Equestrian Life June 2017

TINA CANTON
fi t n e s s
Improving your
Position and
Effectiveness
As a rider and a coach I often
find it frustrating that our
bodies seem to have a life
of their own! It twists, tips, drops
and stiffens up for no apparent
reason! I have always been a
huge advocator of doing suppling
and strengthening work off the
horse, and always recommend
physiotherapy or chiropractic work
for riders who are obviously one
sided. For those riders who only
ride one horse, it’s easy to blame
the horse for things like drifting,
crookedness, uneven contact or
resistances, but when you ride
several horses and they start to
display the same tendencies there
can only be one common factor –
the jockey!
For this reason we turned to the
brilliant Andy Thomas who has
worked with elite level riders
all over the world. Unlike most
practitioners who work on riders in
isolation away from the horse, Andy
has developed rider clinics where he
assesses the rider on the floor and
mounted. This really highlights our
positive and negative influences on
the horse. Andy first came and did a
demonstration to third year degree
students and Nottingham Trent Uni
for me. To watch how he motivated
the students to improve and his
enthusiasm for making a difference
was inspirational so I decided that I
would like to work more closely and
on a regular basis with him.
Firstly, he assesses your strength
in your hips by a few simple tests
done on his treatment bench. This
really highlights asymmetries (and
also makes you
wonder how you
stay on a horse!).
These are looking
at your resistance
strength as
well as your
flexibility. He
then watches you
ride using the
visualiser jackets.
These are really
useful if you are
videoing the session to self-analyse,
but a word of warning – make sure
you put them on straight!! He will
look at you both on straight lines,
circles, through transitions and
in rising and sitting trot. He then
works on your mobility off the horse
and triggers your body to engage
in a better way. A lot of this work
is just waking up dormant muscles
that aren’t doing their job properly
as the dominant ones are taking
the strain. The difference in the
feel post treatment on the horse
is incredible. It felt easier to sit
still, the transitions were smoother
and the horse was a lot easier to
keep straight. Sitting straight and
moving up and down the gears felt
effortless. If only Andy could warm
me up every day before riding!
He then prescribes a series
of exercises specific to
the problems to practise
(I must do these more).
These are given on a handy
app so easy to access. If you see
me doing strange things in a lorry
park – you will now know what
I’m up to! These include stretches,
resistance work, balancing exercises
and mobilisation exercises. All of
these are done unmounted, so there
is no excuse for not continuing to
improve your riding – even when
not riding!!
We will be running these rider
clinics at The Tinderbox approx.
every 3 months, so let us know if
you would like to join us. Next time
over to Andy for his fountain of
knowledge.
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