When visiting friends recently, I got a couple chances to ride. Looking at pictures later, I noticed that all my bad habits came along for the ride, too.
Looking down, dropped hands, with legs too far forward.
Looking Down
This bad habit isn’t specific to riding. Part of it is spending too much time hunched over a laptop, part of it is huddling under hoods trying to keep the rain out of my face, and most of it is probably too little core strength.
I do make an effort to sit or stand up straight whenever I notice myself hunching, but then something else grabs my attention and posture quickly gets forgotten.
Feet Ahead of Vertical
My feet aren’t directly underneath me – they’re ahead of the straight line that should be created from shoulder to hips to heels. This means I can’t put the proper amount of weight in my heals without being pushed back in the saddle. Instead I have more weight in my seat than I should.
The extra weight in my seat makes it is harder for the pony to lift her back and step underneath herself like she should. This is part of the reason she is walking slightly inverted in this picture. (She’s also still developing the muscles needed to carry herself properly with a rider).
Dropped Hands
The straight line that should exist from bit to elbows is very obviously broken by me carrying my hands in my lap.
This explains why I was constantly adjusting my reigns. With my hands so low, there is little room to give and take. I’d lost the range of motion normally afforded by my shoulders, and so had to slip the reigns to adjust to her changing balance or stretching into the bit.
Of course whenever she raised her head again (as she’d just done before the picture) the reigns ended up loose and I lost my feel of her mouth until I shortened them again.
Posture Reset Exercise
I was hoping that exercising off the horse would have improved these bad habits, but obviously that wasn’t the case. Thinking about it now, that makes perfect sense… I spent years practicing these bad habits, so they are what feels natural.
Thinking about posture reminded me of an exercise we used to do in ballroom dancing. We’d start the class with an exercise designed to give us a feel for proper posture. Standing back against a wall, with our heads, shoulders, and heels touching we would get into the correct dancing posture. Later in the class, while away from the wall, we could recall that feeling to correct our posture.
To improve my riding, I need to spend time practicing correct riding posture. So I thought I’d try a riding version of the wall exercise.
Place two low blocks (I used hardcover books) half a foot from the wall at slightly larger than hip distance apart. With toes on the blocks and head, shoulder and heels against the wall, lower into a comfortable squat. Without raising your hips, imagine a thread from the top of your head pulling you straight up. This will help get the right head posture.
Hang out for as long as is comfortable.
Core Exercises
Mastering the correct posture is only useful if I have the strength to retain it. Most of my core workout was coming from yoga, but I had to modify my practice when I injured my shoulder. I was accustomed to doing poses like plank and bridge for my core, but my shoulder still isn’t standing up to those.
But there are a lot of other yoga poses that target the core and don’t put too much weight on the shoulders. From now on I’m planning to add these poses into my modified practice:
- Cat and Cow Poses – These are great for a gentle warmup, and don’t seem to stress my shoulder.
- Dandasana – Sitting up straight is harder than it looks…
- Salambhasana (Locust Pose)
- Paripurna Navasana (Boat Pose) – it’s easy to feel the core workout while doing this one.
- Malasana (Squatting)
An interesting post. It’s always good to learn from our own mistakes, even better when we can share the lessons learned, and still better when there’s a way to improve that helps others. Time to incorporate a few more core exercises (boat and squatting) into my routine – and I’ll continue to dream of riding again!
It’s amazing how quickly core exercises can slip out of the routine, huh?
I guess what this whole experience really highlighted to me was the importance of practicing correctly. Of course I’ve heard and understood the saying “perfect practice makes perfect,” but I guess I hadn’t internalized it yet.
I suspect that my version of the saying is “perfect practice makes better”, with perfect being the goal rather than the attainment! If perfection is not always just slightly out of reach, what is there to work toward? Waxing unduly philosopnical, there is also the question of maintaining perfection, once achieved.