Rider Movement Journey

All About the Base
A Mini Guide to Fixing your Feet

Crooked toes, curly toes, bunions, low arches, high arches, plantar fasciitis, heel pain. Orthotics and ugly shoes. Feet that face away from the body, feet t   hat face towards the body, or one of each.

Sound familiar?

Whatever shape your feet are in, the chances are you don’t give them much thought as you walk, run and stand through your day. You put them into riding boots, walking boots, flip flops, slippers, socks, high heels, no heels, trainers, etc . For a large part of the time the body seemingly ‘get’s away’ with this smorgasbord of foot abuse and you don’t experience pain or noticeable discomfort. It may even come as a surprise when your shoes start rubbing where they didn’t used to, or that you just can’t cope in heels as you once did; high heel hangover anybody?
But what happens when you do experience foot pain? What do you do then? And how can you avoid the pain in the first place?
This mini guide introduces you to some important facts about your feet and steps you can take to get them healthier and more comfortable.

Fun Foot Facts

• Your feet are attached to your body. Hard to believe, but true nonetheless.
• They are made up of 26 bones, 33 joints and over 100 soft tissues
• All of these joints and soft tissues require movement to stay healthy
• Your feet are designed to be as dexterous as your hands
• Your toes should be able to move separate to your foot
• Your toes should be able to move separate from each other
• There is no part of your foot that is shaped like an arch; muscular activity (or lack of), stiffness and immobility has created the shape of your feet as they are today. Having an arch is similar to using the muscles of your forehead to raise your eyebrows.
• You should walk with the heel striking first, then the whole foot comes flat to the ground, then the heel is lifted off and lastly the front of the foot leaves the floor.
• Stiff feet mean stiff ankles, tight calves, sore knees, tight thigh muscles, poor hip mobility, pelvic tilt, bad back, poor upper body posture, tight neck and headaches.

Phew. Let’s look at how you can make your feet feel better.

The Toe Separating Socks
Modern living means that we cast our feet inside shoes from a very young age and that is where they stay.

There is no doubt that we require protective footwear, but by doing so we make it almost impossible for our feet to move and strengthen. Quite often modern, fashionable footwear has a narrow space for the toes and when you cram your feet into them for days, months or years, your toes can start to creep towards each other. The most obvious would be when the big toe starts looking at the pinky and that is when a bunion can begin.
To help offset some of this casting and cramming, wearing extraordinarily fashionable toe separation socks (as pictured below) can help to stretch the muscles between the toes, helping to restore the correct width and take the pressure off the site of a bunion.

FYI, these lovely dainty feet are not mine, many thanks to our foot model Gabriela Lerner 🙂

Sole Love
Whether you have flat or high, stiff arches the likelihood is the muscles in this area are in need of some attention. An easy way of helping them out is to roll a tennis ball (or golf ball if they are not too sore) around the bottom of your foot, paying particular attention to your ‘arch’.
Or you can think about getting your feet exposed to some different textures. We live in a very safe, flat and smooth environment so we rarely expose the muscles to new stimulus which makes them weak and stiff.
I use these textured pods to stand on, they make the feet feel great!

Toe Workouts
Remember I said your toes should work both independently from your feet and from each other? Well this is your toe workout; something that isn’t really on your normal gym routine but one that will help with any current foot pain and to prevent any from occurring.

Standing with your pelvis stacked over your heels try to lift your toes without your foot coming off the floor.
Next, try to lift each toe on it’s own. Don’t panic if you can’t get them to work at first, keep trying and over time you will strengthen the muscles and the nerve communications to the point where you have toes that do as they are told!

A Note on Orthotics
Orthotics help to put your foot into a place where the loads will be distributed differently, ie taking the pressure off the current pain points. This can mean that immediate pain relief is experienced.
From a functional point of view, orthotics behave in a ‘casting’ way that is similar to shoes. They remove the foot’s ability to adjust according to reflex meaning that they do not allow the nerves, muscles and joints to strengthen. If you have been prescribed orthotics, I’m not telling you to throw them out, but take some time to do these foot exercises and you will help to keep your feet a functioning part of your body.

