Movement Principles

The essence of Hassle Free Exercises for Riders is body movement for people who ride horses. Physical mobility. How your body parts move right now and how to get that mobility to become more efficient and effective with your horse.

First, we center on specific parts of your body. We begin with the body's core - the pelvis, hips, abdominals, obliques, back muscles and spine. From there, we go to the lower body - the hips, legs, feet. Lastly, we include the upper body - the shoulders, neck, arms, hands.

No matter where your particular body focus, your spine, from top to bottom, is connected and involved with all parts of your body, from your skull to your toes. And your spine, from top to bottom, is connected and involved with your horse's spine, from top to bottom, and all parts of his body. (Refresh your memory and re-read the Spine to Spine Connection.)

By doing these exercises on a consistent basis, you will enhance the movement of your body parts. Your mobility will improve. You will increase your balance, stability, strength, endurance and, most importantly, you will increase your awareness of your own body.

I think you will be impressed by the impact these exercises have on your riding. Your body parts will be more available to you. You will be able to put those body parts together and therefore coordinate, initiate and adapt those movements on your horse faster. And you may be able to ease and/or erase whatever pain you might have by "self correcting" your body alignment both before and after you ride.

As you may have guessed by reading and doing the core and lower body exercises already posted, these exercises are based upon specific movement principles. They are...

1. Make sure your spine is evenly balanced.

First and foremost, people need evenly balanced, stabilized spines to move efficiently and without pain. Infants spend months lying flat on their backs to develop and strengthen their spines before they can roll over, sit, crawl and walk. We need to develop and strengthen our spines by lying flat on our backs as well. Only when lying flat on our backs can we find and adjust evenness and balance in our spines. Only when lying flat on our backs can our spines learn the beginnings of stability. And only when lying flat on our backs can we begin to develop strength in our spines. Once we learn to evenly balance, stabilize and strengthen our spines while lying flat on our backs on the floor, then we can balance, stabilize and strengthen while sitting, then standing and then riding.

Give your spine a chance - start by lying flat on your back on an even, level surface (floor, carpet, mat). Bend your knees and put both feet flat on the floor. Make your hands into fists with your thumbs pointing up as though you were hitch hiking. Put the little fingers of your closed fists on the bony tips of your hipbones. You want to "feel" that the bony tips of your hipbones are pointing out straight like headlights through your fists. You also want your hipbones to feel level and even with each other. If your thumbs point up straight and evenly, great.

If not, slowly and subtly guide your hipbones into a straight, headlights out, level position while keeping the little fingers of your closed fists on the bony tips of your hipbones. Once striaght and even, stay there for a minute or two with your fists on your hipbones and thumbs pointing up. Let that feeling of evenness become conscious.

You want to be able to come back to this feeling again and again. You want to know this straight, level feeling in your hipbones like you know your name, like you know how to tie your shoes. This straight, even, level place in between the bony tips of your hipbones is where your pelvis lives. Know that if your pelvis is straight up and down and level side to side, like a "+" sign, your spine is better able to be balanced and level. Remember, the direction of your thumbs indicates the alignment of your pelvis.

Still lying on your back with your knees bent and feet on the floor with the back of your fists on the bony tips of your hipbones, line up your shoulders so they are level with your hipbones. Weight the bony tips of your shoulder blades equally into the floor. Ask someone to see if your shoulders and hips are lined up level with each other the first couple of times you do this. If they are level with each other, great. Get to know this straight, level feeling of having your shoulder blades and hipbones in the same plane. If not, slowly and subtly guide your shoulder blades into a stright, level position with your hipbones. Once in that plane, stay there for a minute or two. again, yuou want to know this feeling, this position of shoulder blade and hipbone alignment like you know your name. You want to be able to adjust your body into this alignment in a blink of an eye.

2. When stabilizing, pull your belly button towards your spine to lock your pelvis.

Repeat what you just did (lying on your back, knees bent, feet on the floor) to make sure your spine is evenly balanced and that your hipbones are aligned with you shoulder blades. Now, pull your belly button towards your spine. Encourage a flat back. not an arched one. Pulling your belly button towards your spine locks your pelvis and low back. That's what you want. A locked pelvis keeps your spine stable.

