Tag: pilates for horse riders

This week riding I’ve noticed something. It doesn’t matter which rein I’m on I can’t make my hands do different things. So if I need to flex my inside rein I struggle to check in to what my outside rein is doing-usually it’s gone rogue….. hence the problem. 

 

Of course that causes problems as I’m sure you are aware the outside rein is vital for maintaining your horses position whether straight or flexed. 

 

Now if you have a similar problem , maybe hands like me or maybe it’s your lower leg that seemingly has a mind of its own; you will know how unhelpful it is when an instructor tells you to just stop doing it. Your brain is thinking “sure, yeh it’s that easy, I’ll just stop……”  It’s not that easy, if it was we’d have fixed it as soon as we noticed it!

 

Just because it isn’t easy doesn’t mean you can’t make it better.

 

You essentially need to wire yourself a new pathway from your brain to that particular body part and movement pattern.

 

I like to keep the exercises simple. 

 

Try this exercise to help train your limbs to work together or separately. 

 

Switch up the movements,moving a single hand forward or our or moving a leg back or out. The whole focus should be on what the other limbs are doing and then whether the moving limbs track the same path left as they do right in the same movement. 

These are the sort of exercises we do in my classes -Space in Wednesday 10 and Thursday 6.15pm.

When you’re thinking about your own rider fitness do you focus on your performance when everything is going right? Like how you manage transitions, a dressage test, a round of jumps etc?

 

What about how you perform when it’s not going right? 

 

How does your body respond if your horse wobbles, maybe trips, sneezes or spooks? How do you cope with a buck or a rear? 

 

What happens if you’re out on the Cross Country course and it goes awry?

 

If you ever watch the pro’s out on cross country when things don’t go to plan you will notice they react lightning fast and they stay balanced still riding the horse forward.

 

If you watch a really good rider as their horse bucks, rears, trips etc again they stay balanced and are able to ride forward. 

 

Have you got the strength and balance to do that?

 

It can be an absolute game changer. Not least because you fall off less! 

 

Of course most importantly it makes you less likely to injure yourself, as even if you stay on you can still give yourself whiplash from an impact you weren’t expecting.

 

Are you stable and balanced enough to stay with your horse if he zooms off sharply? Are you stable enough to keep riding and not be dragged forward if he pulls his head down or trips? 

 

When you can do this is you become more in charge of the outcome. 

 

But how do you get that?

 

This is where I believe Strength training comes in.  Being able to control more than your own bodyweight  is a great way of training your body to kick in with extra stability when needed on top of a horse.

 

When I train clients one to one or in my strength and conditioning class we work predominantly on big compound movements that require the body to work as a whole unit. 

 

For example whilst a Deadlift is used predominantly to improve posterior chain strength, it still requires good core activation, the chest to remain open and the shoulders to actively participate. You may have spotted some absolute bad ass ladies lifting some serious weight over on my social media. They didn’t start at those weights but they’ve put the time and dedication in to improve them and it’ s paying off in their riding with better stability and control. 

 

We work up to some Olympic Lifting movements that require full body coordination and fast reactions whilst moving a weight. Are you seeing how this might transfer to better riding?

 

Maybe it’s time to up the ante on your gym work, or if you want a coach to help you get there you know where I am…...

 

Do you ever tell yourself you don’t have time to work on yourself?

 

You know you should train yourself off horse, work on your imbalances and weaknesses etc because you know it will make you a better rider for your horse but………..insert appropriate excuses. 

 

If your horse needed extra feeds, maybe extra training or rehab sessions you’d find the time wouldn’t you? 

 

I find with most things exercise/performance related the time, money etc is not the issue it’s the mindset of the person that makes the most difference.

 

If you ask any athlete how/why they made it they will tell you two things 1) They made sacrifices elsewhere -not watching box sets every evening, no lie ins etc 2) Anything is possible if you want it enough.

 

I don’t buy the “I get home late argument” as I don’t consider 7-8pm late, I also don’t consider 6am the earliest time you could possibly get up if you needed to. 

 

I also don’t think the majority of horses need working every day at the expense of you spending a session focused on you.

 

Again it comes down to over coming your own barriers. 

 

No one said you needed to spend 2 hours in the gym every night, you don’t need to smash yourself up and then ride with severe DOMS for a full week afterwards.

 

However you do need to take some responsibility for your part to play in your partnership with your horse. You should want to be the best rider you can be in order to help your get you where you want to be.

 

Are you stable enough to support your own body weight and control it on top of your horse?

 

Are you aware of what your body is up to when you can’t actually see it? What do your shoulders do when you turn left? What is your lower leg doing in Canter?

 

And if it’s not doing what it should be…..how do you stop it?

