Re: rider exercises

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Tue, 6 Jan 1998 vwheeler@mail.tds.net wrote:

> kept hearing my former riding instructor's voice, "heel's down, legs still,
> shoulders back, sit deep".

Here's the bad news....if you ride endurance with your "heels down" you
will put your feet to sleep (at least if you use that exaggerated heels
down leg position that is so sought after in the hunter show ring).  You
would do better to have your toes and heels level....Otherwise, you will
have to buy those expensive Cloud Nine stirrups :).

> We concentrate on conditioning our horses, but what are the most successful
> exercises for the human part of the team?  I have no problem conditioning
> Felix, but can't seem to get off my tush when it's for me.  There have been

Here are a couple of very simple (you note that I do not say easy)
excercises that can very easily be done in front of the TV, that do
wonders for building the muscles that you need for riding:

1)	Get the thigh master (TM) and follow the instructions that come
with it.  This will build the muscles of the inner thigh.

2) 	With your hands on your hips, stand up straight, bend your legs at the
knees so that you (just barely) can't see your toes.  Keeping your
shoulders over your hips over your feet...pick up one foot and place the
inside of your ankle against the inside of your knee.  Hold for 30
seconds...working up to 1 minute.  Do the same with the other leg.

3)	Do exercise #2, but standing on your toes.

4)	Do a skier's exercise called "tuck and jump."  Place your feet
about shoulder width apart.  Bend your knees down into the skier's tuck
position (you know, what those downhill ski racers do at 90 mph).  Your
back should be level (so it should feel like you are sticking your butt up
in the air), and your elbows should be between your knees (to start with
you can rest your elbows against the inside of your knees for a little
support).  YOur lower arms should be level (i.e. don't drop your hands,
hold them up like you were holding ski poles off the ground).  Don't rest
the back of your thighs on your calves.  Hold this position for as long as
you can (to start with it will probably be about 10 seconds) working up to
30 seconds.  After which, jump straight up in the air springing off of
your feet to get your feet about one foot off of the ground and
immediately drop back down into the "tuck" position as you come out of the
jump.  Repeat as many times as you can until your legs feel like they are
about to fall off :)---working up to 5 minutes.  (If this exercise gets
too easy for you, you can dress yourself up in ski boots and skis and get
the whole kit and kaboodle a foot off the ground :))).

Exercise 1 develops the muscles of the inner thigh and the buttocks.

Exercise 2 develops your lateral balance (and the muscles you need for
lateral balance).

Exercise 3 develops your lateral balance and begins to develop your
balance front to back.

Exercise 4 develops your front to back balance (remember to keep your feet
flat on the floor for this exercise) as well as developing the muscles of
the front of your thigh (your quads) and your lower back (the most
important muscle for riding as far as I am concerned).

Just a week doing these exercises should show a dramatic improvement in
your riding balance (reducing your and the horse's workload drastically).

Let me know if you have any questions.

kat
Orange County, Calif.