Ride with Balance, Flexibility & Strength

Have you ever witnessed the beauty of a wonderful freestyle a reining pattern or perhaps a show like Cavalia in which the rider and horse seem to be working together in such harmony that you can hardly tell where the rider ends and horse begins? For rider and horse to be one with each other is the desired state we strive for. What we seek is to seamlessly flow together in a beautiful stream of energy travelling together through space. If your desire is to achieve such a state and to ride to the best of your ability then please read on!
In order to become a better rider you will have to spend a little bit of time focusing on your own body. Many coaches and their students focus the majority of their riding time and energy on improving their horses movement and overall carriage and reducing resistance. Ironically many of the issues they attempt to correct are the direct result of a blocking or restriction brought about by the riders imbalanced or asymmetrical position. Often if these rider issues are corrected the resistance held by the horses body magically disappears. Just as we train our horses we must also train our own bodies and in this way we will successfully improve both our riding and our horses way of going.
When approaching a fitness regime or undertaking a sport or kinetic activity such as dance there are four major components to consider aerobic capacity flexibility strength and balance. All athletes young and not so young will benefit from enhanced or dry land training off the horse which allows the body time to adapt and develop muscle control and balance without having to deal with the complex aspects of the motion of the horse.
Training the body in this way ensures that