 

These are things you can be working on off horse that will have a huge benefit to you and your horse.

 

You may choose to take up Pilates, Yoga, join a gym class or maybe work with someone equestrian specific like myself. They all have the potential to be of benefit.

If you want to improve your own performance enough you will make the time.

 

If you’re really pushed I’ve got an online twice weekly programme that is just 20-30 minutes per session, zero equipment and you can do it at home any time that suits you!

 

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=F3EDU9Q5UVQN4

 

Control

 

Do you have total control when you ride? I don’t mean control of your horse, although it helps! But are you in control of you?

 

Can you make your body move how you want it to, absorb the movement of your horse and remain still and quiet on top. 

 

Can you give aids clearly and concisely in all paces? Or once it gets to sitting trot are you a wobbly mess on top? 

 

If your horse sneezes or trips a little are you thrown and have to go back to walk or halt to regroup or can you remain balanced, stay in control and pick up where you left off?

 

The ability to do the above is about having control of your body. 

 

This control shouldn’t come from tension or stiffness but suppleness and stability.

 

Having a strong body helps but that body also needs to have flexibility to move and the awareness to know it’s movements and their reactions. 

 

Whilst I am a massive advocate for strength training for riders I think it is important whilst doing that training to really focus on the muscles you are using and how they move. 

 

This is why I am also a fan of Pilates and Yoga as they also encourage strength, flexibility and control.

 

The more control you can build on the ground the more you can transfer that to your riding.

 

There’s only so many times your instructor can bellow “keep your hands still” or “keep your lower leg still” before you need to take outside action. 

 

Want some help with how to take that action? I’ve got limited spaces in classes and some slots for 121 training so hit me up and start taking control today.

When I train riders I may ask them whether they rode the next day and could feel what we may have been discussing or working on in the previous session. Often this will be a particular set of muscles I want them to tune into e.g obliques/waist muscles when riding a circle.  My favourite answer is “yes and as I could still feel them from the session with you I was able to recognise them and therefore use them properly for the first time.” My least favourite answer……..”no because I was sore from the session “ 

 

Now it is never my intention to make anyway really sore after a session and honestly I think it’s rare that I’ve ever had anyone really struggle to walk the next day. However a little bit of muscle soreness or stiffness is inevitable and indeed necessary for improvement. You see muscle soreness happens due to tiny micro tears in the muscle which then knit back together and make the muscle stronger. That’s why it happens when you’re new to exercise or when you do a particularly heavy session or something different. The extra stimulus means your muscles want to get stronger to adapt, which is exactly what we want to happen.

 

Now I get it that you don’t want to be riding stiff and sore, and that’s why generally I don’t make a whole session heavy just maybe one or two exercises and the rest will be less intense. Having said that if you can feel some new muscles you’ve just learnt how to activate to improve your riding the best time to try feeling them in use whilst riding is when you can already feel them. As let’s be honest if it was easy to tap into them without a little off horse overload help you’d have been able to find them earlier wouldn’t you?

 

What I want you to remember is that a little bit of discomfort is all part of your body’s healing and strengthening process and you shouldn’t try and avoid it. Also if you feel a little stiff before you get on then do a few dynamic stretches to loosen up then get on and really feel those muscles working. 

 

Like I said last week we hate it when people say the horse does all the work so stop just focusing on whether your horse is getting stronger and improving every session and ask yourself are you?

 

Couple of spaces in Wednesday 10am Class and just one space in Thursday 6.15pm Strength & Conditioning Class. 

Do you do any pre ride checks? Maybe you always check your girth just before you get on, even though you literally just checked it. Perhaps you do a little stretch of your horses front legs?

Do you ever check in with how your body feels before you get on? Or how it feels when you get on?

Being aware of any tension, tightness etc before you get on or pick up your schooling means you can address them before you start. 

Before you get on just have a little check in with how your body feels. Anywhere you feel tension move it a little whether that’s arm rolls, torso rotations or some long stretchy lunges just give your body a chance to wake up and release tension.

When you get on , how do you feel? Can you feel any tension now? Do you need to adjust your position, do any stretching? Are you sat level?

I like to do a little mental check in with my body whilst I’m tacking up and putting my hat on to see which bits of me need a pre ride warm up. Ok, full disclosure I sometimes do weird long lunges and windmill arms whilst walking across the yard……….I call it a time efficient pre ride warm up.

Then when I get on whilst I’m doing the first walk around the arena seeing how the horse feels today I also check in with how I feel sat on a horse today. Do I need to drop a leg out of the stirrup to help that leg hang better? Do I need to open up my right rib cage a little more?

Once I’ve done this it means my body is much better prepared to ride as well as I can. 

