Strength exercises

An former student of mine contacted me today. She teaches a local pony club group and was asking about what to do with a student:

Hey there Hugh,

I've got a student that I'm hoping you might be able to help me with. I know that you are the king of exercises and having a trick or a training tool for just about everything that could be wrong about a horse or rider. I have a student who was allowed to have bad habits in riding for a long time before I started teaching her and was always put on bold horses who would just go no matter what her position was. The kid is bold and will jump anything, but her position over fences is lacking a great deal. She tends to really lose her core leading up to the fence and over fences. She tends to lean forward, which, in turn, makes some of the horses she rides stop. I took her off a couple of bold horses she used to ride and put her on horses like Slasher and Jubal, who won't put up with the bad position over jumps and will just stop at the fences instead of taking her over and letting her bad position slide.

Basically, my next step was to take her stirrups away and stick her on a lunge line to try to develop her core and her seat. What would you suggest?

Thanks,
Kelley


While replying to her question I decided to write down my favorite strength building exercises. I have learned these over the years, starting when I was about eight years old and riding with Jack Burton in El Paso.

Exercises:

Some of these exercises can be done on the longe line or with the reins tied in a knot and the horse ridden with no reins.

THE LONGE LINE is great for teaching riders to sit. They can hold the front of the saddle with the outside hand and the back of the saddle with the inside hand.

RIDE W/O STIRRUPS -- heels down, toes up, legs on horse and feet parallel. (Some dressage riders will tell you it is OK let the toes point down, but this does not work for jumping. I learned this from Kathy Kusner -- if it was good enough for her, it is good enough for me!) There is a good reason for keeping your heels down, toes up and feet parallel. A strong rider CLOSES their leg on the horse -- the thigh, calf and heel close together without re-positioning the leg. This requires strong abductor muscles, which you rarely use while running, playing basketball and tennis, etc. When a rider squeezes the horse by raising the heels the rider is using the wrong set of muscles. This de-stablises the rider's position and is ineffective as an aid.

RIDE IN A TWO POINT POSITION -- learn to hold the two point at all gaits. Later hold the two point through transitions. Walk-trot-walk. Canter-trot-canter. Trot-halt-trot. Rider learns to regulate the hip, ankle, knee and elbow angles. Remember that the inside leg stays a little forward of the outside leg. This gives the rider a more stable base -- kind of like a boxer's stance.

FOUR COUNT CALISTHENIC TYPE EXERCISES (done on longe or free with reins tied up.)

These are four count exercises -- the instructor counts out the rhythm:
1) With both hands, touch poll and then touch tail, alternating left and right when reaching for the tail. Ears, up, tail, up.
2) With both hands, touch toes and then touch back of head to croup (put one finger through end of reins when you do this the first time.) Toes, up, lean back, up.
3) Touch right hand to left toe and left hand to right toe -- keep other hand behind back.Keep leg still in position while doing these - do not allow leg to move at all.) Right toe, up, left toe, up.

When doing the above three exercises, make sure that the lower calf does not move out of place (it will want to move!) Make the second effort to lower the heel when you reach down and forward. This move is what keeps you on when jumping a big jump!

4) Lift right knee op until the thigh is horizontal and snap it down into place (heel down, to up, foot parallel, calf on horse.) Repeat with left leg, then lift both legs at the same time. Keep upper body still while raising legs -- like doing crunches, this develops core strength.

These are all in George Morris' book, Hunter Seat Equitation. He has a great photo of Anna Jane White touching her toes on the longe at the trot.

POST THE TROT WITHOUT STIRRUPS. Drop stirrups while posting and then pick them up again while posting. You can also alternate dropping one stirrup at a time. When the rider gets strong enough, do two-point without stirrups.

POSTING TROT WITH REINS HELD IN THE OUTSIDE HAND WHILE HOLDING INSIDE HAND BEHIND THE BACK. Very good for firming up the core.

