OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012 THE RIDER /15 Fitness for Riders: By Heather Sansom.
When I visit my chiroprac- tor, I can easily get the impres- sion that the answer to many problems is in the spine. It is tempting to assume that of course the chiropractor sees things this way, because they specialize in spines. When you go to your dentist, you learn just how much of your health is con- nected to your mouth and gums, because that is the area your dentist specializes in. It is tempting to dismiss the con- cerns sometimes.
has a wave of motion introduced at their seat. It travels up the spine and down through the legs to the feet in the stirrups. The force is often blocked by tension in shoulders, arms or neck which blocks it’s upward dissi- pation and causes more of the energy from the motion to stay in the torso. Imagine the upper body like an open canal lock when it is supple (water or energy flows on), or a closed one when there is tension (the water or energy builds up the area it is restricted to).
However, as a rider, your back really is a key to your ride. Far too many riders suffer from back pains and strains. While a strong and supple back is criti- cal for all sport performance, riders tend to notice the results of lack of good back strength because the motion of the horse is introduced at the base of your spine. Most other athletes expe- rience the initial thrust of motion much further away from their spine: the feet. By the time the motion reaches the torso, a lot of the force has already been managed through the legs and thighs. The rest of it often travels through the torso and out the upper body as the shoulders and arms move. A rider sitting on a horse
When the flow of the motion is blocked from the top, I often see overactive or floppy lower legs, or else a ‘whipple waist’. This is where the rider appears to flex at the waist with each stride, or to have excessive motion in their pelvis in an attempt to follow the horse’s motion. The same reaction can happen when instead of block- ing the energy that is trying to flow through the upper body, the rider blocks the energy that needs to go down through the legs. They stiffen their ankles and don’t allow the stirrup to rise up and down with the horse’s motion, or they stiffen their legs and thighs.
Back it Up: Getting a Better Seat and Avoiding Back Pain
compensation for the excessive motion in the spine.
As you can imagine, all of these compensations and attempts to create conditions of stability for the spine cause the rider excessive wear in their back. They also have a direct and negative impact on the horse’s way of going. A strong back with a neutral spine and ability to maintain spine neutral- ity in motion is important for any active person or athlete, and critical for a rider. Since an extremely small percentage of people are born with the ability to just know how to maintain a neutral spine, nearly all riders that I have worked with benefit from taking a few minutes regu- larly to work on their lower back.
The spine is supposed to be maintained in a neutral posi- tion, not folded and flexed rapidly and repeatedly for thou- sands of strides. The body does not like it, and will often react in a way that creates a famous vicious circle. The physical reaction of the rider can be even more tightening of the upper body, or else clamping in the upper thigh or locking in the hips in a reactive attempt to cre- ate quiet stability somewhere, in
The type of strength a rider needs in their back has to be related to ability to maintain good posture, without rigidity or need for excessive corrective motion. It also has to factor in the deep layers of muscle that are responsible for spinal stabil- ity. These cannot be exercised with large movements, and there is no ‘crash course’ that you can do a few days or weeks before an event. A few minutes a day is all you need. In fact, a gener- al rule of thumb I follow with core work for riders is to never do too much at one session. The reason is that fatiguing your important core stability muscles before you ride, will set you up for injury or strain, or at the very least, a poor ride. So, you are better to do exercises for your back for a few minutes a day, either with lots of time for recovery before you ride, or else when your riding is done for the day.
A simple exercise that helps build strength in the lower back for riders is a ‘leg lower’.
It is one of the exercises in my book, The Complete Core Workout for Riders. I also use it in the spine stability course I teach to the general public (with back issues) out of a physiother- apy centre. The goal of this exercise is to slowly build up the deep postural stabilizing muscles in your lower abdomen and lower back.
Steps to do the exercise: 1. Lie on your back with your knees up and feet flat on the floor.
2. Place your hand under the small of your back to feel the space between you and the floor, then roll your pelvis so that your back squishes your hand. You will need to use your lower abdominal muscles. This is a typical spine neutral posture used in Pilates.
3. Tuck your knees up, remov- ing your feet from the floor. 4. Raise your feet straight over- head.
5. Slowly lower your straight legs toward the floor. Only go about 6 inches for the first time, and hold your legs there for about 3-6 seconds, maintaining your spine neutral posture on the ground.
6. Do not lower your legs to the ground. To start over again bend your knees, drop your feet down, and remove the weight loading from your lower back. Tuck your knees in again to begin again.
‘leg raise’. The goal is not to raise your legs. It is to maintain spine neutrality with a slow increase in pressure, introduced by the weight of your legs get- ting progressively more in front of you. Raising your legs up and down without the spine neu- trality will actually damage your lower back. It can also cause your body to use your hip flex-
This exercise is NOT a
ors more than your lower abdominal and lower back mus- cles, and contribute to tight hip flexor issues that riders often experience.
