Equestrian Fitness & the Importance of Strong Glutes
Aug 20, 2020
Before:
After:
Riders. I am going to pick on you a bit here. And coaches listen up as well.
I picked my own pics so I can pick on myself but I want to show you the difference a strong ASS makes.
And doing stalls is NOT a form of training, #sorrynotsorry.
In the first pic I was on my feet all day managing a large equestrian centre and equine assisted therapy program.
If you look at the pic you can pick apart a bunch of postural issues, right?
The problem in it is to have my "shoulders back" with tight hip flexors and glute amnesia I HAD TO arch my lower back, which also compromised my lower leg position.
You literally CANNOT just put your shoulders back with upper cross syndrome, which when we look at the root cause is tight hip flexors & Glute amnesia.So when you FORCE your shoulders back it causes you to sit on the front of your pelvis. When you sit on the front of your pelvis you exert DOWNWARD force on the horses back.
What happens next?
The horse drops their back, which causes them to lose impulsion and fall on on the forehand.
You CANNOT fix the horse, doesn't matter what you do, until you fix you.
In fact it isn't even fair to work on the horse until you fix you.
When I was an equine vet tech I would see issues in high level horses and as I watched the rider walk around the barn I could SEE where the issues stemmed from...
The riders imbalances.
Yet we do all kinds of core training in the horse to improve their core...
What we need to realize as an industry is the PROBLEM STARTS WITH YOU.
In the second picture I worked on GLUTES and strengthening my glutes. As you can see, my posture improved, my legs lengthened and Monty was able to lift his back, and step through, properly.
We love to blame saddle fit, the horse and everything else. But remember. When you point a finger you have 4 pointing right back at you.
Even with the BEST saddle. The BEST farrier. The BEST everything. If you are not balanced the horse cannot perform optimally. At best you are leaving performance on the table. At worst you are injuring your horse long term as they try to compensate for you.
When I work with riders I ask for video and pictures from on top the horse and from the ground. I also ask for pictures of the horses back.
Riders get all bent out of shape when someone says "the horse does all the work" but if you take a good hard look at yourself can you honestly answer that you ARE treating YOURSELF as an athlete too?
I have a couple more spots for riders in my 1:1 coaching.
xoAE
