Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Exercises for riders

From: Christine

Hello Jessica!

Thank you very much for helping me get suscribed to horse-sense! I am 15 years old and I have been riding for about 6 years. I used to ride at a horrible stable where they would buy horses on their way to the glue factory, train them VERY quickly and then put beginner riders on them. You were considered a pretty good rider if you could stay on the horse and maybe even control him. Now, I'm at a very good barn, learning dressage with a great C.E.F level 3 instructor. I have a one third lease on a horse, meaning I ride twice a week. I would love to ride more but I don't have the money or the time. (The barn is over an hour's drive away!) I was wondering if you could give my some exercises to do while I'm off the horse. I am enrolled in a sports psychology program and that's helping a little, but I really want to do more, could you please help? Thanks,

Christine

Hi Christine! Congratulations on finding a nice barn and a good instructor -- even riding twice a week, you'll learn more and make more progress than you would riding every day at a bad barn or with a bad instructor. There are all sorts of exercises you can do off the horse.

Walking is one of the best, and it's free! It will improve your muscle tone and your cardiovascular system and your endurance, and if you pay attention to your posture and do deep breathing as you walk, it will also improve your posture on the horse, and your ability to relax into your saddle.

Resistance training -- working with weights -- is also useful, but if you do this to help with your riding, you'll want to start very slowly and gently, and do many repetitions using LIGHT weights. You want to improve your strength and flexibility over time, and you certainly won't want to pull any muscles or hurt yourself!

Most books about riding include some information about exercises for riders; I put a chapter on rider fitness into my book, too! But there are also books ALL about rider fitness and exercise -- in fact, there's a new one, just out, called The Total Rider (author: Tom Holmes). It includes information on nutrition and sports psychology too -- and it's reviewed in my web pages.

Don't worry, you can get riding-fit and stay that way even if you're riding twice a week. You're wise to think of exercise as the way to get that fitness -- good luck, and have fun!

- Jessica

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