Foot wear
Try to have a place in the home that you can start walking bare foot whenever you can. You can then progress to walking outside in the garden. This will get all the small intrinsic muscles of your foot working and begin to strengthen them.
Stacking up the body weight is really important to the health of your feet. Your heel bone is the most suited to carrying the bulk of your weight, so get the pelvis and hips back over the heels. An important note here is when you wearing heels, of any height, it is impossible to get your pelvis and hips back over your heels. You immediately pitch over the front of your feet, reducing movement and therefore function of the entire foot, not to mention the pelvic tilt that positive heeled shoes create.
Try to make sure there is enough space for your toes; a wider shoe is always better.

Summary
It is so easy to neglect and trivialize the importance of the feet, but they really do have an impact on the rest of the body. The influence of this for riding may not be immediately obvious, but remember as ‘Dem Bones’ tells us so well:

“Toe bone connected to the foot bone
Foot bone connected to the leg bone
Leg bone connected to the knee bone…”

Help the feet and it will help everything else 🙂

I feel like I have spoken a lot about the perils of casting your hips into a seated and chair supported position, so I am not going to preach to you again in quite the same way..
Instead, I am going to talk to you about the relationship between the hip and the thigh, why it is important to separate the two for riding and what you can do about your own sticky spots.

Thighs and Hips; A close relationship
It is very rare that any of us are in a position during the day where we move the thigh in a position that isn’t vertical to the ground and either in front of, or behind the hip joint (forwards and backwards). Very rarely do we have to take the thigh wider than the hips (other than when we ride, hello cramp) and when we are not moving, we cast the thigh into a 90 degree angle with the hip (sitting). What this adds up to is hips that don’t use a fraction of their potential actions and thighs that are only useful in limited positions.

Struggling to Keep your legs still?
Moving your legs in a minimal and repetitive way on the ground leaves the inner thigh very weak, tight and stiff. Add to that your hips that are not moving in their full range of movement and they too become weak, tight and stiff.
With the thigh and hip so stuck together, it is very difficult to separate the movements of the legs with that of the pelvis. Having your legs follow your pelvis in rising trot (and sitting trot) can be a struggle for so many riders and if that’s you, the chances are your thighs and hips need some distance in their relationship.

Try these simple exercises to help:

1. The aim of these exercises is to move the thigh in a different plane than your pelvis, so the ideal is to keep the pelvis still. If your hips are too tight to keep the pelvis on the floor, don’t panic. Bring your leg as high as you can whilst feeling a stretch; don’t force anything.

On your front, keeping the pelvis level on the floor, bend one knee and slide it up the floor. You are aiming to get it out to the side about hip height. Hold here and feel the stretch for about a minute each side.

2. Same principles as above but now with your leg straight and toe pointing up towards your head. Slide your foot along the floor and get your leg as high as you can without your pelvis lifting or you shoving one hip into your ribcage. you want to think about keeping the space between your ribs and pelvis even on both sides.

These movements are designed to enable the hips, thighs and pelvis to work seperately from each other, which is crucial to having a still, effective and strong seat in the saddle.
If you have been suffering with tightness in any of these areas, these exercises will help you get the leg position you are after, not to mention keeping the hips healthy for a much longer time.

Try doing these twice a day.

It seems motivation is a deeper subject than just wanting to be better for the horse, or for wanting more red ribbons or _______(fill in the blank). It appears that what motivates us to stick to a healthy habit or to change our habits stems from our core character tendency.

The information and research that I stumbled upon conducted by Gretchen Rubin, highlights that there are 4 personality tendencies that dictate how we respond to expectations; those that we put on ourselves, and those that are put upon us from an external source.
The way in which you respond to these expectations will play a massive role in figuring out what motivates you to make changes, take action and stick to something you know is good for you.

