THERE’S possibly something that you’ve been missing when it comes to your riding. That something is having a strength and conditioning element to your training.

We see strength and conditioning utilised in nearly every other sport, from team sports like football to individual sports like golf. It’s not just the professionals that are doing strength and conditioning programmes either, you will see many athletes start to supplement this type of training into their wider training programmes as young as 12. So why are equestrians not doing the same?

Equestrians seem to focus all their efforts on improving the health and fitness of their horses and neglect themselves. They forget that they are part of a team. In what other team sports will you see one player getting all the focus while another is completely ignored? It just doesn’t happen.

So why do we do this type of training? Surely if you want to improve your riding you should just ride more?

Muscle imbalances

There is only so much you can do while in the saddle. Old injuries (and we have a lot of them) or muscle imbalances are very hard to fix when you don’t do specific movements to target them.

More benefits of strength and conditioning training include improved stamina, better muscle tone and function, and injury prevention. These benefits can translate into you feeling more confident, and, when you feel more confident you will sit up and ride forward, instead of collapsing, or getting frustrated when your horse doesn’t listen to you, or spooks at something.

Strength and conditioning will also benefit your horse. Your horse will be able to understand clear commands, this will make them, in turn, feel more confident when in situations that are new to them. We all know they can sense when we are tense or scared - when we are confident we are relaxed and because of this, they will be more relaxed.

Massive difference

Equestrians like to operate on the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mindset, but innovation is needed to bring the sport forward. This is something that is very simple to bring in as part of your training as a horse rider. You don’t need to spend hours and hours each week on this type of training. Horsey people are tight on time as it is, without adding something that will take away time with your horse. Two to three 45-minute sessions can make a massive difference to your riding.

You don’t even need expensive gym memberships and lots of equipment in order to do this training. You can use some of your tack as weights (anyone who has had to carry a saddle for a long period of time will agree...they ain’t light!).

All you really need to have is a clear goal – do you want to improve your position, feel less out of breath over a cross-country course or maybe just be more confident when you ride your horse in new places?

The right plan – what exercises you need to achieve this?

When you have those things figured out, you can start working towards being the best rider possible, not just for you, but also for your horse.

If you would like more information or advice from Chrissy about improving your rider fitness go to: www.chrissyhawkins.com/stable

Plank

Improves core strength, can be done anywhere as no equipment needed, helps improve balance.

Squat

Improve leg strength, similar movement to rising trot, no equipment needed but if you want you can hold weights/haybales/buckets of feed or water to make it harder.