FEBRUARY 2011 THE RIDER /17 Fitness For Riders
Continued from Page 14 way it is designed to.
When you have insufficient independence of movement in your muscles, joints and limbs, and insufficient tone or structural or neuro-muscular imbalance, it’s the equivalent of introducing CONSTANT SHOUTING, !interrupting, nagging nagging nagging, or sluuurrrrring to your language with your horse: annoying, unproductive, not nice. If the two of you were dancing, you would be missing cues, missing the beat, shoving, blocking, stepping on his feet, or standing there with an imprecise gestures to which he would have no choice but to take guesses or fumble some imprecise response. Not exactly ‘dancing with the stars’.
In case you think the dance metaphor is just for dressage- types, the person who gave it to me is a cowboy who rides range 12 hours a day in season. He wanted to know some stretches to keep his hips limber, and some exercises for self-carriage because he was concerned that so many hours in the saddle could wear on his horse if he didn’t take responsibility for his own carriage and ability to go with his horse’s movement. He wanted some exercises he could do without being anywhere near civilization. He said to me ‘You know, I tell people riding a horse is like dancing- they think I’m a little crazy- but it is.’
well has an inherent conversa- tionality about it. It has a mutual responsiveness and spontaneity to it, within a standard vocabu- lary. As a rider, your standard vocabulary is the aids. The way you use your words, is the art of riding. It’s the subtlety of con- versation- your tone of voice, and clear meaning.
I’d like to invite you to improve your physical conversa- tion skills with your horse. Take a New Years’ challenge to work on your own symmetry, supple- ness and self-carriage and see what happens.
Here’s what to do: pick a handful of stretches you know you should be doing, and promise yourself you’ll do them every day for a week. Then the following week, add in a new element to your routine. Think about your goal- is it supple- ness? Is it balancing a muscle area to offset too much tightness in another area? Is it increasing your stamina? Write down a clear and concrete, objective way your goal can be measured so that in a month, you can see your progress based on where you are at now.
Warning: you could get addicted to getting results, and your lifestyle, happy hormone levels and current riding perfor- mance could be seriously altered.
Of course, knowing the correct technique for your riding discipline is important. Carrying a physique which is supple and balanced enough that you can both sustain effort the whole ride, AND be relaxed about it and able to find body parts and employ them as required to your riding experience or riding les- son, is what your fitness routine is for. Even if you don’t dance, you can appreciate that dancing
By Heather Sansom,
Equifitt.com Equestrian Fitness
Heather is a certified per- sonal trainer, and Level 1 Certi- fied Centered Riding Instructor. Sign up for a FREE subscription to monthly rider fittips, or down- load rider fitness ebooks at
www.equifitt.com. Equifitt is based in the Ottawa area, but offers clinics and workshops, and ‘online’ personal coaching anywhere you have access to a phone/internet.
Phone: (519) 268-2050 email:
grantontrailers@execulink.com www.grantontrailers.com
Lorik Horse Walkers Werner Bohner
www.loriktool.com/horsewalker Phone: (519) 758-8660 • Cell (519) 209-8196
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