It's All About Body Awareness

Hassle Free Exercises for Riders is really all about body awareness. The more you know about your body, the more efficiently you can use your body parts correctly. The more correctly you use your body parts, the more quickly you can move them. The more quickly your body parts move, the more effectively you can activate your horse to do what you want to do. The more your horse does what you want to do when you want to do it, the more both you and your horse will trust each other and , by the way, the more fun both of you will have together.

The exercises in Hassle Free Exercises for Riders will help you develop an awareness of your specific body and how your specific body moves. Because 4 year old, 14 year old, 44 year old and 64 year old bodies move differently, the point here is to become aware of how your specific body moves.

The younger we are, the less injured we are, the more we take our bodies for granted. Our bodies simply work and we don't even think about them. Then, all of a sudden, we trip down some stairs and something, if only our pride, hurts.

Most likely, our knee hurts, is irritated or inflamed and swollen from twisting it down the stairs. We don't do anything much more than take an aspirin or apply an ice pack to counteract that hurt or inflammation. We simply take for granted that our knee will get better by itself in its own time.

Then reality sets in. The muscles around the injured knee begin to atrophy due to repetitive strain just by walking around. In a couple of weeks, we may even begin to walk with a stiff leg to "protect" the knee from hurting so much when we move it. Then, we get on our horse. The injured knee and atrophied thigh muscless surrounding the knee can't possibly provide the needed support that riding requires and we fall off our horse. After falling off our horse, the support in our muscle system is even more shut down in our knee, thigh and probably now in our hips, back and shoulders. Obviously, we are at a severe disadvantage when we move at all, let alone when we get back onto our horse to ride.

This whole cycle of limited, if any, body awareness - injury, pain, atrophy, more and more limited use - can spiral downhill quickly. The longer the cycle continues without interruption, the tighter the spiral becomes, the more limited our body movement, the less we ride and the more dangerous our riding becomes.

There is no way to stop accidents and/or injuries from happening. Everyone sprains their ankle, wrenches their neck, bangs their knee in the normal course of living. Everyone who rides a horse ups their ante of accidents and injuries just be being connected with a 1,200 + animal - smashed feet, kicked shins, twisted backs, sprained and/or broken limbs, concussions, whatever else.

Deal with these accidents and injuries by dealing with your body. Learn about your body. how it moves. How it doesn't. Interrupt the downward spiral of little or no body awareness - injury, pain, atrophy, more and more limited use - by relearning or learning for the first time how to move your body correctly, efficiently. The more refined your body movements become, the more refined and informed your body awareness.

Hassle Free Exercises for Riders will help you move your body correctly and efficiently. No matter where you are right now on the fitness scale, from being barely able to do three repetitions of the Pelvic Push to being able to do 30 repetitions of the Side Leg Extension in the Bridge Position, these exercises will help you move your body correctly and efficiently.

Instead of a negative, downward spiral like the one I describe above, consistently moving your body correctly and efficiently will generate an upward cycle of increased body effectiveness and body awareness.

Make these exercises a habit. Do five of them, your choice, every day. They will help you develop greater stability, mobility, strength, endurance, flexibility and quickness in your body movements.

Make these exercises a habit and you will make awareness of your specific body a habit.

Come full circle:

• be able to take your body, whatever your age, for granted by becoming aware of it
• become aware of your body by moving it correctly and efficiently with these exercises
• apply all this imroved and refined body movement and body awareness to your communication with your horse.

You may become amazed with what happens when you ride.