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.