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Making You the Rider you Want to Be

movement

5 Ways to Better Riding in 2018

HEALTH; Do something every day that is slightly uncomfortable for your body, or at the very least, out of your normal routine.

True change only comes about when we push ourselves a little further than we would like to, a little further than what is comfortable. This is true for nearly every area of our lives, but in terms of health, wellness and fitness it is especially true.

If we want our bodies to serve us today and long into the future, to have a body that allows us to live the life we choose, we have to bend it, stretch it, push it a little beyond where it wants to be. That is where the growth lies, just beyond the intoxicating ‘comfort zone’!

Now I will be the first to admit that I love the comfort zone. I can hang out there all day, every day, and I have. However now that I’m stepping out of it, and cliché this may be, I’m feeling way more comfortable in my mind and my body. For me the comfort zone is the lazy scared zone, the real comfort lies in taking action to make things better.

When it comes to your body, changing a habit or routine can be enough to get you out of your status quo. What I mean is you don’t have to make your muscles cry to make things better. When we talk about movement, it might just be that you add a couple of moves at your desk each hour, or you brush your teeth with the other hand, or you change which leg you put in your trousers first. Maybe you start sitting on the floor to watch TV and whenever you bend forward you do it from your hips. Whatever you choose, do something each day that challenges the body in a different way, however small.

 

MINDSET: are negative thoughts ruling your day, and your riding?

This is a big one. I am in no way a mind specialist, but I have been learning a bit about the power of thought. Our thoughts are so incredibly powerful it’s essential we spend some time here to focus in on if we are sabotaging our bodies, health, relationships and our performance on the horse. Emotions and thoughts are normal, but it is what we choose to play on repeat in our minds that makes a massive difference to how we move through the day, and the beauty is? We have the power to choose what we think.

Poor thinking and great thinking are both habits, and we know that we can change habits with attention and commitment.

My mind can be a scary place (!) and if I allow those negative thoughts to go unchecked, I can sit in a state of inaction, confusion and anxiety. Those crappy thoughts we all have? they are fear. Fear is hard to ignore because it drives fast and loud, it turns up first to the party in a really smart car and it dominates the conversation. The trick is to turn the conversation around. Change the loop, be kind to yourself, give yourself permission, talk to yourself like you would council a friend. This is in no way an in depth look at how the mind works, but I do believe we all need to be kinder to ourselves! Try to be aware of where your thoughts go, and when you find yourself trailing off to a place you wouldn’t walk alone at night, change the story.

 

LEARN: to stop learning is to stop growing and progressing.

Learning is the path to growth, progress and a seat on the happy train. We have evolved to be curious, to learn new things. This is how we survive and we thrive on it. Where can you learn more? Can you attend a seminar, read a new book, ask one of your professionals more questions? Maybe you want to learn a new skill or learn how your body works better so you can correct the areas that need help. It doesn’t matter what you choose, but this year, make a commitment to keep learning.

 

TEAM: are you surrounded by the right people?

I have spoken about this before, and it is in here because it is important! Your team are crucial to your journey, and even if you think of yourself as truly amateur, you will still have a team around you. The best team is one who has the best interests of you and your horse at the core. They don’t have to have all the answers (nobody does), but they must be willing to learn, investigate, discuss and cooperate. Are there changes you feel you need to make this year? If so, do your homework, talk to people and be discerning about who you want around you.

 

CLEAR VISION; have you really identified what it is you want to achieve, where you want to be and how you are going to get there?

This is going to be different for everyone, so don’t be swayed by the owner of the horse next to you. Your goal is yours! The key is to have a very clear picture of exactly what it is you want to achieve. Now, I know horses rarely join in with our plans and you will likely have to do some adapting along the way, but having a starting point at least gives you something to work towards. Even if you land a bit short, progress will have been made.

Here’s to your best year yet!

Debbie

 

How Would You Like to Feel?

‘How would you like to feel?’

I saw this written on the side of some hand wash. It may be a slightly ambitious point of thought for hand wash, but nevertheless it did make me think.

It is easy to disregard the luxury of feeling well, when we are feeling well. When there is nothing niggling or following you around to send you to the drawer of painkillers, when you have enough energy to get you through the day and when you can walk and move where you want to without being punished by pain.

When we are feeling well in our body, the mind has the freedom to think about all the other stuff that takes up each day, and the body is (understandably) ignored.

But what if you haven’t had a luxurious pain free day for a while? What if, as soon as you wake up you are in ‘body management mode’; carefully tip toeing through your day so as not to stir the swell of pain that you know could strike at any moment?

In this scenario, I am betting the main thing on your mind is your body and your anguished desire for it to feel different.

