagus Nerve and take you out of fight or flight mode. 

The more we can be aware of how our bodies are responding to their environments and how this effects our performance and our horse the more we can focus on improving that and  improving the partnership with our horse.

I have a feeling this is going to be something I’ll be focusing on in 2022.

One of the key things in riding is coordination and quick reactions. 

The whole inside leg, outside rein, steer, change gait all whilst being on top of an animal with a mind of it’s own and your body’s reaction to all of that; it’s a lot huh!

Your reaction time isn’t just relevant for the oh sh!t moment’s, it’s the whole ride with your body adjusting and adapting to the horse underneath you. A quick reacting rider can prevent a horse falling in or out, they can react to an unbalanced horse and help him out or deal with any change in tempo.

One thing that is super interesting about children that do lots of different sporting activities whilst they are young, is that as adults they find it easier to pick up new sporting activities even if they’ve never done them before. So those kids that did football, hockey, tennis, skied etc. then go to the gym as adults and take up something technical like Olympic lifting and they are more likely to pick it up quicker than someone who only did one sport.

This is because the nervous system is primed to respond to lot’s of different patterns, not just one pattern of movement.

Which tells us that in order to improve our coordination on horse we do not necessarily need to make it riding specific. 

So, just have fun with it!

If you want to start adapting to movement underneath you, sitting on a gym ball is a good place to start. You can just sit with feet on the floor then once you’ve got that you can try lifting your feet. 

If you want to try improving your coordination, you can start simply with throwing and catching a ball-you could do that on the gym ball if you fancy a bit more of a challenge.

You could try a funky shaped reaction ball, that when you bounce it fires off in a random direction.

You could also do exactly what the kids do. Try a different sport! Kick a Football, try a dance class whatever you like. 

In order to be a better Equestrian Athlete you need to be a better all round Athlete.

PS. Keep an eye out for an exciting upcoming partnership with Stephanie Dootson Veterinary Physiotherapy starting out with an Advent Challenge designed to improve both you and your horses performance across 24 days with help and support along the way.

We’ve been talking booty’s a fair bit this week! 

Not for aesthetic reasons; although a solid peach is no bad thing! The Glutes are the biggest muscle in the body and are a huge player in stabilising the pelvis and the spine. That means they are a huge player in managing pain and injury in these areas and also an absolute necessity for a stable position whilst riding. 

If your glutes are able to work effectively, absorbing the movement of the horse underneath you they take the load off your joints, in particular your spine. This is hugely beneficial for back pain. 

Also, if your glutes are conditioned enough to work well without becoming over stressed or tense this gives you a much better chance of having a stable but relaxed seat.

Basically building a booty is an absolute key element for riders.

So, rather than sell you on it’s benefits just trust me and let’s get to it!

Here’s a little circuit I’d love you to add into your routine 2 - 3 times per week and you can start ti feel the benefits building a booty can bring!

Bridge-Harder option put your feet on a bench or gym ball

Squat

Hyper Extension -Harder option do on a gym ball