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Whats your 'Working On'...
As riders we all have parts of our body that don't work as well as we would like them too. When we are beginner or newer riders, it feels like none of the parts of our body work very well. Our balance is all off, our legs and hands have a mind of their own and we even find things like our butt and shoulder muscles randomly chipping in when they aren't really needed!
Then we progress, over the years we find more control, we learn to balance our own bodies and stop veering backwards and forwards, and side to side. We learn how to take our legs on and off, even one at a time if needed. Our hands begin to have an independence that is needed to have (and keep) a horse properly on the bit. Our hips learn to move a little more freely, following the horses bouncing motions. This post isn't about learning how to ride, it isn't about learning how to use your body in the right places to sit to the trot (riding is so damn hard), it is about another component, the athletic side of it.
But this is a constant progression, we forget how far we have come sometimes and think too much about what we are bad at. We all have things we are 'working on' but sometimes we lump this together as something unachievable like. "I am working on my seat" or "I'm working on improving my hands". Neither of this things are measurable so we will never feel like we are improving.
I think that one of the first things we need to try to do is figure out what it is anatomically we struggle with. Some things we can do nothing about, if you have short legs and a longer upper body (me) you can't change that, so forget it and move on. For myself I know that I have tight hamstrings so this is my main 'working on'. I know this more through daily yoga practice that being on the horse, It is pretty hidden when I am riding but it is there. So how does this affect my dressage riding? Tight hamstrings cause your pelvis to tuck- lower back flattens and a tucked pelvis leads to a rounding of the upper back. Now I could just have knowledge of that and make it it to my trainers responsibility to keep reminding me of keeping my leg long, opening my shoulders etc but these physical improvements are definitely on us.
We are athletes, we expect our horses to lug us around and be athletes themselves which means we owe it to them, we owe it to our trainers and we owe it to ourselves to be flexible and fit. This doesn't mean we have to hit the gym every day, or start long distance running. If we are Olympic level eventers then maybe it does require a greater level of fitness, but for most of us, the amateur dressage riders we get a little break. We need to be able to be strong enough to stay balanced over our horse for a good period of time, fit enough so that we don't get out of breath, and flexible enough to follow that bouncy trot and canter.
For me I had to find what I enjoyed, I hate running, with a passion. I have done it regularly in the past and still hated it. I knew I needed to be working on my strength and flexibility more, so my physio in the UK suggested Yoga with Adrienne (youtube), I found out that a daily yoga practice is totally is my jam! It helps with the whole hamstring thing without just focusing on hamstrings and definitely helps with flexibility, strength and breathing. But, it isn't aerobic; so fast paced hikes, dancing or cycling help too. But we all need to find our own thing and try (not so easy) to stick with it regularly and enjoy it to whatever extent we can.
This weekend I am showing Axel again, no doubt a little nerves will set in and I will go back to some of my old, bad riding habits so all that strength and flexibility I have been harping on about will probably get hidden by tension from test riding!
My 'working on' is measurable. It is improving all the time, I can stretch through further in my lunges and bending, even if its just millimetres at a time and I can hold the yoga balancing postures longer as my core, glutes and legs are stronger. This, in turn, helps me when I am in the saddle with keeping my balance and engagement up through my body. It means that Axels canter improves all the time too as my body is helping and allowing him to flow through his body properly too.
We all have days and even weeks when we either can't or just don't want to work on fitness and strength and that's ok I think too. I try to skip feeling guilty or beating myself up and just get gently back into it again, just as we would with our horses.
In the meantime, the sun is finally shining and we have a show to head to this weekend, so tack will be cleaned and boots will get polished. Next post will hopefully be a show report!
Then we progress, over the years we find more control, we learn to balance our own bodies and stop veering backwards and forwards, and side to side. We learn how to take our legs on and off, even one at a time if needed. Our hands begin to have an independence that is needed to have (and keep) a horse properly on the bit. Our hips learn to move a little more freely, following the horses bouncing motions. This post isn't about learning how to ride, it isn't about learning how to use your body in the right places to sit to the trot (riding is so damn hard), it is about another component, the athletic side of it.
But this is a constant progression, we forget how far we have come sometimes and think too much about what we are bad at. We all have things we are 'working on' but sometimes we lump this together as something unachievable like. "I am working on my seat" or "I'm working on improving my hands". Neither of this things are measurable so we will never feel like we are improving.
I think that one of the first things we need to try to do is figure out what it is anatomically we struggle with. Some things we can do nothing about, if you have short legs and a longer upper body (me) you can't change that, so forget it and move on. For myself I know that I have tight hamstrings so this is my main 'working on'. I know this more through daily yoga practice that being on the horse, It is pretty hidden when I am riding but it is there. So how does this affect my dressage riding? Tight hamstrings cause your pelvis to tuck- lower back flattens and a tucked pelvis leads to a rounding of the upper back. Now I could just have knowledge of that and make it it to my trainers responsibility to keep reminding me of keeping my leg long, opening my shoulders etc but these physical improvements are definitely on us.
We are athletes, we expect our horses to lug us around and be athletes themselves which means we owe it to them, we owe it to our trainers and we owe it to ourselves to be flexible and fit. This doesn't mean we have to hit the gym every day, or start long distance running. If we are Olympic level eventers then maybe it does require a greater level of fitness, but for most of us, the amateur dressage riders we get a little break. We need to be able to be strong enough to stay balanced over our horse for a good period of time, fit enough so that we don't get out of breath, and flexible enough to follow that bouncy trot and canter.
For me I had to find what I enjoyed, I hate running, with a passion. I have done it regularly in the past and still hated it. I knew I needed to be working on my strength and flexibility more, so my physio in the UK suggested Yoga with Adrienne (youtube), I found out that a daily yoga practice is totally is my jam! It helps with the whole hamstring thing without just focusing on hamstrings and definitely helps with flexibility, strength and breathing. But, it isn't aerobic; so fast paced hikes, dancing or cycling help too. But we all need to find our own thing and try (not so easy) to stick with it regularly and enjoy it to whatever extent we can.
This weekend I am showing Axel again, no doubt a little nerves will set in and I will go back to some of my old, bad riding habits so all that strength and flexibility I have been harping on about will probably get hidden by tension from test riding!
My 'working on' is measurable. It is improving all the time, I can stretch through further in my lunges and bending, even if its just millimetres at a time and I can hold the yoga balancing postures longer as my core, glutes and legs are stronger. This, in turn, helps me when I am in the saddle with keeping my balance and engagement up through my body. It means that Axels canter improves all the time too as my body is helping and allowing him to flow through his body properly too.
We all have days and even weeks when we either can't or just don't want to work on fitness and strength and that's ok I think too. I try to skip feeling guilty or beating myself up and just get gently back into it again, just as we would with our horses.
In the meantime, the sun is finally shining and we have a show to head to this weekend, so tack will be cleaned and boots will get polished. Next post will hopefully be a show report!
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