ARM EXERCISES -- When not on the longe line, the rider should establish a controlled slow trot w/o stirrups. When under control, put both reins in outside hand and do the arm exercise with the inside hand and hold the inside arm straight out at eye level. Move the arm back and forth slowly and smoothly from the horse's ears to his tail. Also, move the arm around in a circle parallel to the horse like the arm of a clock. Rider keeps eye focused on hand -- do NOT look where you are going! Your peripheral vision will see what needs to be seen. Also hold both arms out to the side and rotate both directions. This should be done going both directions. This is a very important exercise for teaching a rider to sit without bouncing. When they focus their eyes on the hand and move the arm, the natural balanced seat seem to take over on its own.

OPEN AND CLOSE THE HIP ANGLE FROM A TWO POINT POSITION. From a two point position, stand straight up in stirrups and open hip angle until your crotch is in front of pommel -- almost like doing a back bend. Hold this position for several strides and then return to a normal 2 point position without losing your balance and plopping back into the saddle. Rider learns to regulate their hip angle -- the hips move forward and back, but the head and shoulders do not move. Later rider can sink from two point position into a light seat (no plopping sown on horses back!) Do this at walk, trot and canter -- on or off the longe. Rider can hold mane with one hand at first.

FIVE BEATS OF POSTING AND FIVE BEATS OF TWO POINT/HALF SEAT. While working at even trot -- ride in a two point position for five strides and then post for the same number of strides. Continue to alternate between posting and two point position while keeping the number of strides consistent. Rider should count the posting rhythm, visualise posting while in the two point position and try to resume posting on the correct diagonal. This will develop a "feel" for the correct diagonal without having to look down

Later on, the rider can expand on this exercise and move between:
posting trot
two point position,
sink into a to light half seat (weight mostly on crotch and thighs) and
then into deeper seat (vertical upper body with weight distributed on thighs, the crotch and two seatbones)
back to half seat
finally back to posting trot.

All this is done while keeping horse in consistent speed and rhythm. The trot should not change at all as rider goes from position to position. This requires a lot of core strength and body awareness. The rider has to develop body control. They learn to brace the core muscles/back in the two point and learn to relax the lower back muscles while sinking into the half and deep seats.. They will get stronger when they start to use the muscles required to get the job done. As the rider masters this, the horse will start to go on the bit in a natural, correct way.

GYMNASTIC JUMPING WITHOUT REINS OR STIRRUPS. It is wise to have riders first ride through the exercise with reins and stirrups, just to get the horses going correctly. Jumps can be added to the grid as the exercise continues. While jumping through the grid, do exercises with hands/arms (hold arms out to the side like an airplane and rotate them back and forth. Climb the rope, do the hand jive, reel the fishing rod, make antlers like bullwinkle the moose, etc.) I saw George Morris demonstrate this once -- he took out his wallet and flipped through his credit cards while jumping through the gymnastic!

DROP STIRRUPS IN THE TURNS. Have the rider jump one jump in a course and drop stirrups as the horse canters away from the jump. Have them canter a circle without stirrups and then pick up stirrups while horse is still cantering. Proceed to next jump and repeat exercise.

LONGEING RIDERS OVER FENCES. This takes the right horse and good longeing skills. Learn to longe unmounted horses over all kinds of fences before trying this with a student. Long side reins sometimes can be used and I like to use a longeing caveson. It is VERY important to have the horse longeing properly so you do not scare the hell out of your student! You can do this with or without stirrups, and the rider can hold on to a neck strap at first. Start with poles on the ground (4'6" for trotting, 9'-11' for cantering) and work up to a single crossrail, a double crossrail and a small pxer. Small bounces set at 9 to 11 feet are good too. This exercise is great for riders who hold the horse back from the fence. The horse goes one way or the other! It can also have an amazing effect on a rider's ability to see a distance, ride forward and wait for the horse to "jump up to the rider." It can get a horse and rider working together.


Wilhelm Meusler (Riding Logic, 1939) says that the rider first learns to FOLLOW the motion of the horse. Then he learns to FEEL. Finally, he will learn to INFLUENCE.

