I hurt my back about a month ago, and went to an orthopedist last week. She prescribed an MRI and PT. I’m waiting for the formal results for confirmation, but the physical therapist and my chiropractor both say I probably hurt my psoas. Meantime, while I’m healing and going through therapy, I’m wondering how to stop it from happening again. It all started after I was practicing my sitting trot. I think I may have been moving wrong. I know I’m supposed to absorb the motion with my hips, which I think I was doing, maybe just not correctly. Does anyone have any insight into how to stop this from happening again? Aside from not doing the sitting trot, is there something I should try to do in order not to strain these muscles again? Thanks for any help!
I am not a PT or Dr., but being stiff at the sitting trot (clenching your muscles to hold your position) can cause strains and/or soreness.
Have you tried practicing the sitting trot with longer stirrups? If your stirrups are too short, sitting the trot is more work and more difficult. So after you are healed up, you might try lengthening your stirrups, or dropping your stirrups altogether. Riding bareback might also be another good way to practice your sitting trot.
Good luck to you! And hope you’re on the mend soon.
I had trouble several years ago and spent some time in physical therapy. Sometimes it’s from ineffectively using your leg. The muscles can get unbalanced. It can also affect the piriformis too. If you are a runner/jogger and/or sit a lot during the day, it can make it worse. There are some great stretches and also strengthening exercises. http://www.happy-horse-training.com/psoas-muscle.html
I only got this concept about 5 years ago and will explain what helps me, FWIW. Disclaimer:I am not a riding instructor or professional. Maybe something in here will resonate with you. I have issues with wording so I hope this is understandable.
Your hips should be moving with the horse, and your core allows this to happen. Back to the separation of legs and seat, and seat and hands/shoulders. Each part has a role to play. Your hips can’t move if your upper body is locked in place. Try riding without stirrups and draping your legs around your horse. Your seatbones need to be plugged in (but not driving down), that’s the contact point. Make sure your shoulders are in line with your hips, not behind, and think about pulling your navel/mid-section back over your hips/under your shoulders. Many riders allow their shoulders to fall too far back and it makes it really difficult to sit at that point. Do not lean back. The core has to be strong to do this, but it allows your hips to move. I also think about shooting my seatbones forward to meet the horse to keep/encourage the length of stride in the trot. My instructor also has me meet the opposite front in an alternating motion with my shoulders. My right shoulder to left front, etc. I’ve seen differing opinions on that but it works for me. It’s a training thing, work in progress. And it keeps me from blocking the horse’s movement.
Remember, legs relaxed and down-don’t pinch.
It’s a much more relaxed movement than I ever believed and so much fun when you get it.
You may need to strengthen those muscles, abs and back. Think planks and cobra/superman. But gradually and when you are allowed to start working them. If anything hurts, stop doing it.
Go to a certified Pilates trainer for work on the Reformer and Stability Chair to strengthen and balance your core muscles.
Get all of Suzanna Von Deitze’s books. She has a Masters in PT, and is herself an Excellent rider.
Which level are you riding/schooling?
I suggest you strengthen your rising trot some more before attempting to sit the trot.
It will be beneficial for both you and your horse.
There is no point in sitting the trot on a horse who’s not fully muscled and round to do so. If the horse is stiff, hollow, not reaching under, it won’t help you learn to find the right place and the right way to sit.
Build your core strenght and learn to relax your thights while rising first. Then, once you’re good at, sit only a few strides at time.
Sitting is not mandatory until 2d level, and really, prior 3rd level, horses aren’t that muscled to really work long periods of sitting. (Neither are most riders, efficiently speaking)
One major item I forgot, make sure you aren’t pinching with your knees. This goes along with relaxing the thighs. Don’t allow them to creep up.
And I agree with alibi_18.
I was actually going to suggest try shortening instead of lengthening your stirrups. I’m really tight in my right psoas, and if I ride too long it puts an arch in my back and causes lower back pain and I can’t engage my core. Up a hole or two makes a big difference.
Of course, in my case, being a really short person on a wide horse probably contributes to the problem.
@shortenmyreins - I think you’re right, in that it depends a lot on body type and length of legs, and where your stirrups are normally set in the first place, as to whether adjusting stirrups up/down makes a difference. As a (primarily) hunter/jumper rider, that has done some combined training and dressage, I think some riders forget about adjusting stirrup leathers when learning new movements or jumping higher or whatever. So up or down, depending on where the stirrup leathers are normally, can make a big difference in your seat, comfort, and equitation.
Agree with the posters who recommend core strengthening, along with stretching work on your hip flexors, abductors and adductors. Your physio will be able to give you specific exercises once your injury has healed enough.
As far as actually sitting the trot goes, a change in terminology was a lightbulb moment for me. For years coaches had told me to “allow” my hips to move with the horse. Everything changed when my current coach told me to “swing” my hips with every stride. So Im actively moving them now, rather than just trying to relax and follow. I grip less, bounce less, hurt less, exert way less energy and the quality of my horse’s trot has improved greatly since I’m not blocking the swing in his back.
Thanks all! My core is pretty strong. Or it was a month ago when this happened. Crunches and ab work was pretty easy for me. I’ve definitely lost some tone without riding. I used to ride hunter jumpers and have dropped my stirrups a few holes from where I used to ride, but probably not as much as I could. I do tend to grip with my knees, and I ride a PerchX, who is only starting to really have some self-carriage. My whole leg is probably tighter than it would be with a more forward horse. We’re starting 2nd level stuff at home which is why I was practicing the sitting trot. He does round up through his back pretty well, but he’s short coupled. Not very comfortable to sit to if he’s not at the right pace. He does track up at the trot, and I can feel when he’s through when I’m posting. I’m just trying to translate that at the sit along with keeping him going, holding my core, relaxing my legs… Hopefully I’ll get back in the saddle soon, and I can see what works best (a little bit at a time).
Your abs are not your core. Your core is basically armpits to knees.
You need even development and stability rather than crunch strength. Trying to lock anything will hurt you - whether abs or knees in. And if you’re doing it on a wide horse who isn’t through, and you’re clenching, and probably locked against your saddle block? Your psoas is going to try to hold you sitting while fighting the rest of the locked areas, and get pulled.
Of course, the biggest issue is that we all try to force ourselves into relaxation, which just doesn’t work. (Ask me how I know!) So the trick is to figure out what helps YOU relax. I’ve recently done a tone of two point into sitting on my young horse, because she starts swinging her back in two point. But that depends how you ride two point - if your heels are jammed down and legs locked on to be still over a jump, that won’t help you either. I also always found the trot easiest to sit in the canter-trot transition and just after.
But things to think about - think you’re breathing through your legs. They should be no tighter than the folding parts of a bellows, breathing with your horse’s body. Never sit the trot if your horse isn’t willingly going forward in front of you and you’re having to kick/push, because in that case you simply won’t be able to relax your legs. Only try to sit when you’re relaxed, and only hold it until you start to tighten then post or two point and ride forward.
And then, if you’re coming from a h/j background, like many of us did, you have likely had to battle the dreaded duck butt! Sitting the trot in h/j is a belly-forward sit, and in dressage is a hips forward sit. So the bounce causes the angle of your femur compared to pelvis to open up, whereas in hunter jumper it closes. That was physically hard for me to do - I tend toward sway backed - but most of us coming from h/j sit too far forward and with our backs too arched to have the correctly neutral pelvis.