The 4 tendencies are:

1. The Obliger

‘I do what I have to do. I don’t want to let others down, but I may let myself down’

This tendency is by far the most common. It describes the people who respond incredibly well to external expectations, always meeting other peoples demands and requests and going the extra mile for other people.
Obligers have a very difficult time fulfilling expectations they have for themselves, if no-one else knows about it.
They need an accountability partner or someone they will let down if they don’t follow through.

2. The Upholder

“I do what others expect of me and what I expect of myself’

This tendency doesn’t struggle to fulfil expectations given to them or given by themselves. They are equally committed to following through on any expectation, regardless of where it came from. They are generally very observant of rules and they will work whenever it is needed to get a job done.

3. The Questioner

‘I do what I think is best, according to my judgement’

This tendency requires that a massive amount of information be collected before any expectation can be met. If the data shows that it makes sense to complete the expectation, then it will be done. There needs to be sound reason, logic and research to allow the questioner to move forward with a task.

4. The Rebel

‘I do what I want in my own way. If you try to make me do something, I am less likely to do it’

By far the smallest group, the rebel resists any expectations whether they have been imposed by others, or themselves. They live to be free from direction and rules and will do what they want, when they want. If an expectation fulfils some of their criteria of clarity on how it will make them feel, if it will allow them to be true to themselves, or if it sets them apart from other people they will be motivated.

I am sharing this with you because I find it fascinating and believe that there is a real potential to utilize this information in the way riders are taught, and for you as riders how you receive and filter information.
If you understand your triggers for motivation to complete a task or to form a new habit, you may well be able to guide the person giving you information to deliver it in a way that will set an expectation you will uphold.
Interestingly (to me!) I came out as a Rebel, which now brings a lot of sense to my behavior over the years (!) and it explains why I always felt at odds when I would ignore the rebel voice.
I would really love it if you would complete the survey and let me know what your strongest tendency is (if you have any interest) as then it might help to guide my delivery of content to you.
And it may just give you some clarity on why some instructors might work for you and others don’t, or why you didn’t keep that resolution or why you don’t do the thing you know you should!

If you want to know more and take the quiz to find out which is your dominant tendency, hit the link below:
http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2015/01/ta-da-the-launch-of-my-quiz-on-the-four-tendencies-learn-about-yourself/

I have worked with a few people who can demonstrate some seemingly impressive feats of mobility. Coming from a body which feels bound by muscular constriction, I used to be a little envious of this effortless ability to move in all directions. That was until I realized the truth of what is really happening in a body that is hypermobile.
If you are not hypermobile, this still applies to you as incorrect loading techniques can lead to ligament laxity. Read on to find out how to save your joints, and your muscles!

In the person who is hypermobile, their joints find it very easy to move through a full range of movement, and beyond what is considered ‘normal’. This means they can often hyperextend a joint, they may be prone to twisted ankles (for example) and may have been dubbed ‘double-jointed’ (which of course we all know is a false and misleading statement but I won’t dwell on it).
What has happened in the body that allows the joints too much freedom to move is that the ligaments which are meant to be the seat belt for the joint have become lax. This could be something you were born with, or it can happen through poor loading of the joints.

A hypermobile joint is not supported by it’s ligaments and it does all the moving for the body as opposed to all the movement occurring via muscular stretch and contraction. This means that the muscles stay extremely tight. The muscles are designed to be the stopping force for the joints; the brakes if you like, so that you don’t have to apply undue load to your ligaments. Problems occur when our habitual movement patterns don’t allow the muscles to strengthen,  the ligaments are forced to take the strain of ‘braking’ and they become more and more lax.

Stretching
Hypermobility means that when a stretch is applied to try and effect a tight muscle, no stretch is felt as the bones of the joint can rearrange themselves to bypass the muscles. The geometry of the joint alters, which is what happens in everyday tasks as well.

As an example, lets take a look at shoulder stability whilst carrying water buckets.

