Yoga with Horses to Improve Body Position

At the recent WSQHA Northwest Emerald AQHA/APHA Show, Ellie Stiller with Lopin’ Down the Rail Fitness taught a yoga class for the youth!

As you can see, it was a packed “house” for the class, and Ellie, who is a personal trainer for equestrians, showed the youth how to have correct body positioning in the saddle by learning different exercises on the ground.

Below, Ellie answers some of the most common questions about body position and what yoga exercises can help:

 

How can I improve my posture in the saddle?

Typically, poor posture in the saddle is characterized by rounded shoulders and a forward head/neck. This poor posture has nothing to do with riding itself- it is a muscle imbalance caused by constantly putting the body in a forward, rounded position. This posture can be corrected on the ground by correcting the muscle imbalance. We need to loosen tight chest muscles and strengthen weak upper back muscles. We can loosen a tight chest through static stretching and foam rolling the chest. Complete static chest stretches such as an open chest stretch, goal post stretch, or arms crossed behind the back stretch for at least 30 seconds each. To correctly foam roll, lay on your stomach with the foam roller pressed against your chest. Find a tight spot, hold it for at least 30 seconds, and move to a new tight spot. Repeat until the muscle is no longer sore or tight. To achieve stronger upper back muscles, complete exercises like shoulder protractions, face pulls, and prone dead bugs. Begin with 1 set of 10 of each exercise and build up to 3 sets of 10 over time. By loosening the tight chest and strengthening the weak back, we can achieve a much more correct posture on the ground, which translates to the saddle!

 

How can I improve my heels? They don’t want to go down!

This is another muscle imbalance we can correct on the ground. You can imagine a tight calf muscle would inhibit our ability to lengthen our lower leg. To achieve the desirable heels down position, we need to lengthen the calf and strengthen the shin. We can do static stretching and foam rolling on the calves and strengthening exercises for the shin. Static stretches for the calves can include forward fold, downward dog, and a wall calf stretch. Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds. You can foam roll the calves by sitting with your feet out in front of you with the foam roller underneath the calves. You can either lean forward or put your hands on the ground and lift your butt in the air. Find a tight spot, hold for 30 seconds, and repeat. We can strengthen the front of the shin by sitting in a chair and lifting our toes off the ground or standing on a step with just the balls of the feet on the step, lowering the heels as far as you can, and bringing them back up only until the heel is level with the toes, and repeat. Begin both exercises with 1 set of 10 and build up to 3 sets of 10 over time. By lengthening the tight calf and strengthening the weak shin, we can achieve a stronger lower leg position!

 

How can I fix my duck butt in the saddle?

Ah- the infamous duck butt. The duck butt is created by an anterior pelvic tilt- which is very common to develop when one has a sedentary lifestyle. Again- this is caused by a muscle imbalance in the hips. Typically- tight hip flexors and weak glutes. Can you guess what we’re going to do? Lengthen the hip flexors and strengthen the glutes! We can foam roll the hip flexors by lying on our stomach with the foam roller across the pelvis. Find a tight spot, stay there for 30 seconds, and move to a new spot. We can static stretch the hip flexors 30 seconds+ at a time by standing quad stretches, pigeon pose, and deep forward lunges. We can strength the glutes by glute bridges, single leg RDL’s, and hip thrusts. Begin with 1 set of 10, and you guessed it, build up to 3 sets of 10. Yay- no more duck butt!

 

How can I improve my shoulder mobility?

Good mobility through the shoulders is very important for riders. We need to have a full range of motion through the shoulders to properly communicate through our reins. Moving the shoulder joint through full ranges of motion will increase the flexibility through the joint. Exercises such as forward and reverse arm circles, active goal post stretches, IYT’s, etc will improve shoulder mobility. Begin by doing 1 set 10 reps of each exercise and build up to doing 3 sets of 10.

You can find out more about Ellie and her program here:

lopindowntherailfitness.com, or find it on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lopindowntherailfitness