Rythm, suppleness and contact

It was way back, sometime in the seventies and I was watching a riding clinic at Bud Heatley's place in El Paso. Jeffray Ryding was warming up a group of young girls mounted on a hodgepodge of quarter horses, Arab crosses, ponies and ex racehorses.

"We are warming up to jump today, but none of your horses are trotting consistent," said Jeffray in her soft Alabama accent. "You all need to get these horses trotting consistent."

She told them to post the trot for five posts and then sink into a half seat for five posts.. She kept them doing this - five beats posting and five beats in a half seat - for quite awhile, talking to them and correcting their position and their rhythm. "Your horse should not slow down when you post and he should not speed up when you half-seat. The trot needs to be consistent"

After awhile the horses had all started moving pretty well, The riders were focused and horses were calming own, chewing and stretching on to the bit. She started them trotting through four cavelletti and changing directions, all the while posting for five posts and half-seating for five posts and maintaining a "consistent trot."

After awhile she introduced a cross rail, telling them, "Keep posting for five posts and doing the half-seat for five posts. When you approach the cavelletti or the crossrail, just keep on doing what you are doing." When they landed from the crossrail, they would canter around the turn and bring the horses back to the "consistent trot" and resume the exercise.

It did not take very long before the group was ready to jump. The riders were calm and focused and their heels were down, their eyes were up and their positions were correct. The horses, large and small, were happy, supple and relaxed. They were all trotting in an even, "consistent" rhythm. They were going softly on the bit.

Jeffray had ridden with the Hungarian Cavalry officer, Bela Bettykay. The horses she and her students rode all seemed to work in a soft, balanced manner of a horse that was carrying itself and not interfered with by its rider.

This session make an impression on me. As I proceeded on in my career and in my education, I saw Jeffray's approach to warming up in a number of places.

Another Hungarian officer named Bert Denemethy later released a series of videos displaying the same approach -- slow patient work at the trot and canter. Bert's voice was in the background, correcting the riders, setting the tempo and the cadence. There was no razzel dazzle in these sessions -- just even "consistent" work at all gaits. Bert must have had a very calming effect on the sensitive thoroughbreds with which he had so much international success. Those tapes were so calming I remember, after a long day at the barn, struggling to stay awake while watching them!

Over the years I rode in clinics with a number of Denemethy's students. Their approach to flat work was similar. Anyone who has watched a George Morris clinic is familiar with the even, methodical tempo that he sets in his flat sessions.

I remember meeting George for the first time when he came to do a clinic in Virginia in the seventies. I was standing around when he arrived at the host's house. I was available to carry George's suitcase up the steps and into the house. That suitcase must have weighed about a hundred pounds. George watched me struggle with it and said, "Books. It's full of books about riding."

I figured George must have read these books at night to get ideas for his clinics. I later got into the habit of reading books on training to get ideas about how to proceed with different horses and riders. I have a lot of books now.

Several years ago I got the Principles of Riding, the manual of the German National Equestrian Federation. While my father and early instructors had been more influenced by the "French School," I found the German manual to be very helpful. It is simple, clear and systematic. I was particularly drawn to the "Training Scale," which I find useful in my day to day training -- determining "where you are" with a horse's training and deciding where you need to go next.

The training scale goes like this:

Rhythm
Suppleness
Contact
Impulsion (schwung)
Straightness (alignment)
Collection

The first three lections -- rhythm, suppleness and contact -- are where I spend much of my time while working with young, green horses. This is the phase where the horse gets used to carrying the weight of the rider and begins to develop his "propulsive force." At this stage, the horse works with his head low, a little on the forehand so that his hindquarters are unburdened and able to swing freely. The horse becomes comfortable under the weight of the rider. As he becomes stronger, he will flex laterally, bend in the body and gradually seek a contact with the bit. As the horse settles down and his strength develops, the rider can begin to sink softly into the thighs and the front of the saddle -- the half-seat. The Principles of Training says that an indication of suppleness is "A rhythmically swinging back (rider able to sit.) P162

This is what Jeffray had meant when she told her riders that their horses had to trot "consistent." When the horses move in a consistent rhythm, their muscles can relax and their back will begin to swing. This is the foundation that all training is built upon. Once the rhythm is lost, the rider needs to take a step back, take a breath and re-establish it.