Do you prepare yourself before you ride?

 

Sometimes I say things to my clients that may sound a little unhelpful at first.

They can be struggling with a movement, or trying to balance on a gym ball and although I can see what is happening I may not initially correct them.

It sounds harsh but what I want them to do is feel what is happening and then look to correct it themselves. So much of riding is feel; feeling what the horse is doing underneath us and then how our body is responding to that. 

The quality and effectiveness of how your body responds depends on how much control you have on your own body and how in tune with it you are. 

Whilst it’s great to have eyes on the ground to help you out that’s not always possible-and they can’t be in the Dressage arena. 

We need to learn to be more in tune with our bodies so we can feel ourselves that we are sat too left or tipping forwards etc.

It’s also about proprioception or body awareness -Equestrian translation…..Feel! 

How do we do this?

In reality any form of fitness will give you better control of your body. Stronger muscles are more controlled muscles. So, for that reason I favour strength training, but I also like Yoga and Pilates as they focus on movement patterns and symmetry. So in an ideal world you’d be doing strength training and yoga or pilates. 

I also really like balance work such as Gym Balls or Wobble Boards as you get direct feedback on how you move your body affects your balance. Sat too far forward…...you’ll fall off, sat to the right…..you’ll fall off, if you sit a little more to the right you will correct this.

 It’s about learning to recognise your own imbalance and having the control and strength to correct them.

If you want some guidance in finding your feel I’ve got space for 121 training and space in some classes.

When we talk about riding position we say it should be in neutral but do we mean it should stay  there throughout every beat of every stride?

When we ride we move with the horse which means our pelvis and spine are constantly moving to absorb and re-stabilise.

This means stability is not stiff, it is not tense or rigid.

It is the ability to stay balanced whilst absorbing force and going with movement in a relaxed frame. The Spine and Pelvis will gently rock forward, back, up, down and even side to side but in very good riders this will be almost invisible. Yet we all know to do that on top of half a ton of animal is much easier said than done.

What does this mean for our training?

It means that we need to incorporate some of this fluid movement into our off horse training.

We need to learn how to move the Pelvis and Spine in and out of neutral whilst remaining stable throughout.

Now to achieve the strength and control to do this may start with building static strength and body control.

Once we have that we need to advance this to staying stable whilst moving so for example static may be a Wall Squat, moving may be a Squat and then more Dynamic a Squat Jump. The idea being that throughout the Squat and Squat Jump the position does not change wildly it merely adjust subtlety to absorb the landing.

Perhaps for a more visually and kinesthetic (feeling) exercise sit on a gym ball starting from neutral and start to bounce as if advancing a trot, add in your seat bones following the front legs of that trot and start to make that trot bigger. The whole time you should feel that to remain rigid prevents you from being fully in sync with the ball whereas if you allow your spine and pelvis to move you can stay with the ball whilst still remaining in balance.

This involves you learning which muscles are required and what level of tension is needed in these muscles to achieve this. It relies on your own feel and is therefore a really good learning exercise for riding in general.

Give it a go and see what you feel.

I imagine for many people if you’re told to get fit the first thing that comes to mind is some form of cardio such as running, maybe cycling etc. 

 

Now I’m a great believer in having a decent baseline of cardio fitness for lung and heart health long term, and in case you get chased by a bear…….However will that necessarily improve your riding?

 

If you’re out of breath when riding and generally flagging before your lesson has finished then yes that is something that needs to be addressed. If you are perhaps riding X Country and are out of breath struggling to ride strong and alert right to the finish then yes you need to improve your cardio fitness.

 

For that aiming to run 5k, maybe cycling 10k or doing a dance class whatever gets your heart rate up and you will actually enjoy and stick to is fine. There can be arguments either way for which method is best so honestly I think you should just find something you will enjoy and therefore keep doing it.

 

However, if you have never felt yourself flagging during a lesson, you don’t get out of breath after some sustained rising trot then taking up running will not necessarily have a huge impact on your riding, you’d be better off looking at improving your strength and stability to make an impact.

 

I’m not saying don’t take up running or whatever as people run for different reasons other than fitness. If doing some cardio makes you feel good (runners high is real) then absolutely go for it.Maybe it clears your head and makes you feel better overall then that’s great. That’s why I do cardio, it helps burn some calories for weight management and makes me feel more energetic overall.

 

What I’m trying to say is some form of cardio is a great addition to a healthy lifestyle but unless you do get out of breath riding or struggling to up your game for lack of stamina then it won’t necessarily improve your performance on its or struggle to up your game for lack of stamina then it won’t necessarily improve your performance on its own. If you want to improve your riding off horse there’s other areas such as stability, force absorption and pro prioception you could start with.