How your body affects your horse

I normally write my blogs from the perspective of the horse...rehab, core and body strengthening, injury compensation etc, but this week I wanted to write about the RIDERS part of the equation, as we are 50% of the partnership! 

Have you thought about how your own body affects your horse...whether you are riding or working on the ground with your horse? 

I have talked a lot on the blog about the natural crookedness pattern in the horse, why it's important to address it, and how to do that...so that's great, if we can train our horse with flexibility and symmetry work included. 

But most of the time, we as riders/handlers are still crooked! We are (most of us) one hand dominant, so therefore one side dominant. We do all of our yard tasks in one way..one sided..so we all end up crooked, and stronger on one side of our body than the other. 

And this translates directly to our horses, whether we are riding or within groundwork. 

If we are sat with our weight slightly to one side, or with slightly more weight in one stirrup, or we are slightly tipped forward, or we have a tight hip on one side...these might seem like small problems, but actually for the horse, we are creating an imbalanced load for them to carry, and it alters their movement. So it's significant, especially when we are trying to train symmetry in the horse to prevent uneven wear and tear on the body. 

Within groundwork, if we are unable to use one side of our body fully, we create an uneven pattern in how we are asking our horse to move around. So it's a super important part of working with our horse, that we need to consider and work on! 

This month in The Members Enclosure, my Strength & Straightness programme, we are focussing on Rider Alignment! We have a guest expert providing us with training on how to assess your alignment in the saddle and on the ground AND a set of exercises to weave into your daily life to help address your asymmetry on a daily basis to ultimately help your horse! 

I have been doing Equipilates for years, and find it a fascinating branch of horsemanship, super important to consider within rehabbing our horses, AND I feel the difference in my horses ability and movement when I am doing the work to straighten out and strengthen my own body! 

The training on Rider Alignment is now live on the platform, and we have a live Q&A this Friday with Emma Stamenkovic, Equipilates and Franklin method Trainer! 

If you would like to join us to learn about how Equipilates can help you and your horse, and start with some specific exercises to unravel your own crookedness pattern TODAY...click through here for the details and the sign up area: Strength & Straightness Programme

You will get access to my FULL training programme and members group, along with the additional trainings with guest experts on Equine Nutrition, Equine Behaviour and Equipilates! A full package of learning and support for you and your horse. 

QUESTIONS? If you have any questions or would like any other kind of support, please get in touch through the CONTACT page here on the site.