Riding from the Inside Out
Exercising your way to better riding! Part 2

With Anna-Louise Bouvier, Lisa Champion & Larissa Chadwick

Last month, in the first of this series, we took an in-depth look at how your posture, both on and off the horse, influences your effectiveness as a rider. We defined the key elements of your core or centre, talked about how stability in your core is essential to good riding, and gave some specific exercises to wake up that part of your body. This month, we expand on those concepts while looking specifically at the rider’s lower body. Flashback to almost a year ago. My riding lessons continued as did my work with Anna Louise Bouvier, the innovative physio who was helping me improve my core stability to become a better rider. My heightened body awareness made me even more conscious that my legs and feet were just not cooperating when I was on the horse. The most annoying and constant reminder was that I kept losing my stirrups, especially in the sitting trot. I could feel both feet wobbling, but especially my right foot swinging forward and back. No matter how hard I tried (one of my fatal flaws!) I could not keep my feet still. Thinking laterally, my coach Larissa Chadwick decided to try tying my right stirrup to the girth to stabilise my foot. My foot definitely stayed more stable, but I couldn’t believe how tired my leg felt. Obviously I was being forced to use a whole new series of muscles. We both realised that whilst effective in the short term, it still didn’t address why I was having the problem in the first place.
A few lessons later I was cantering around on the left rein and had this very strong realisation that my right knee and foot were pointing outwards. I remember stopping halfway around the circle and saying to Larissa, "how come my right foot is pointing to the outside when I’m on the left rein? It feels all wrong!" Then, a short while later, we were working on some shoulder-in on the circle and I could not get my leg to connect with the horse in a way that helped him be in the right shape. Larissa jumped up and showed me how her leg worked and it was then that we realised that I didn’t have the ability to put my lower leg on without bending my knee and raising my heel. We could clearly see (and I could feel) the problems, but were still unsure of how to fix them. It was the same issue over and over again. Intellectually I could understand what Larissa wanted me to do, but I just didn’t seem to be able to connect those messages from my brain and send them to my muscles to activate the right movement patterns. Perhaps Anna-Louise could provide some answers.
Firstly, because she had very little riding knowledge, Anna Louise asked me to draw on my exercise science background and analysis skills to very accurately describe the positioning and balance points needed to ride ‘ideally’. Watching Larissa, and other really talented riders, ride had given me a mental imprint of what classically correct and balanced riding looked like. Discussing these ideals with Larissa had given me the ‘head knowledge’. So Anna-Louise and I married up what the ideal was and compared it to my riding problems. What I began to understand was that because I lacked deep core stability in my trunk and flexibility in my hips, I was using other muscles to try and compensate. The problem with my riding was not just a technique problem it was actually deeper than that, I really couldn’t achieve what my coach wanted because I physically lacked the stability and flexibility to do it. Add to this, years of compensating for my postural imbalances and you really have a lot of layers to peel back!
After a thorough assessment, Anna-Louise worked out that the reason my right foot kept swinging was because of chronic ligament tightness in my right hip. This was causing the whole leg to sit rotated, and consequently the foot wobbled and tended to sit out from the horse. My unconscious compensation was to grip through my thigh to try and keep my leg in and the foot still. Unfortunately, the tightness in my hip was overriding all my good intentions and the foot rotated and wobbled, no matter how hard I tried. This is called a compensatory pattern.Anna-Louise divides the source of Compensatory Patterns into 2 groups. Some people may have a combination of both.
1. Structural Imbalances - these are things that you were born with, such as having one leg slightly longer than the other or a slight scoliosis or sidebend in your spine.
2. Muscular Imbalances - these are things such as lack of core stability or flexibility and are often a result of your body trying to compensate for poor posture, old injuries, or for structural problems.
With me, my main structural problem was a slight right scoliosis (sideways bend) in my spine. Over time I had developed some compensatory muscular imbalances. Firstly tightness in my right hip muscles. Although quite discreet, I rode with this slight sideways curve and hip tightness. My body quickly developed a subconscious compensation pattern of bending my knee and using my hamstring muscles (the muscles at the back of my thigh) to keep stability in the saddle. My lack of trunk/ core stability then made it even more difficult to maintain a correct position.
Most people have a combination of subtle structural and muscular imbalances – and the more aware of your body you become, the more you will be able to identify which of these may be affecting your riding. The great thing is, with a little work and thought, you can make huge differences to technique problems you may have struggled with for years. Below are some of the most common incorrect lower body positions with explanations of which muscles are turned on to compensate.