3. When moving, go for a symmetrical range of motion on both sides of your body.

If one side of your body is stronger than the other side, or if one leg can be lifted higher than the other, stay inside the range of motion of the weaker or lower leg on both sides of the movement. Your stronger leg will "teach" the weaker leg how to move. You weaker leg will "learn" to become more flexible and elastic from the stronger one. Your specific body parts will do this all by themselves.

All you have to do is focus on evenness and balance. You don't have to do anything else. You don't have to force anything. You don't have to try harder on one side or the other. Before you know it, your weaker leg will become just as flexible and efficient in its movement as your stronger leg. When both legs have the same range of motion, go on to increase that range in both legs simultaneously, always allowing the weaker leg to learn from the stronger leg. Pretty soon, you won't have a weaker leg or a weaker side. Pretty soon, both legs/both sides of your body will be equal.

4. Encourage, do not force, your body.

Encouragement is what your body wants. Not force, not stress, not criticism, not bending or rocking back and forth. Make the movement as easy as possible so your body can trust you to help it, not hurt it. Trust is built over time with patience, softness, subtlety, not with strain or force or trying too hard. Celebrate whatever movement your body has and go from there. Encourage is the operative verb here; encouragement is the operative attitude.

5. Core strength comes from doing these exercises in a stable, neutral position.

Strengthening your core, strengthening your trunk, strengthening your abdominal, pelvic, hip, torso, back and shoulder mucles will transfer strength to all sides of the vertebrae on your spine. That strength in your trunk will enable you to do very specific movements, such as riding your horse with efficiency and effectiveness and without pain.

6. Shock absorption is essential.

Riders need sponge-like bodies. The slightest change of balance, rhythm and/or direction caused by your horse tossing his head or uneven terrain can put you in the dirt unless your body can immediately assimilate change. The stronger your joints, the stronger your muscles, the stronger your trunk. This is an additive process. Increasing your muscle strength increases your ability to absorb shock. Increasing your ability to absorb shock increases your body awareness. Increasing your body awareness increases your potential as a rider.

7. Remain in your body.

All of us have various coping skills to deal with our lives. All of us as riders apply those skills to what we do with our horses. In most cases, these coping skills work successfully and we get done what it is we set out to do.

One of our most important coping skills, and the one we most often forget, is the ability to stay in our bodies. There are many reasons such as fear, weakness, injury, ego, etc., that cause us to forget about and not pay attention to our bodies. However, none of those reasons stands up to what we are asking our bodies to do as riders.

We need our bodies to function at an optimal level every time we approach our horse from the ground or in the saddle. Only by being aware of and inside our bodies can we strengthen and stabilize them. Strong, stable bodies enable us to do the activities we choose to do with our horses.

8. Core body awareness breeds core stability and strength.

This is a chicken and egg thing. The more you apply your mind to understand the foundation of your body's core, the more your body's core will strengthen and stabilize. Strength, stability and body awareness are inter-related. The results you achieve by increasing these three elements, core strength, core stability and core body awareness, will translate directly to enhancing your confidence in and your riding skills with your horse.

9. Trust your body.

Trusting your body is just like trusting your horse. You trust your horse to jump a 3'9" fence before you ask him to do it. Otherwise, you wouldn't ask him. That trust in your horse comes from your giving him whatever training time he needs, whatever skill/technique development he needs, and how many countless, specific drill or exercise repetitions he needs to prepare him to successfully do a particular job.

It's the same with your body. You trust your body to do what you're asking it to do because you've given it whatever training time it needs, whatever skill/technique development it needs and how many countless, specific drill or exercise repetitions it needs in order to "get the job done."

It's pretty simple. You are honestly tuned into your horse. You do the necessary work with him. You know by the way he moves, by the way he behaves, by his fitness level, by his ability level that he's ready to do what you're asking him to do. You trust your horse to perform.

Likewise, you are honestly tuned into your body. You do the necessary work with your body. You know by the way your body moves (tight, fluid, etc.), how it reacts (tense, relaxed, etc.), how it feels (hurting, comfortable, etc.) that it's at ease with and ready to do what you're asking it to do. You trust your body to perform.

Be honest. Do the work. Trust.