Carrying anything heavy can stress the ligaments of the shoulder joint if we are not shown how to adjust the positioning of our arm to ensure we are not just loading our ligaments, making them lax and pulling the joint into a position where it is going to cause us problems later on in life.
Carrying water buckets can be a massive strain on the ligaments of the shoulder joint; anything heavy at the end of your arms has the potential to load the ligaments and pull the head of the humerus slightly away from the socket. This is how we will all tend to carry heavy items. It is the same if you are carrying a baby on your arm or carrying a heavy armful of logs etc. We all tend to load the ligaments, forcing them under too much stress so that over time and repetitive loading they become lax.
The shoulder joint experiences forces that pull it away from its natural place ie you change the geometry of the bones, and although you probably won’t fully sublux/dislocate it in the moment, give it ten years and you will wonder why you can’t get your arm above your head or feel like you have any strength in your arm. It’s because with repetitive, incorrect loading and ‘stretching’ of the ligaments, you have taken your shoulder joint into a slight subluxation.

Carrying Technique
So, how should you carry your water buckets I hear you ask. Well, there is a way of ensuring that you start loading your muscles rather than your joints.
If you carry buckets and feel as though your arms are getting longer, that is a sure sign that you are stretching your ligaments. What you need to do is feel like you are lifting the upper arm up into the shoulder joint. It is not a lifting of the shoulders themselves, but more a subtle move of the upper arm towards the joint. Your shoulders should not get any closer to your ears!

Learning how to maintain the integrity of your joints throughout all the daily moves that we do needs to be a mindful practice for everyone, not just those who are already hypermobile. By being aware of where your bones are sitting you can start to load the muscles correctly and prevent any further laxity of your ligaments.
 

If you were to get comfy over a coffee and have a heart to heart with any rider, the chances are there is something about their position or their effectiveness in the saddle that they have to work on each time they ride. It might be that their hands move too much, or their elbows poke out. Maybe they can’t keep their toes pointing straight ahead, or maybe they lose their stirrup(s). For some riders, turning right or left is more challenging and sitting straight requires a herculean effort. Some riders you will see having a really hard time keeping their leg underneath their hips.  The point is, every rider has their own challenges. The aim of this month’s article is to give you a few tips on a couple of often seen problems with riders’ arms and legs and where they might be stemming from, so that you can address the area that might be the most to blame.

Of course, there are a multitude of reasons that may be causing a positional issue, and far too many to cover here, so this month we take a look at contact and leg position.

Inconsistent Contact

The aim of any rider should be to have a seat that is independent not only within itself (ie having arms and legs that move independently from the seat) but to also have a position that can maintain its integrity regardless of what the horse is doing underneath. Being able to hold your position until your horse gives you a great feeling is really the ultimate challenge.

In order for anything to be independent, there needs to be an anchoring element. For the arms and hands to be independent of the rest of the body (and of the horses antics) the shoulder girdle needs to be anchored.

When a riders’ hands and arms move too much and are unable to hold the reins straight or to maintain a steady and consistent contact with the horses mouth; regardless of whether the horse is ‘in the contact’ yet, is a sign that the stability of the shoulder girdle has failed.

The shoulder girdle should be considered as your scapulae (shoulder blades), shoulder joint and all the associated musculature of this area. When you see someone holding good posture, their appearance is one of being very tall and upright with an open chest. In this position, the scapulae have been drawn together and the muscles across the back hold them together and downwards. From here, the arms can be independent from the torso, allowing the shoulder joint full range of movement, as the shoulder blades have been ‘anchored’. This allows for positive tension to be held at the back of the body, whilst maintaining full range of movement with the arms to hold an elastic contact. That means your arms and hands stay on the same trajectory as your horse’s mouth; staying proactive rather than reactive to any inconsistencies.

The secret to gaining the ability to anchor the shoulder girdle is a) adopt neutral spine (actively bringing the shoulder blades together and downwards) and b) strengthening the short, deep muscles of the shoulder girdle through targeted exercises.