© By
EquiFITT.com Personal Fitness Training owner, Heather Sansom
I would suggest that you repeat the exercise about 6 times. When you can do so quite easily, it is time to either add to the number of counts you hold the posture for, or extend your legs a little more. Your legs should never be more than half way toward the ground. They would only be that far after months and months of extensive core training.
The Barefoot Horse By Anne Riddell
The idea of horses going without metal shoes nailed to their hooves is nothing new. Dr. Bracy Clark (1771 – 1860) a British Equine Surgeon, consid- ered one of history’s most knowledgeable hoof authorities, laid out the basic anti-shoeing argument that is still used today. He wrote, in Guide to Shoeing- forge (1883), “The handsome little horses of Sweden and Nor- way travel often at a rate of ten, twelve, and even fourteen miles an hour, in their usual work, with a gaiety and vivacity never seen in our post horses… The horses of the West Indies travel delightfully over the rocky ground of these regions, and nearly all the horses of North and South America, go equally well, and are admired by all strangers for their sound pacing, yet to all these horses are the blessings of shoeing happily unknown, and they are used entirely without shoes.”
rugged terrain. Our domesticated horses are still often kept in 10’x10’ confinement for days and weeks at a time or turned out in small areas that limit their movement which is essential to their health. To add more insult to their simple system, they are fed large amounts of car- bohydrates and fruc- tans which they can’t digest properly. Just as with people, more and more horses are becoming pre-diabetic and insulin resistant. Research shows us that this directly affects the health of the hoof.
When looking back in his- tory, until the last millennium, horses were ridden unshod since their domestication 8000 years ago. The barefoot cavalries of Hannibal and Xenophon have left vivid records of their sys- tems of natural hoof care and military triumph using unshod horses. The horses hoof is per- fectly designed to perform unshod in the wild moving 20- 30 miles a day on some very
People shoe their horse’s because they assume their horse’s hooves are too weak to go unshod, and they believe that high performance horses cannot go without shoes. Recent research is proving that nailing a piece of metal onto the highly vascular hoof is doing more damage and shortening their lives than was ever thought of. Natural hoof care is a whole horse program which keeps the horse’s hooves worn down naturally as if there were in the wild moving many miles per day. The trim is based on the wild horse model that simu- lates how the individual horse
other demanding equine sports.
can perform barefoot when given the cor- rect tools to grow a healthy, well con- nected hoof.”
information visit
www.barefoothorse-
canada.com
Anne Riddell is Board Certified by the American Hoof Association and AANHCP Past.
would wear their own feet. Nat- ural hoof care also includes a natural diet and plenty of move- ment to keep the hooves and horse in optimum shape in order to perform barefoot.
Compliments of the World Hoof Conference Germany 2003
While horses have been used without shoes throughout history, the benefits of keeping horses barefoot has recently enjoyed increased popularity. Not only does the horse benefit from a healthier hoof, it can be less expensive to keep a horse barefoot. Many owners even learn to trim their horses’ hooves themselves. This bare- foot practice is frequently and successfully used to rehabilitate founder and navicular horses, as well as to get hooves in top con- dition for endurance racing and
In its natural unshod state, the hoof serves as a shock absorber, acts as four pumps to the heart as it expands filling with blood in weight bearing and contracts during non-weight bearing. A shoe inhibits this mechanism thereby limiting the blood supply which is seen in the thermo picture above. The three hooves that are red and yellow are not shod and show the normal blood flow into the foot, while the right front is shod demonstrating the lack of blood flow to the lower limb and hoof. Shoeing not only anesthetises the feet but causes many other negative effects (too
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For more “Any horse
many to list here) on the hoof itself and stresses the entire horses system. The studies of people like
Dr.Bracy Clark, Jaime Jackson, Dr.Hiltrud Strasser, Dr. Chris Pollitt and
Dr.Robert Bowker, without a doubt show us that the metal horse shoe is harmful. Any
horse on a natural diet and with proper trimming and condition- ing of the natural hoof can obtain barefoot soundness. Besides, being healthy for the horse itself, natural horse care saves horse owners money. Anne Riddell is a Certified Nat- ural Hoof Care Practitioner,
By Heather Sansom, Owner,
Equifitt.com Equestrian Fitness Training
EquiFITT.com Equestrian Fit- ness offers personal training, clinics & workshops, Centered Riding® instruction, and conve- nient online personal coaching for riders anywhere. Subscribe to receive free monthly Eques- trian Fittips, and download rider fitness ebooks at:
www.equifitt.com .
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