Learning specific movement patterns can improve your riding ability enormously. The movement patterns for horse riding are quite unique. The ability to do a half halt without moving the body can be learned. The ability to apply more leg without moving your seat can be learned. These are movement patterns. They can be taught and practiced out of the saddle. The strength of the core muscle is the key to being able to apply independant aids in the saddle. Good core muscle strength provides a stable base for the limbs to lever away from the body. Riding requires a rider to use their hands and feet independantly from other body parts and with power.

To apply a lateral aid and ask the horse to move away from your leg, requires stability in the seat and strength in the leg. By training this movement pattern on a big physio ball a rider can practice the pattern and learn the sequence in their brain and then apply it in the saddle. The use of the seat to gain more impulsion is a learned sequence. Training the pelvic tilt on the ball will give the mucles time to practice the movement and get it right. Once the pattern is learned a rider can just do it in the saddle.

The Applied Posture Riding program teaches riders to train their muscles on the ball and to learn the movement patterns. Once these are ingrained into the brain your riding will become easy, skillfull and confident.

Riding like so many sports now has turned to the gym for better skills training. Learning what skills to train though may be simple in thought but HOW is a different thing. As a Physiotherapist and a rider I have developed the HOW program. Read my page on Applied Posture Riding, and contact me if you have further questions.

I treat 100s of people for back pain. I have trained 100s of riders to ride and protect their body especially their back from pain. I have treated many horses as well for back pain. It is partly for these reasons that I specialize in developing Horse Riding Equipment for riders.

As Horse Riders Riders we give our horses back pain. The causes of back pain in horses can be all or a combination of the following. We use poor fitting saddles that sit low on their back. A saddle can cause pressure points at the wither and any where along the gullet. The padded part of the saddle can become lop sided from a rider leaning to one side. The stirrups are often not equal length because again riders lean to one side; this creates pressure points in the horses back. We use dirty saddle blankets that are coarse against the skin and we often don’t use enough shock absorbing padding under the saddle. Rugs are another cause of back pain in a horse.

Horse riders spend many hours out in the weather. We spend hours in the sun in summer, and the same in winter we let our skin be damaged by wind and cold. I have been in this industry for many years and having fair skin I learnt to protect myself at a young age. I am grateful for that now. I see many same age riders with very dry tough skin looking well beyond their real age. When we are young we have little care about so many things an older person focuses on.

Horse Riders like all athletes focus on their riding and riding only. We get burnt, so what, we will tan. Researches now know every burn is damage to our skin.

Our face and our hands are in the weather every day. Our arms and chest spend nearly as much time exposed. The damage accumulates with age and then one day we have extremely old looking skin. Old Horse Riders may not be that old but years in the weather will give them age.

The correct Horse Riding Posture can be trained and can be supported by the use of a brace. Every movement we perform is a posture. Posture requires micro muscle movements continuously.  The Horse riding posture is much more work than riders actually acknowledge. A quality shoulder brace is an extremely useful piece of horse riding equipment that can help you with your posture. The posture adjustments are happening all the time. This is so much harder than we think and very fatiguing on the posture muscles.

A good rider must have good posture out of the saddle before even thinking of a good horse riding posture in the saddle. A strong straight back, square shoulders, upright head position and flexibility through the lower back and pelvis is a must. The endurance to maintain a good upright posture in the saddle requires training.