Exercise 1: This is not a complicated exercise at all, as it is very specific in the muscles that it targets. Take a yoga block (or a rolled up towel) underneath your elbow and with your arm in a riding position, slowly externally rotate your forearm. Return to your starting point and repeat 10 times with each arm. The point of this is that it is a small movement so that it targets the muscles that often get overlooked by the big, bulkier muscles that take over when the shoulders are not in alignment.

This exercise turns on the deep stabilizing muscles of the scapulae and increases the mobility of the shoulder joint. It is a winner in terms of helping to create the ability to have a more stable and consistent contact.

Be sure to keep the scapula drawn downwards as you complete this move.

TOP TIP* To help maintain your shoulder and arm positioning on horse, imagine you are pressing downwards on somebodys hand with your elbows. This activates the lats which are a strong shoulder and upper arm stabiliser.

Legs that just don’t behave

When it comes to leg positioning, riders can suffer a whole host of difficulties. Perhaps the most common is having the leg too far forward in the saddle, with a closed knee and hip which pushes the rider’s seat to the back of the saddle and immediately out of balance with the horse.

The fundamental aim of any rider should be to stay over the horses’ centre of gravity, which is situated just behind the withers. In this position, the horse is able to move in balance without being conflicted by trying to balance a rider in the wrong place.

A rider that is forced behind the centre of gravity by an incorrect leg position will negatively affect stride length, speed, contact, balance, and comfort. A rider who is always trying to keep up with the horses’ movement slows the horses hind leg, and pushes it out behind them. This means they will always have the feeling that the horse is behind the leg and leaning more and more on the forehand. It is at this point that longer spurs and whips start to feature in their training when really all they needed to do was to align their body and get over the centre of gravity!

So what makes the leg sit in the wrong spot? 

The root cause of most positional problems stems from incorrect alignment through the body at the most basic level; ie every day, doing every day activities. The body that is held in a position that is not correctly aligned ‘off horse’ will most certainly not be in alignment ‘on horse’. It is not possible to sit with a perfectly aligned position in the saddle if you do not stand and walk with the same, so in order to address incorrect pelvic and leg position in the saddle, we need to strip the body back to being re-educated from a standing position.

Let’s take a look. 

We have all heard about neutral spine, and this is essential, but we have to go another step on from there in order to achieve correct loading and alignment that will set us up for a great pelvic and leg position in the saddle.

As a generalization, most people will tend to lean their upper body forward and load the front of the feet when they walk, relying on momentum rather than leg strength via full hip extension to power them forward. This posture overloads the quads and the hip flexors, forcing them to be contracted and tight. When people with this positioning stand, they may look upright, but if you were to look closely they would actually still have their weight over the balls of the feet, the pelvis out of  ‘neutral’ and their rib-cage thrusted upwards, creating the illusion that they are standing straight.

Moving in this position every day ensures that the muscles around the hip remain too tight, the glutes switch off and the lower back remains weak. We may get away with this posture when our feet are on the ground (we won’t indefinitely) but when the pelvis has to be stable in the saddle on top of a moving structure, and strength is only available at the front of the leg; ie the quads and the hip flexors. They do what they know best and contract to try and hold the rider in the saddle; thus giving the rider the knees towards nose position.

To correct the positioning of the pelvis and the hips in the saddle it is necessary to correct it on the ground!

HOW TO:

Standing with feet pelvic width apart, rock your weight back over your heels so that your pelvis is sitting above your heels. Next, put your bottom front rib directly over the front of your pelvis. Your shoulders should then sit on top of your ribs. Draw the chin back towards your neck, lifting the back of your head upwards.

This is likely to feel quite strange, but try to adopt more of an upright position when you walk; keeping the shoulders, ribs and pelvis sitting over the heels.

It really will make a difference to the health of your joints and and will allow you to get into a more balanced position in the saddle.

Knees. They are one of those joints that we don’t realise how much we need and use until we can’t anymore. A bit like having electricity at our fingertips, or water from a tap, we use the resources of our body with a similar careless abandon; their importance only bought to our attention when there is a fault in the system.