Photo 1 Thigh Grip - In this incorrect position, the primary muscles being used are the adductors (inner thigh). This causes gripping in the upper leg close to the groin area. Gripping in this area also turns on the hip flexors and is common in riders who lean forward or have a swayback posture on the horse. As the bottom bones tilt towards the back, the adductors turn on to balance the pelvis in the saddle. Thigh grip is one of the most common compensations for a lack of stability in the core. The result is a chain of reactions down the leg that also influences the position and effectiveness of the knee and ankle. It also sends a chain of reactions up the body and influences the upper body position and effectiveness.
 

Photo 2 - Here the gripping is happening slightly lower down around the knee joint. Knee gripping can occur in any of the incorrect riding postures (slumpers, swaybacks, forward or backward leaners and sideways curvers)* as they work to find a stablising point for their postural imbalances. This photo shows a Forward Leaner using knee grip to stabilise. Knee grip is also a common problem when the deep internal rotators of the leg are not strong enough. Riders will try to influence the horse to move sideways by pressing in with the knee, rather than with the whole leg in a soft position (which must originate from the hip). Using the knee as an anchor point again influences stability in the rider above and below the knee joint.
*For details about these incorrect postural positions, see Part 1 of the series in the April Issue of The Horse Magazine.

Photo 3 - This is one of the most universal problems, as riders try to use their strong, familiar hamstring muscle to put a leg aid on. The knee opens and bends and the heel comes back. Not only are the incorrect muscles being used, but the aid is not effective and the rider’s position is compromised. This is usually a chronic habit that comes into play any time a rider wants to put a leg aid on.
 
Photo 4 - Slumping and backward leaning are indirectly related. Usually, a backward leaner is a slumper who is trying to sit more upright (another compensation system). In both these cases, the pelvis is tipped forward and the bottom bones are "out the front door’. As this de-stabilises the whole pelvic area, the rider’s legs come forward to counterbalance the pelvic position. As it is difficult to sit with both the upper and lower body out of alignment this way, the legs have to grip to hold the position. When Larissa works with a rider who slumps, she uses the teaching tool of having them move into a 2-point seat in the halt.

She encourages them to feel the weight down through their legs as they are raised up out of the saddle. Once this feeling is established, she has them move into walk, maintaining the two point seat. Eventually, they can move into trot and even canter. "Being in this position makes the student find a balance point over the feet, and forces them to stop gripping with the adductor and gluteal muscles." says Larissa.
Photo 5 - This photo shows how a typical swayback rider will often end up with their toes turned outwards. A person with a swayback posture will have permanently tightened hamstrings as the forward tilt of the pelvis pulls up on this large muscle group. In the saddle, the bottom bones are tipped ‘out the back door’ and the hamstring muscles come into play to help compensate. The active hamstrings also pull the knee upward and the toe points outwards in the process.
 
Photo 6 - The leg is long and relaxed, there is gentle contact with the saddle and there is no area of gripping or tension. If we were to look at this photo from the side, the hip and heel would be in a perfect line. Interestingly, Larissa points out that good riders do require a lot of muscular strength in their legs at times. The difference, however, is when they apply this strength it originates at the hip and the whole leg is used as a unit. To achieve this type of leg control, however, good core stability and strength and control in the correct leg muscles is essential.
To improve my lower body stability, Anna-Louise encouraged me to continue working on my breathing and core stability with the exercises that we described in the last issue. To these, she added a series of specific hip and leg exercises. The work really began with my pelvis, because it is the part of the body around which good alignment forms. The musculature around the pelvis gets tight because of the postural imbalances that we live with on a daily basis. (Refer back to last month’s article to help identify your own postural imbalances.) This not only negatively affects your posture, but as we have just discussed causes gripping and tightening problems when riding. Larissa backs up the importance of flexibility and control in the pelvic/ hip area. She says, "When I ask most students to bring their heel back to create a straighter hip-heel line, the most common response is that they move their lower leg. But, in order for the movement to be correct, it has to come from the hip."
 
