Thanks a lot for all these notes, I have been reading them / processing them all!
They have been really helpful, I will just look at them again whenever I start slipping into default
Today we had a dressage lesson and indeed many things mentioned here ring true with what the trainer has us doing (activating from behind and keeping him there) -
Having the various COTH inputs in mind helped focus on that more, and it worked wellā¦ Keeping real active with the leg required pretty much constant core, in itself a workout. Had a good feeling, it is clear that fitness plays a part. In fact, a takeaway is that to ride more āGermanā is simply more physical work
Thanks for the core youtube links, since going extra to classes is unrealistic time-wise for now with job/travel stuff (already do jogging 3 days, barn 4-5).
Also nice reminders that there are various tools in the toolbox - the trainers I ride with now are both personable/open (unlike former trainer who is a fantastic rider and sports-coach but was for me too rigid in his expectations - kind of like Railbirdās Romanian dressage instructor). I really like my horse and though its a challenge with sometimes different ālanguagesā, I think it is totally worth it.
This is great, thanks a lot! It is nice to hear from someone further down the road. Congrats on keeping it all going and reaching new levels at a later stage
Usually āGermanā riding just means more prompt, strong, and specific/ articulateā¦
Most German/Euro trained horses like legit wonāt canter or change a lead or extend the trot unless you āask exactly correctly to THEMā
I did a private lesson clinic session with her September 2023 & she was FANTASTIC. I flirted with eventing before I made the switch back to show jumping with the occasional dressage cross training. Even in that session she and I discussed pilates and body weight mobility exercises related to āhow to get X from the horseā.
Her words were something along the lines of:
riders are athletes, we manage our horses muscles, diet, fitness, you name itā¦ how can we be so oblivious to not do the same for ourselves out of respect for them?
As far as athleticism, adult ammy riders overall come from many different starting points, especially returning riders. Some have done no exercise of any kind since they rode as a junior, some have kept up multiple sports or fitness activities, some have ānaturalā balance and a long leg, some have persistent mommy tummies, some have old injuries, aches and pains. Etc. All made worse by desk jobs.
Some adult ammies do need physical therapy and a new approach to personal fitness because they have a specific weakness or injury or imbalance that needs remediation.
Riding is a high skill, high speed, high risk sport, but unlike other sports in this category it does attract those of us who love love love horses but arenāt necessarily very athletic or even brave (as juniors and adults). Pro trainers are often multi sport and excel at things like down hill skiing, but many adult ammies are not. Like me.
So itās hard to say what an ammie should be able to do. Some may indeed need some intensive gym time while others can get by on barn work and riding fitness.
A lot of good riding is about timing and muscle memory too vs brute strength. Thatās my theory about why more saddle time makes such a big difference. I think you get diminishing returns on fitness from just putting more hours in the saddle, but your cues get better.
There are so many winning amateur riders who are clearly not gym rats. (Ditto top professionals, though I do think more of them cross train now than in the past.) I think the very best riders probably have a combination of great fitness and great feel. I personally exercise a lot because it has many benefits outside the saddle! But, if I had to choose how to be a better rider, Iād choose feel over fitness every time.
Iām not a H/J rider, Iām an eventer, so take this with a grain of salt or whatever, OP, but in my opinion we owe it to our horses to be the athletes that we expect them to be.
My competitive goal for next year is to run a classic long-format event. Itāll only be at Beginner Novice, and we should be running Novice before that at regular competitions, but itās still going to be a lot more work than anything weāre currently doing. Iām not worried about my horse. Heās a TB and ten more months of consistent rides is going to have him in perfectly good shape. I am, however, worried about me. My legs are already screaming halfway through a 5-minute XC course. My lifelong ankle stability issues are rearing their ugly heads again. My cardiovascular fitness leaves a lot to be desired, even with the help of my inhaler (we just love exercise-induced asthma).
Knowing all of that, knowing that I have (roughly) ten months to get myself in order, and knowing that riding 4-5 days a week is not pushing my body enough, Iāve started carving out time another 3-4 times during the week to get on the treadmill for 20ish minutes and then do some work with resistance bands to get stronger. It doesnāt feel like much but I know from doing PT twice a week that those things compound more quickly than youād expect. Yes, it means that I have to haul myself out of bed an hour earlier than I would otherwise before work (and I am not a morning person) but thatās a small price to pay for feeling better in general, let alone for what it does for my horse.
I donāt disagree with others in the thread who say that the āfeelā is a major component of riding effectively, but I can feel as much as I want and itās still not going to matter if I donāt have the strength to back it up. Itāll be twenty years since I started riding in January. I spent a lot of time on the lunge line as a kid with a classical dressage instructor and my body knows where every part of it is supposed to be, but I donāt have the same degree of fitness that I had fifteen years ago and I canāt always do what my muscle memory says I should. Carving myself the 45 minutes to work out and jump in the shower a few times a week to make myself a better partner is the least I can do to repay my horse for everything that I ask him to do for me. If I couldnāt make that happen, then the move would be to reconsider my goals, not demand he carry me around when Iām most likely making his life a lot harder than it has to be (not saying this is you, OP, just a general point).
This is incredibly well-put! Iāll also add that I think there is a continuum of sportsāwhile I think regardless of the activity, additional work is needed to stay fit and correct imbalances, some sports like riding, tennis, sailing, baseball, and so forth require fitness, but arenāt really all that helpful in getting people fit. Yes, they provide more fitness than staying on the couch, but to do them well requires a lot of outside work. Getting fit wonāt give someone āfeel,ā but a fit person with āfeelā can outride someone without it.
Iāll also add that although horses can be retrained, of course, I think personality and build can also impact the type of ride that works well for a horse. I rode with a wonderful trainer who, like me, is very petite (which helped me so much, because she understood some of my struggles with dressage better than a very tall person). She had two horses, both of whom I rodeāone was a steady eddie gelding I loved who was SO HEAVY in the hand and really required you to ride every stride to keep him together (but I loved the feeling of being so āconnectedā to him). The other was a mare I never really did figure outāshe was sensitive to the slightest shift in weight. Both were trained by and had successful careers with the same rider/trainer, but she radically adjusted her riding to the horse to get the best performance out of them (in a way I truthfully wasnāt able to do).
