Julie Goodnight Tip of the Month
Equestrian News Release
PONCHA SPRINGS, Colo. November 15, 2007—
Riding for Fitness
It’s not just about having fun or gaining new skills, riding is a great form of exercise, too! For beginner and intermediate riders, the sport offers both aerobic and strength building opportunities. As you gain more skill, the exercising value goes down because you don’t have to use muscle strength to stay in balance with the horse and you learn to let your horse move your body--using a lot less effort. But even for the expert equestrian, riding will help your fitness and it’s a lot more fun than being a hamster on a treadmill.
Spending some time riding without your feet in the stirrups will help improve your balance on the horse while working out your abs and thighs. Start slowly and build up to 10-15 minutes of riding at the trot and canter without your stirrups. As you build strength, alternate between sitting and posting trot. Make sure you have enough balance and skill to take this added challenge and it may help to have a neck strap to hold onto.
Before mounting up, I like to make the most of my riding time by adding a little extra workout, so that I can spend more time at the barn and less at the gym. First, when I groom my horse, I use two hands at a time (identical brushes in each hand) and brush as vigorously as my horse will tolerate. That way, I get a good upper body and aerobic workout, improve my bi-lateral coordination (an important riding skill) and my horse gets twice the shine as we both warm up our muscles.
During the winter, or whenever you’ll have less riding time, you can stay in shape with the help of a 55-75 mm exercise ball. There are lots of exercises you can do with the ball to improve your riding skills. Make sure you get a heavy duty, rigid exercise ball (not the cheap spongy kind), available from my website at http://www.JulieGoodnight.com, which comes with an exercise chart.
--Julie Goodnight, juliegoodnight.com
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