Here are a series of exercises to help correct some common imbalances in riders.
It is important to note that Anna-Louise structured them to allow each step to build on the next. When you try these, follow this structure for best results.
 
1. Stretch the tight areas to give you the range you need. 2. Learn to control that new range and teach your brain what that muscle is meant to do
3. Strengthen the muscles that are weak

Let’s take a close look at Step 1, the stretching exercises. In next month’s article, we’ll address the control and strengthening exercises.

Step 1 Stretching:
The Sitting Hip/Buttock Stretch
• Imagine that you have a set of posture dots on your upper body (one on each shoulder and one on your sternum).
• Cross one leg over the other. Try to keep your hips as level as possible. Raise your arms up over your head and stretch upwards.(Photo 7)
• Now, without bending through your back or slumping, lean forwards and upwards as far as possible.
• Slowly lower your arms to rest on your knees.(Photo 8)
• Sit in this position for at least a minute before repeating on the other side. You may find that one side feels more flexible than the other. If this is the case, repeat the stretch twice on the stiffer side. This stretch really works on a small muscle in the hip/pelvis called the piriformis, a muscle that is particularly important for riders, as it allows freedom in the hip when you are on the horse. This in turn takes the load off your low back and makes it easier to maintain your core stability. This is a great stretch because it can be done at any time of the day when you are sitting around.

The Psoas / Hip Flexor Muscles
This large muscle starts in your back, crosses through the inside of your abdominal area and connects on the front of your thigh. In people with swayback postures, the muscle gets very tight and pulls down on the lumbar vertebrae, increasing the swayback, and often leading to lower back pain. In riders who grip through their thighs, this muscle is a key compensator, which will turn on and keep your upper leg in a shortened position. There are two good variations to stretch your psoas muscle.
 
Anna Louise calls the first (Photo 9) the Lancelot stretch because you begin as if you are about to be knighted.
• Raise your arms up over your head and stretch upwards as in the seated chair stretch.
• Now, tilt your pelvis by imagining that your pubic bone is moving towards your nose.
• Squeeze your buttock on the support leg as hard as you can while you are stretching upwards. Try not to let your posture dots drop or your back round.
Repeat on the other side, while being aware if one side is more stiff than the other. Can you make a link between stiffness on one side and anything that is happening in your riding?
Photo 10 shows a second variation. It is called The Psoas Stretch.
• In this stretch you gently extend the heel back until the knee comes off the ground no more than 5 cm.
• Look up and allow the back leg to sink down towards the floor. Think of lifting your posture dots as you hold the stretch. You can do one or both of these to loosen up this most important muscle.
 
 

The Hamstring or Back Reliever Stretch
The next muscle group that Anna Louise wanted me to stretch was my hamstrings, but not in the traditional way! One of the biggest problems she finds with teaching stretching is that bodies are very good at taking the path of least resistance. As a result they will often get away with stretching the wrong muscles rather than the muscles that you are trying to target. Done correctly, this stretch ensures you are targeting the hamstrings.
She calls this stretch the Back Reliever Stretch as it stretches the muscles deep in the buttocks and at the top of the hamstrings and is very good for relieving back pain. Again, for riders this stretch is really important, because it lengthens these muscles allowing them to be freer and less tense when riding.
• Start by placing one foot up on a chair (Photo 11).
• Reach under your buttocks and grab your bottom bones. Focus on lifting your posture dots as you bend forward, pulling your bottom bones up and keeping your back straight.

• Once you have gone as far as possible, reach forward and put your hands on the back of the chair (Photo 12).
• Now sink down your support leg and lean back slightly to further exaggerate the stretch. Again, try to recognise if one side feels stiffer than the other.
Adding this series of stretches to your breathing and core stability work is the next step to improving your riding. Remember to work on your heightened sense of body awareness both on and off the horse. Just try to be gently aware of your habitual movement patterns and how they may be affecting your riding.
 
In the April Edition of the Horse Magazine we look closely at developing your control and strength of the muscles in your lower body - please phone 03 59427 447 to obtain your copy.