Our knees are the same. They tend not to complain very loudly, there will be an odd twinge here and there, a subtle little cry for help, but on the whole they are silent sufferers, until they can hide it no longer.

The age of ‘bending from the knees, not the back’ for lifting heavy items became the narrative we believed and followed obediently. In trying to save the ever niggly lower back by encouraging people not to flex the spine whilst lifting something heavy was the correct message. But to lift while bending our knees and to do it without damaging them required some more information, and more movement training.

Why? To lift something correctly, we need to strengthen the back of the body (hamstrings, glutes and lower back). Trying to bend and lift from the knees without strength in these key areas is going to cause trouble.

The Anatomy Bit

The knee joint is a hinge joint. That means it should bend and extend to enable us to walk with a smooth gait, which doesn’t stress the spine or pelvis too significantly. There is, naturally some weight bearing ability but its main function is a locomotive joint.

Because of it’s role, the knee is cushioned with cartilage and has a full ligament support system (front, back, sides).

It is not designed to be heavily loaded by the quads that the traditional squat and the ‘bending with the knees’ instruction encourages.

Hopefully now you will be introducing more movement to your hips on a daily basis, by using them as the fulcrum for your body, and this has a direct effect for supporting your knees too. By bending your body from the hips, and keeping your back in neutral, you will begin to strengthen the posterior chain of muscles, which balances the load share between your quads and your hamstrings.

The aim should be to lower your pelvis/bottom with your knees over your ankles. If you are anything like me, you may only be able to get this far (see pic) whilst keeping good form until you have created enough strength in your glutes and hamstrings.

Try doing 10 of these new squats daily; soft knees, neutral spine and bend from the hips pushing your bottom out behind you as if you were going to sit in a chair. Keep the weight over your heels.

Squeeze your glutes to bring your upper body back to upright and repeat.

If you have ever had a sore lower back from standing it is likely to be as a result of where you are putting your ribs.

‘Putting your ribs somewhere’ is not like forgetting where you have put your car keys, but there isn’t always much conscious thought as to where the ribs are sitting. When our bodies lack alignment, mobility and therefore strength in certain areas, it can take on a life of its own and put parts in places without us even realizing it. One of these things is a rib thrust.

To try and offset the need for muscular activity to keep us upright we can do a few things. Some people will put their hands behind their back, some will lean over one hip and some of us will thrust the ribs out in front. If you are a rib-thruster, you will likely experience lower back pain when you stand for a period of time. This is because your lower back muscles will try to counteract the forward push of the ribs, putting excessive pressure on the intervertebral discs.

If you think this might apply to you, try this exercise:

Stand with your heels about 3-4 inches away from a wall. Touch the wall with your bottom and straighten your legs. Next, bring your shoulders and back of your head against the wall. You should have a small space where your lower back naturally curves in, but the middle of your back; where your bra strap sits should be touching the wall.

*if your waist is completely on the wall it is because you are tucking the pelvis underneath you too much. Adjust by lifting/moving the tail bone out towards the wall and you should create more space in the lower back area once you are in neutral.

*if you cannot get your bra strap to touch the wall, you probably have a tendency to thrust your ribs and the upper part of your spine has lost some mobility. This is what creates compression and ligament strain in the lumbar spine. To help reduce pain when standing, aim to drop the ribs regularly by keep the bottom rib in line with the pelvis.

Try these exercises:

• Extend both arms out to the side at shoulder height making stop signals with both hands. Keep bringing the fingers back to the body and you should feel a sensation across your shoulder joints and down your arms. This is a bit of a nerve stretch to help everything glide across your joints more smoothly. Enjoy!
• Stand facing your desk or the kitchen counter or a wall and place your hands on the surface. Walk your feet backwards, keeping your hands touching the surface you are on and bend forward from your hips. You are dropping your chest towards the ground and keeping the arms straight. Move your pelvis backwards until it is behind your ankles.

Lift your tail bone slightly and allow your head to drop between your arms.

Hold for 20-30 seconds and repeat throughout the day!