Three Stretches You Can Do

1. Lunge

For those riders who say they need to get stronger in their base of support some off the horse exercises could include Lunges. The easy lunge can help equestrians strengthen your legs, help with core strength, and tone your butt. who doesn’t like a toned butt in white breeches.

Easy to do and it requires no special equipment. No fancy gym membership.

Just the desire to increase your muscle tone and improve yourself.

Doing the perfect lunge does require some thought and expertise.

• Stand straight with equal weight on each stirrup, I mean foot. Keep your shouldsers over your hips and hips over your ankles.
• Step back with one leg. Keep the other leg forward. Lower your hips until the front knee is at a nintey degree angle with the knee over top of your ankle. your back knee is almost touching the floor.
• Keep the front foot flat and stretch the front hip back.
• Return to the standing position.
• Switch legs and repeat.

Core Strength

Lunges require core muscles and help to build stability when you are riding. This also improves posture and engages your lower back. A proper lunge posture can help you achieve a stronger and more stable core.

Proper balance and coordination is also included while you stablize your body when you are doing lunges.

Stretches Hip Flexors

The hip flexors are usually the cause of some major riding position errors. The chair seat. While most people are sitting at their desks, sitting on their couches or sitting in their cars their hip flexors are shortening and shortening.

The simple lunge can help stretch out the hip flexors which can help equestrians sit correctly in the saddle and avoid the dreaded “chair seat”.

Strengthens Legs and Butt

Equestrians use their legs alot and their lower leg is critical for their riding base of support. Lunges target legs, glutes and calves helping to make them stronger.

Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels

2. Ham String Stretch

Having tight hamstrings can through your riding position out of balance. Stretching your ham strings is about lengthening the back of the legs and stretching from your lower back down to your ankles.

A loose and flexible lower back will help with that sitting trot and help riders move with the horse better.

How to do it:

• To begin sit straight on the ground with both legs straight in front of you. Flex your feet in “heels down” position.
• Tip forward from your hip joint bringing your chest close to your thighs.
• Focus on keeping your back equitation straight (not round like sac of potatos).
• Aim to hold for 60 seconds and focus on your breathing while you do it.

You can add on to your exercise by crossing left foot over and beside right thigh and then twisting to the left.

and then,

Right foot over and beside left thigh twisting to the right.

Benefits of Hamsring Stretch

Possible increase range of motion.

Any exercises and stretching will increase blood circulation and reduce muscle fatigue. Keeping muscles fit, active and supple will help reduce injury and improve your strength.

Equestrians are athletes and we should be treating ourselves like athletes.

3. Arm Stretch

Don’t forget about your upper body. We sit a lot during the day and before we put our foot in the stirrup a few arm stretches wouldn’t go amis.

It is the way in which we communicate with our horses.

Stretching your arms does more than relieve tension in your arms. It helps prevent soreness in your neck and shoulders and back.

There are many different exercises and many different ideas of what equestrians should do to get fit and keep fit.

A Final Few Suggestions About Exercising

• You don’t have to do a “full on” exercise routine. Although if you decided to do that, it would be okay to.
• Keep track of which exercises you “like” to do and those which you think helped you.
• It is best to do some kind of stretching. Even a little will help your riding.

Hopefully you’ve found a few nuggets that will help.