“You’re not a rider unless you’ve fallen off seven times.” This is one of many proven mantras in the Equestrian community. Equestrians are some of the toughest and strongest athletes I have come to know during my lifetime. Over time, we riders learn numerous aids, cues, and body positions to influence and support a horse’s movement. A full day of schooling, showing, and barn chores can leave us aching and exhausted. As hopeful lifelong equestrians, we need to start thinking about how our own body’s health and flexibility affect the flexibility we strive for in our four legged partners.
How can LYMBR help improve your riding?
I have been an avid horse-lover, rider, and competitor since the age of 5. Spending hours in the saddle can really take a toll on your body, and it wasn’t until coming to LYMBR after a fall that I started to connect some dots. Equestrians tend to be creatures of habit. We mount, dismount, tack up, and connect with our horses through groundwork, always on the left side. It’s a repetitive lifestyle, and constantly performing the same movements over and over again creates muscle imbalances in our body. Imbalances lead to discomfort and often times pain. No matter their discipline, most equestrians struggle with tightness and sore muscles in the hips, adductors, glutes, calves, spine, chest, shoulders, and neck. We spend a lot of time and effort caring for our horses and honing in on our connection in the saddle;why don’t we spend as much time and effort on our own bodies?
As a therapist and a client, LYMBR has helped me understand both the individual functions of muscles and how they work together while in motion. Because each LYMBR session is completely personalized, everything is catered to reach your goals. With therapists experienced in a wide variety of sports and exercise modalities LYMBR is able target those tense muscles through an intricate series of stretches. Learning how to target and lengthen those muscles while strengthening their counterparts has enhanced my riding enormously. Remember, for every working muscle, there is anopposing muscle working in the other direction. Also because I have become more open and available through stretching my connection to my horse feels stronger.
Lets go deeper…
The pelvis and lower back are irritated in practically every rider. Riding can actually promote and enhance stiffness that leads to poor riding posture. It can block aids and movements from you to the horse creating a domino effect. Our hips are another point of interest, while riding, they are in constant flexion, leaving our hamstrings lengthened. Often when a rider is swinging their legs or cannot keep their legs in alignment, it is because our hamstrings are not as strong as our hips. We strive for symmetry in our horses and our own posture; we want to make it look like riding is easy! If we are dealing with discrepancies in our bodies, it will affect the way your horse responds while under saddle. This is why these issues can and should be addressed out of the saddle.
Whether you are a new rider who wants to help recover those newly hard-working muscles or a seasoned competitor hoping to improve for this upcoming show season, better mobility, flexibility and range of motion that comes from proper stretching will help take your riding to the next level.
Written by Samantha Fabrikant, LYMBR Stretch Therapist and Equestrian.
