Mejestic mentioned in the post on putting on the bridle that her riding has improved her balance after she suffered a brain trauma.
Mejestic, would you be willing to describe the riding exercises that you are doing to improve your balance. Even riders that are without any physical issues can benefit from riding for balance.
I periodically ride without stirrups or reins. I hold my arms out away from my body as well as over my head. I turn in the saddle and reach back and touch the horses tail as well as reach forward and touch the lower part of his shoulder. The only thing that I have not tried is to ride with my eyes closed. Maybe that will be next!
I really would like to hear from anybody that has excersises that they do while riding that helps improve their riding and balance.
Cheers
Hi Dennis
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My Auntie used to make me do this when I was learning to ride. She made me do everything you mention here - except riding with my eyes closed.
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The only additional thing she had me do was hold a tissue between my knees and the saddle to make sure I was using my legs correctly.
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I too am interested to hear what other people do.
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Kind regards,
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Gen
I have lots of them from riding schooling days. :) Let's see what I can remember. Some will also build strength in stomach/back.
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Building on Dennis' exercises:
Reach your toes - left hand to left toe as well as right hand to left toe (and vice versa).
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Sit on your seatbones, stretch out your arms to the sides (for balance) and lift your legs as much as you can, and then twist your knees and thighs away from the saddle. Only the seatbones may touch the saddle. Try this in both walk and trot and build up (incrementally!) one side of the arena at a time. (Easier if someone leads the horse for you.)
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Reach for the horse's ears without moving your legs out of position.
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Try lying back down on the horse without shifting your legs. This can be uncomfortable in a saddle with a high vault in the back, so be careful, or try it bareback - which btw also is an excellent way of practicing balance.
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Ride with "jockey leather" (=extremely short stirrups)in all three gaits. Not sure this one works in a western saddle.
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Jump a small fence (in a fenced in corridor) with your hands on your hips - out to the sides - on your head.
This of course requires that you already know how to jump and that your horse will jump willingly and smoothly.
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If you have a calm horse, you can also try some "tricks", like turning 360' in the saddle.
You can also do the "kick" where you lean your hands on the front panels of the saddle (like you would do sit ups or dismount with extra flourish) and swing both your legs up - keep your knees straight!! - above the saddle to clap together, and then back down.
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An extension of that is the "Captian's turn" where you start out the same way but instead of letting your legs meet, you cross them and turn yourself around so that you end up sitting backwards in the saddle. (You can shift back the same way, but mind the horse's neck!)
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I can also recommend Sally Swift and her books about Centered riding.
I forgot a couple of classic!
Hands to your sides and turn your upper body left and right.
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Sit in side saddle = one leg resting across the pommel/withers, the other in normal position with or without a stirrup. Both walk and trot.
Ideally, you sit in the center of the saddle, but be sure to lean a bit to the side of your legs so you don't risk falling backwards, which is very dangerous - esp. if you keep the one stirrup.
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This one is great for coordination - even in adults! - and for loosing up tense shoulders.
Step 1: Raise one arm straight up and keep the other hanging straight down. Do this for a lap or so (walk and trot) to be aware of your seatbones.
Step 2: Shift hands and repeat - Do this in both directions.
Step 3: Assume the first position and then slowly start doing "backstrokes". Arms straight but relaxed and close to your body and keep them at all times at a 180* to each other.
If you "swim" forward you will pull your weight forward too and that is not what you want.
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Remember to keep your chin up in all exercises!
Hi all,
Wow, this is a lot of excercise, we'll all be more balanced from them!
What I'd like to add is Sally Swift's (whom Kicky recommended above) feeling of opening your hips. In her book "centered riding" she describes how you can get a better feeling for letting your hip-joints open and so finding your body-centre. This to me was a real eye-opener, even before I had a severe accident and had to find my centre anew.
Ofcourse she gives so many advises, that it would take too long here, but one more I really have to add: imagine riding with your bones, the muscles only help your bones to be and stay in the right place. Imagine sitting on your horse and all of a sudden the horse is gone, would you fall backwards, or forwards, or would you just land on your feet and keep your balance?
Miriam
Miriam
That is an interesting concept. I ride my horse with a very deep seat. I ride with my stirrups long and ride as if I am standing which puts the heels behind the shoulders and gives you a secure seat. I don't think that you could post or jump a horse with stirrups as long as I keep mine but you could try. I read that one of the more famous western trainers was asked how much pressure he uses in his stirrups. His answer was to imagine you have an egg between the bottom of your foot and the stirrup and apply just enough pressure to keep from breaking the egg.
I see so many riders both beguinners and professionals riding with stirrups too short and they struggle to keep their heels down and lined up with their shoulder which then puts a lot of pressure on their stirrups. I also notice that if you ride like that if the horse spooks or bucks the rider is more often than not eating dirt! They are not in balance so their just pop out of the saddle.
