Let us assume that you have done some preliminary stretches on the
ground. Runner's stretches work very well (picking up your horse's feet
only gives you minor bonus points).
Given that at the start of a ride the "warm-up" assumes more of a
life-and-death attempt to stay mounted while Sir Steed and Madam Fastlane
display exceptional prowess at rodeo moves, there are still a few things
you can do to prepare your body for the long hours ahead. These
exercises are done gently, "softly", to lightly stretch tense muscles.
Because you are going to be doing this on a moving object, do not
hyper-extend anything--it can lead to extreme discomfort and an unplanned
unseating! As with most exercises, 2-3 repetitions may be used.
Upper Body: specifically your neck and shoulders. This is the area that
gives you that collapsed, "fetal-position" frame born of terror and
locked vetebrae. Gently drop your chin and roll your head left, right 90
degrees, then stretch your chin skyward, only 'til you feel a little
tension under the jaw. Next, roll one, then the other shoulder in a
mini-circle forward and back. Take nice deep breaths, rhymically, and
exhale sloooowly. You may feel the beastie getting just a hair calmer as
your body begins to relax.
Torso: this will help set the seatbones, balance you right-to-left and
straighten your posture, and improve your ability to breathe from the
diaphragm. Do this on each side--raise your arm straight up as if
reaching for an imaginary treebranch but don't lift your chin. Keep a
soft focus with your eyes--try to take in as much of the scene as
possible, including all the peripheral activity--and take a deep breathe,
exhale sloooowly. Ride a few strides (walk, trot, canter-doesn't matter)
this way. Now, bring your arm to 90 degrees to your body and slowly
rotate the arm forward toward the horse's ears, back to midpoint, then
extend back as far as is comfortable. Do not rotate from the hip as this
is designed to work the shoulder/trunk area. This isn't a "swinging" motion
but rather a controlled rotation done in conjunction with slow rythmic
breathing. You will get no benefit from "flinging" your arm back & forth.
Repeat on the other side. Now, place your hand on your hip and make
mini-circles with your shoulder again. Finish with a little neck
stretching as above.
Alternate centering tricks: place your hand on the center line of your
helmut, "drop your knees", breathe deeply, exhale slowly.
What this does is stretch the torso evenly and uncollapses a shoulder
that may have become tilted. If you have a problem with "tilting",
practice at home going down the trail with the arm on whichever side is
at fault extended striaght up--do this for the count of ten and repeat as
necessary. Looks odd but it works!
Hips, seat, legs: ever go "uumph" when you've reached around to
straighten the rump rug? You are probably locked in the torso (above
helps) and the hips. So, either put your hand on your hip or extend to
the side at 90 degrees and slowly rotate from the waist back to front.
This time allow your head to follow the motion and scan the horizon
slowly with a soft focus as you go, inhale on the back swing & exhale on
the front swing.
To set the seat and stretch the legs will require a) a horse that isn't
jigging around too much and b) an act of faith on your part. It is best
done with dropped stirrups (act of faith) but can be done with them.
Don't do anything to the point of pain! Nice deep breath, hold and
slowly exhale as you stretch one leg at 90 degrees to the saddle--you want some
daylight in the thigh area (feel the burn!). Then slowly "swing" the leg
forward and back, again only as far as is comfortable and repeat the 90
degree stretch. Next bend your leg at the knee and "swing" forward and
back, then 90 degree stretch. Return to normal position and feel how
you have recentered yourself. Nice deep breath, exhale, relax and
with your right hand grasp the pommel and "pull" yourself deep in to the
seat. Repeat on the other side.
For the "advanced", try combining the torso "swings" with the leg
lifts/stretches.
The feet: take one or both feet out of the stirrups and point the toe
down for 3, then up for 3, make mini-circles clockwise,
counterclosckwise. This frees up the ankles and relieves the tension on
the ball of the foot. "Scrunch" your toes a few times--but be careful,
sometimes this will cause you to cramp!
Imagery helps while you are learning to do this. Imagine yourself as a
ragdoll, limp, placid. The "wide-eyed" look is the soft focus, Sally
Swift relaxation technique. Do this comparison--stare REALLY HARD at a
object in the near distance, scrunch up your eyes, really concentrate.
What do you feel? Tension in the neck, shoulders, collapsed shoulders as
they fall forward "toward the object", shallow, rapid breathing? Now softly
focus on the same object but take in the entire horizon including your
peripheral vision, see everything, feel your breathing slow and your
chest cavity and buttocks relax.
These exercises should be practiced at home, at a walk, until you and the
horse are very comfortable with the routine. Make this a pleasant
experience that can have a calmative effect on your equine partner. When
you are extending that arm forward, why not have a carrot in your hand to
lure your partner into a nice neck stretch back to you. Your exercises
will become a reward for your partner because your shoulders/neck/seat
(buttocks) will relax and relieve tension that is communicated through
the reins & the saddle. If exercise=pleasant=rewards, you will find
these to be an invaluable aid at the start of a ride and a wonderful
restorative to your weary muscles during the ride.
The torso exercises can be done conveniently at any gait, but a
monotonous long stretch of trotting seems a good place to do them. Also
when you need to walk to kill time, get control, handle terrain, etc the
exercises will be a routine immediately recognized by your partner and
may help to convince him that a walk, not a jig, is the right gait.
I hope this makes sense--if not I'll try to clarify.
A note on the "drop the knees" concept. You are all familiar with
the "heels down" command and why it is necessary (to some extent). What
I have found is that when I do "heels down" what I get is "foot forward"
(I'm not 12 years old and nobody broke my ankles when I was little to get
that classic hunter-jumper look). So I end up in a chair seat with my
legs forward, shoulders hunched and about as unclassic as you can be.
Years ago my dressage instructor, Candy Clemens, gave me a different
image--"dropped knees". You sink deeper into the seat (after doing the
above exercises), drop the knees and allow the leg/foot to naturally fall
back into a proper position. You may or may not have the heels way
down--much depends on your particular anatomy--but the goal is a level
foot and an "educated" leg in position to influence the horse. You won't
be able to do this if you are grippy in the knee or your thighs are
velcroed to the flaps, hence the leg stretches to loosen the thigh. Col.
Alfred Kitts (to my mind the greatest of all dressage instructors)
expected "loose, floppy" thighs (jiggly like jello--do watch the German
dressage riders, look at their thighs and you'll see what I mean). You
can only achieve this when you have a properly centered seat with the
seatbones in even contact with the saddle. Col. Kitts found that women
have a difficult time with this concept (let's face it, "jello thighs"
doesn't float MY boat) and it took a lot of cajoling to get us women to
warm up to the idea & try it. It's also harder for women to achieve
because we have natually "rounder" musculature in the thigh, men are
flatter and can shape to the horse's back more easily--and this is
independent of, and in addition to, the influence of pelvis width.
Hope this isn't all "old news"--many of you are probably aware of these
exercises already. If you need clarification, please don't hesitate to
ask!
Diane @ Safe Haven
Allentown, PA
Mr T, Miss B & Kasey with Chef d'Equippe "Odie", the naked Newfi