The importance of posture

Hey Athletes!

Since Sarah is on a plane to Brazil to compete in the Marcha da Resistência (follow the RLAA socials to keep track of all the updates), you get to hear from me, Ashley, for the next little bit. I am an equine body worker with a main interest in fitness building as well as exercise rehabilitation.

While most coaches and trainers are well versed in exercises to improve the horse’s skill in a particular discipline, a lot them do not know a lot about biomechanics and proper movement to enable the horse to perform those specialized skills to the best of their ability.

In the wild, horses had to hide any sort of pain or weakness because if it was outwardly displayed, a predator would know that horse would be easier to attack.  Because that has worked so well for horses over the course of evolution, we still see that in domesticated horses of today. The difference is wild horses were just trying to survive and the horses of today are being asked to do incredible athletic feats.

Let’s take a look at the above photo as an example. Looking through photos from shows or endurance rides, how often have you seen horses displaying posture like the second or third photo? A lot of competitive horses are great examples of how horses are excellent compensators and shows how a horse CAN perform the task but not in a bio-mechanically correct way.

A lot of the horse’s posture has to do with core engagement. Just like when you are doing a workout, you’ll often hear the trainer or coach tell you to engage your core before performing the exercise or movement. We need to do the same with our horses when we are working with them.

One of the simplest ways to strengthen your horse’s core is using pole work. Don’t have poles at home? Utilize logs on the trail. While different pole set ups and going over them at different gaits have different purposes,just walking over poles is a great way to start. Try it yourself! Set up random poles in your arena and incorporate them into your workouts.

Keep an eye out in upcoming Ride Like An Athlete emails to see when the new “ Fit Horse” program is going to be released. Similar to the Fit Rider program, Fit Horse will be comprised of exercise videos for your horse with ridden and ground exercises, stretches, pole work layouts and more. If you have any suggestions on what you would like to see, send us an email at ridelikeanathlete@gmail.com and let us know!

-Ashley