Cheers
Cheers
Hi all
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Excellent exercises Kicki, hope you don't mind if I print these out to make a list for myself and my girls. I haven't done anything like this since I was a child and haven't thought about it either until Dennis mentioned it. I can see the value in it now - where as when I was a child I just did it because I was told to without understanding why.
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Will add that book to my reading list too, it sounds really good - especially what you mention there Miriam.
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See you later,
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Gen
Let me see Dennis,
Some of these things mentioned are fine if you do not have poor balance but if you do they could be dangerous, falling off a horse wouldn't help any.
And by using theropy horses there will not be an issue of setting the horse off by so much activity on it's back.
The first thing I do, before I get on the horse or go near it is, Thi Chi. This helps me to be more flexible. It's great when you are a bit older, it's not hard on the body and gets your metabolisum down, now you are low key, heartbeat.
I then walk the horse for a distance, approach the stepping block, make sure my stirrups are the correct length, the length of my full arm and hand, and mount up, I like them long.
I use both methods of riding, English and Western.
I push myself back deep in the the saddle, leave my feet hanging for a while, reins loose (no hands) and with the preasure from my legs ask the horse for a little more, not holding on in any way.
After this at a slight canter I face whatever way I want my horse to go and it follows my lead, my shoulders.
I now put my feet in the stirrups and take the reins and stand while cantering, if I feel my balance go off, I sit.
The closing of the eyes are started at a walk, this is a true test to tell you if you have YOUR perfect seat, gradually increase your speed with the eyes closed and eventually you know you have perfect balance.
One can even jump this way, arms out for balance, feet out of stirups, hug your horse with your legs and fly.
There is no feeling like it accept maybe riding a cutting horse at full speed and sliding to a stop. yea!!!!
Perhaps asking your horse to turn in tight circles at full speed, I'd say that is a close second.
These are simple and have worked for me, I don't slide in my saddle any longer and that is great progress. My left side is as strong as my right now.
Before my instructor had to stay right beside me in case I were to fall off, now she's in the middle watching for any imperfections on my part and doesn't hesitate to tell me. Or to slow down, I'm a speed freak and I miss it, for now !!!
Mejestic
I am so glad that you mentioned Tia Chi Those exercises will builds core muscle as well as giving you much better balance. On this that I used to do when I was a we bit younger was to sit on a balance ball with both feet off the ground. This would build the core muscles as well as balance. When I would fall off it was not a long drop!
Cheers
Gen wrote:"Excellent exercises Kicki, hope you don't mind if I print these out to make a list for myself and my girls."
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Help yourself, Gen! :)
I did these when I was a kid (in the 70's!) and I've taught them to other kids, so just happy to make them go around.
We've had lots of fun during lessons with exercises like side-saddle and Captain's turn, so I bet your girls will too.
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For safety's sake, I would just like to point out again that all these exercises require horses/ponies that will accept some "monkey business" on their backs and stay steady. (Or you train them to do it!) ;)
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Dennis,
It's interesting what you say about stirrups, because lately I have noticed (at dressage contests) that many riders keep their stirrups too long.
Your main weight should be in the saddle, but there should also be enough support in the stirrups to create a slight angle at the ankle, so the heal can be lowered and allow for a springy contact.
Ideally, you should be able to keep your balance and your legs in place without stirrups, but when they are too long your toes tend to reach for them, causing your foot/lower leg to become unstable instead since the toe will drop = the calf looses its strength.
Kicki
I ride my stirrups long but my heel is either flat parallel to the ground or if I need to I can lower my heels. I agree that you don't want your toes to be pointing down, yet I see world class riders doing exactly that at times. Not sure if there is a purpose to that or whether they are becoming lazy riders.
Cheers
Exactly my point, Dennis! There is no purpose.
Maybe it is a "fashion" that went too far - as they are want to do since people have a tendency to take every new thing to the extreme.
Hi Kicki
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Thanks for letting me print these out to use. We had a go on the weekend - it was great! I am surprised at how un-flexible I am. The girls did really well :-) Our riding horses are very quite. They had a nap while we did our thing. Thanks for this post Dennis, its a good one.
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With the long stirrups, I was taught to ride long initially. Then I played Polo Cross and had to shorten them up. I have been riding shorter ever since, but am going to give this a go again too.
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See you later,
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Gen
I've never done any of those type of exercises, but I have done some balance exercises.
Hi Horse Addict
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After doing a bit of extra reading on this topic, I can really see the benefits of doing these kinds of exercises. They make your body more supple and flexible and also help to further develop your core muscles (in your tummy and back) - which in turn greatly improves balance.
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I have even found a DVD on Pilaties for Dressage Riders that promotes similar principles as we have discussed here!
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Are the balance exercises you have done different to the ones listed here? If they are, could you describe them to us?
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Kind regards,
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Gen
Hi Gen, I just do what exercises that my instructors have done with me like practicing on how not to lean forward in the saddle, learning how to relax by imagining that you are sitting back in a lounge chair. I've never done any of those type of exercises.
No worries :-) we seem to have come up with a pretty good list here :-)