Keeping Your Body In Shape When Working With Horses

Working horses can be extremely hard on the rider's body. Not only are you working with a very large animal that could kill you, but you are working with a very strong elegant creature that feeds off every emotion you have. When working horses, you must be extremely strong in three parts of your body: your legs, stomach, and arms.

Your legs are what keep you on the horse, but they are also how you tell your horse to increase/decrease their speed, turn left or right, and stop. In order to do this properly you have to hold a lot of control over your legs and the movement that they make. When riding a horse, you need to have a lot of control over your calf muscles. This is the part of your leg that will move the most and also is where you cue the horse. Many of the exercises used to strengthen your legs also strengthen your stomach and arms. Your stomach needs to be firm and tight every time you do anything on a horse. This is because your stomach keeps you in your seat and keeps you from losing control and proper posture. When you have proper posture, you are then able to work on the strength in your arms. You need strong arms in order to control a 1000lb animal. I work on my strength by doing many exercises every time I work with a horse.

One of the exercises I do is called posting. This is when you elevate yourself two inches over the saddle, moving rhythmically with the horse. Posting is an amazing way to help tone your legs and stomach at the same time. When posting normally you count the rhythm of the horse and go up and down repeatedly, this is done at a trot. After a while posting becomes easy for both the legs and stomach and needs to be modified to make it harder. When modifying posting there are three main ways that will help to gain more muscle and control of your body. The first is the change how long you sit and how long you elevate over the saddle. My favorite is to do four strides elevated and two sides sitting. I constantly change the number depending on how hard it is or isn't for my body to hold itself up and stay in rhythm with the horse.

Another way I keep my legs and stomach strong is by not using stirrups. By not using stirrups your legs are able to hang free and therefore you become more aware of the movement that they make. By riding without the assistance of stirrups your legs will naturally strengthen and you will become a lot stronger in your calves and every aspect of your lower leg.

Your arms steer the horse, therefore they must both be strong, but sensitive. This is because your hands hold the reins that then attach to the horse's bit which is in the horse's mouth. You must have the strength to be able to stop the 1000lb animal, but be in tuned enough with your body to know the amount of pressure necessary to pull on the horse.

Your whole body needs to be in tune when riding a horse. You have to be able to feel and react to everything their body does and that’s why it is so important to keep your body strong and ready for anything. Yet, I don’t stop working my body once I’m done riding my horse. In fact I spend a lot of time working out at the gym dailey.

As an equation, I hold my horse to high stands of workout abilities, so why wouldn’t I hold myself to the same? It’s crucial to make sure you are constantly building muscle and toning your body to be able to work with a horse properly. I constantly do exercises that build up my back and stomach muscles. Each day I take time to lifting and doing numerous squats along with running on the treadmill. By working out I am also able to keep at a weight that allows me to ride some of the smaller ponys. This comes in handy when a child needs their pony schooled.

Each part of your body is put to work when riding a horse. It’s important to have strong muscles in order to keep you safe and sturdy on your horse’s back. Being an equestrian is a hard sport that wears at your body more and more each year. It’s crucial to constantly be taking proper care of you body in order to work a horse properly.