My childhood coach, Col Frierson had told me, "First comes cadence, then comes collection and then comes elevation." He was talking about the same process -- the horse trotting in a calm, consistent cadence and stretching into the contact with the bit. As the horse's connection with the bit and the rider's hands and arms becomes more consistent, then the rider can, as Col Frierson used to say, "Take a frank feel of his mouth" and use his legs to develop impulsion. When this is possible the horse can be straightened and rocked back on his hocks.

Fast forward about thirty years to the 2009 Pickwick Grand Prix. I had entered on my young mare, thinking it would be a "soft" 1.4M class. Having just walked the course, I was having doubts. There were about fifty entries and it looked a lot like 1.45 or 1.5 meters to me! It had been years since I had ridden a course this big. Every line was a half-off distance and the oxers seemed a wide as pickup trucks. The last line came away from the end gate -- a short approach to a narrow vertical and a dead-on three strides to an oxer - oxer -vertical combination.

As I warmed up, I knew that I was going to need impulsion and I was going to have to come forward into the last line if we were ever going to get out of the triple over those oxers. The danger was that I would get too aggressive and run the little mare off her feet and scare the hell out of her. My plan was to start out energetic and bouncy and come forward to the jumps a bit, but to add the stride in the early lines (they were half off, so you had to be definite -- go or steady. I figured we would take the forward options in the last third of the course.

I had hacked the mare in the morning, so she was about half warmed up. As I began to trot I went into my default warm up -- five strides posting and five strides in a half seat. Forward for five posts and then sink in and package for five steps in the half seat without letting her slow down. It took a bit of seat and leg, even though she sensed the excitement and was animated -- in a good way. Her back was swinging and she rounded up into firm, elastic contact with the bit. I could feel her back coming up underneath me when I put my legs on her.

We jumped a couple of smaller oxers and I kept her together in a pretty tight package, holding her close to the base. As they got bigger, I could free her up and let her come forward through the turn and she would back up to the deep hole and jump the oxers big and round. We finished with a forward ride to tall vertical. She curled up over it as tidy as a cat.

We started the course with a fabulous first oxer across the middle of the ring. We added strides up the first line and had an early rail as I got her back a tad late in the tight four stride to a big square oxer. It did not phase her -- he was jumping confidently. Toward the middle of the course I began to let her gallop into the forward options. I wanted her "thinking forward" when I came into that last line. The next to last line was a tall vertical set close to the far end of the ring and a very forward five to the open water, which she got to easy. Landing from the water was a six or seven stride bending line to another tall vertical. I chose the forward option but went to direct and we got too deep and had the rail. Rode it too hard -- Danm!. Should have steadied and bowed the line but I was not thinking backward at this point!

As we made the roll back turn into the last line I looked early and kept galloping to the narrow vertical. We hit it perfect and she carried on confidently through the triple. I think my adrenaline got us over the wide oxers, but cost us our third rail at the last vertical. Too bad! We got around with three rails in a good time. There were only a couple clean and a couple with four faults. Eight faults would have put us into forth place!

Still, I was on cloud nine over the way my little mare jumped around that big course. That is a feeling that money can't buy.

My thanks to Jeffray and the Old Hungarian cavalry officers for putting us on the right track!

Nothing aside from the dearest human relationships can give the pleasure found in working and playing with a horse. That magnificent, powerful, yet dependent creature so willingly gives so much that surely it behooves his master to study thoroughly all things which may help in understanding his mute and faithful sevant. An American cavalry general once remarked: "Association with the horse is enobling." It is hoped that what follows may assist in making more pleasant that noble association between the reader and his horse.

Gen. Harry D Chamberlin, Preface to Training Hunters Jumpers and Hacks