How Would I Like to Feel?

When I thought about this for myself, I kept coming back to strength. I would like to feel strong. Not in the weightlifter sense of the word, but in the way that each area of my body is as strong as it is meant to be. So that I can use my body in every way that it was meant to be used, meaning that I can walk, garden, crouch, play sport, climb a hill, carry heavy things, lift stuff, move furniture etc and not worry that I’m going to be running for the back brace or the ice.

The way I would like to feel goes hand in hand with the lifestyle I want to be able to lead; one that involves all of these movements and others besides.

I don’t want to miss out on life, and I want to future proof myself against failing joints and weak muscles.

In order to do that I need to invest in my body now. Every single day. With a focus and a mindfulness about what positions I am asking the body to be in and what loads I am placing upon it. I especially need to think about it when my body is feeling ok, as only then can I use it in all it’s brilliance and get the rewards from more whole body movement.

 

I don’t want to leave it too late before I figure out how I want to feel.

 

So how about you?

 

How would you like to feel?

 

 

 

 

Nourishing Movement and Deliberate Practice

 Why do you move your body?

When I have asked riders this, the generalized response is that any movement that occurs throughout the day is borne from a place of necessity, rather than a mindful practice that has a purpose. We rarely stop to think about how we perform certain tasks each day (who has time for that, right?!) and it tends to be only when something stops working, or we are in pain that our attention is called inwards and we are forced to take notice.

It is similar to remembering your windscreen wipers don’t work, as soon as it starts to rain.

If I then asked you:

Why do you move your horses body?

 

The answer to this question is more likely to be along the lines of developing skill, getting him fit, keeping him supple etc. Riders tend to move their horses body with a much more evolved sense of purpose and importance; they have a goal in mind for what they want their horse to be able to do.

My quest is to get riders thinking the same way about their own bodies.

The Concept of Nourishing Movement

If we are what we eat, then we are how we move too.

The idea of movement that is nourishing is to think about it providing the body in its entirety with the movement it needs for great health and optimum function.

Performing the same activities every day, in the same way, inevitably leads to some structures receiving too much nourishment (over eating is never a good thing) and others that receive very little; they are, if you like, malnourished with movement.

This leads to patterns of joint immobility, muscular and joint compensations, poor recruitment of correct muscles, dysfunction and ultimately pain, injury and debilitating situations. It is all a bit gloomy.

The Foundations of Nourishing Movement

All good movement comes from an aligned foundation; that means that posturally, things must stack up as best they can. For the horse, this means he is travelling straight, into an even, forward seeking contact. For the rider, finding Neutral Spine and practicing it throughout all the mundane tasks of the day is an incredibly powerful way to begin the unravelling process (consult your health care professional and look out for my video on the website, coming soon!)

As riders, often the only time in the day when you are really conscious about your body is when you are riding. The precious time that you have carved out of your day for your favourite activity can be dominated by frustrations such as the inability to sit straight in the saddle, maintain posture, keep the legs long, elbows in etc. The problem is, your body has been in a compressed position for most of the day and some structures haven’t received enough nourishment. The only time this jumps up at you is when you get on your horse and try to ‘sit up straight’.

If this does sound like you, don’t panic, you are doing great! The very fact that you are AWARE of your faults in the saddle makes you way further down the path than someone trotting around in blissful ignorance. Awareness is key, try to take a personal inventory of your body every day to see how things are feeling.

As a bit of a cheeky motivator, up to 50% of lameness can be attributed to the rider. If that doesn’t make you sit up and suck your core in, I don’t know what will!

Deliberate Practice

 ‘Practice makes Perfect’ right? Wrong.  DELIBERATE practice makes perfect.

Deliberate practice refers to the execution of a technique/skill that is done mindfully and with the intention of improving that technique. For example, if I were to do something every day for 5 years I won’t necessarily be better at that ‘thing’ unless I deliberately try to improve my technique every day. In riding terms, riding a 20m circle every day for a month won’t make it an award winning circle. It is only when you are mindful of improving every step on that circle and the positioning of each step that progress is made.

When left to its own devices, the human body will consult its ‘cheat sheet’ and perform each task in the easiest way it can. This means that it will mould its way around a dysfunctional area and strengthen that dysfunction, if it is not challenged to address it.

The same principles apply to your horse; if training doesn’t nourish their body with variety, alignment and appropriate stress, your daily riding practice will only be serving to strengthen the dysfunction. The health of the overall ‘whole’ is dependent upon the nourishment of each of the ‘parts’.

 

 

So, why do you move your body?

 

Join our Movement Journey over the next few weeks to get tips and strategies for making sure you are nourishing your body with movement and you are riding with deliberate practice!