Training to prevent rider injuries

[KimiRaikkonen_sEnthu]

Hello all,

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a “horse person” and have an extremely limited knowledge of equestrian activities (one of the reasons I’ve come here). However, my girlfriend shows in hunter/jumper events and runs her own horse farm where she trains horses and riders to do the same.

Unfortunately, she has had a number of injuries over the past two years (shoulder, neck, back, and hand, undoubtedly among others she hasn’t mentioned). Some seem to be acute, while others appear to be chronic/overuse injuries. I’m sure that some injuries are inevitable when working with such large animals, but I would like to think that most, specifically the overuse-type injuries, are preventable if you condition your body to better cope with the stresses of riding.

I’m a big proponent of exercise. I mostly stick to cardio, but I think that some weightlifting has benefits for both men and women. Personally, I’ve found that I’ve been able to correct many of my own nagging injuries with exercises specifically targeted to strengthening the problem area. My girlfriend, stubborn till the end (bless her heart), seems to think that she gets plenty of exercise by riding and working horses. And I definitely don’t disagree. But my thinking is that while all her riding is strengthening certain muscles, it is also neglecting others and leaving them more susceptible to injury. I think to prevent injuries in the future, and to improve her riding overall, she should approach her conditioning with a more holistic view rather than thinking that simply riding will keep her in tip top shape.

But I’m no doctor. Nor am I a personal trainer. All my knowledge is based on what has worked for me or what I’ve read on the internet. In other words, my knowledge isn’t based on the most trustworthy of sources. But what I do know is that riders are athletes, and no athlete I’ve ever heard of reached the pinnacle of his/her sport by only doing that sport and not supplementing with more. So I was hoping that some of you riders, whether competitive or leisure, could share the things you do to prevent injuries and stay in shape. Maybe hearing it from other riders, and not just some guy who reads articles on the internet, will persuade my girlfriend to give some other stuff a try, and more importantly help to prevent future injuries.

Thanks for your help.

PS If I’m wrong and riding is the best way to stay in shape, obviously let me know.
PPS What’s up with the “Random Questions” on the forum registration page? “If there are two mares in a barn, how many frogs are there?” Say what? I don’t know what the hell that even means. I am definitely in foreign territory here.

[achcosuva]

I am no fitness expert, but I agree that other exercise can supplement and aid horseback riding. I’m a better rider if I’ve been doing cardio and core work at the gym! Work on exercise balls for core stability is great. However, many horse people work so hard at the barnwork and riding work that they’re just plain too exhausted to make it to the gym. It’s easy to rationalize if you’ve been doing hard physical labor all day. Perhaps a quick exercise routine which you can do together in the morning before she heads off to the barn would be best. You can keep each other accountable and she doesn’t have to come home exhausted and make it to the gym. I’ve heard good things about some of those DVD workouts.

As to the frogs… a frog is a part of a horse’s foot, so four frogs for each horse in the barn. Of course, it neglects to consider the hopping frogs that are probably in there as well in the summer!

[EdgeBrook]

My back benefits from yoga type workouts, stretching allows me to work and not hurt. I also am very stubborn & believe I get enough exercise (and I’m lazy/too tired/unmotivated if it doesn’t involve horses) as I too run a barn & ride/clean stalls/feed/stack hay bales all day so it took me seeing for myself even though my brother also told me strengthening my core would help with my back pain many years ago.

we horse girls are a special breed…

[mvp]

OP, you have the right idea.

One of the tough things about reconditioning a professional rider is that she is so fit in the way that she already is. It will be mentally hard and physically annoying for her to have to choose to “pull over” from the way she is currently using her body and making a living and do some kind of physical therapy-like reconditioning.

I will tell you that my riding has advanced the most when I has forced periods of couch-potatoness and then got back to riding. That’s because lots of the muscles we are using are postural muscles and controlled with relatively little input via our vestibular system.

An analogy will make this clear: We already know how to stand up straight in that we don’t fall over… but ask a riding teacher if her students are actually straight on a horse! The same thing is in play for an expert rider who automatically uses her body one way that is clearly “good enough” (if slowly trashing some joints).

So the rider has to decide that she wants to undertake this big remodeling process, and find someone with the skill to teach her. In my case, the forced time off (life was in the way, not injuries), I came back with a “blank slate” of sorts. That is, I was weak enough in the usual muscles I relied upon to stay on a horse without thought that I could be putty in an instructors hands. If all riding would get me equally tired, it could be different and more correct than what I was doing in the past. I hope that makes sense.

[PeteyPie]

If riding were the only exercise necessary to stay fit, jockeys wouldn’t train at the gym. They train a lot.

General article about jockey training:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/555748-how-do-jockeys-exercise/

Photo of Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith jogging the track:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=452323168179077&set=a.319410931470302.74988.318838988194163&type=1&theater

From a Daily Racing Form interview of Mike Smith:
http://www.drf.com/news/qa-zenyattas-jockey-mike-smith

How often do you work out? “Just about every day. I just got a text from my trainer. We’re working out at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Just back from Japan. No rest. But I enjoy it. I lift four days a week, and do circuit training the other three days. And in between I hike in the mountains. I don’t lift to get huge. Once a week, though, I’ll do heavy lifting to see where I’m at.”

How much can you bench-press? “I don’t come all the way down, because I’ve broken both my shoulders. But I can do 245 pounds, which is unbelievable for someone my size.”

That’s more than twice what you weigh! “There was a lady working out next to me the other day, and she saw what I lifted and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ On the incline, I once did 265 pounds. I like doing it. At 45, you have to be in that kind of shape to keep up with these kids. I feel like I’ve got an edge. At least I think I do, and that’s all that matters. I like knowing that when I come down the lane, if it’s a close finish, I’ll be there. But I like it better when one just takes me around there.”

[RAyers]

I think the more important thing here is congrats on your 2nd place in the German Grand Prix today! Two more laps and you would have had Vettel. How do you like the Lotus chassis?

As for rider fitness to prevent injury, cross training and riding multiple horses. Riding is the only way to get riding fit. I prefer martial arts as cross training (taijiquan).

[fourmares]

Pilates is great for riders.

[Bristol_Bay]

The random questions are to discourage spammers. The answer is eight!

To the question of how you can convince your GF that she needs to get fit to ride rather than ride to get fit, only she can come to that realization. I don’t know how old she is, but trust me, one Monday morning she will wake up and know that you are right.

[Darkwave]

I think the OP is referring not to basic overall fitness, but rather to a dedicated cross-training/injury prevention routine to supplement riding. For example, I’m now a competitive runner, and I have a whole gym routine that I do several times a week (mostly focused on strengthening ankles, feet, glutes, core) to prevent certain injuries.

However, the thing about riding is that ideally you’re not just riding, but also doing barn work. I realized much later in life (when I switched to running), that all the barn chores - hauling water buckets, cleaning stalls, tossing hay bales, walking horses to and from the field - were actually also a very effective cross-training routine for riders.

I don’t disagree that yoga, pilates, swimming, or running are also good. But don’t disagree the cross-fit type training that a dedicated barn rat is already getting.

Also, as you note, many riding injuries are acute, and so you can’t really strengthen to prevent them the same way you can a repetitive stress injury.

[charismaryllis]

i have no idea if this has prevented injuries, but i go to the gym twice a week to work on (among other things) upper body in ways that i don’t usually use myself. i try to use machines that make me reach up and over and back, since i sit at a desk all day with my arms forward, and when riding, we have our hands down and in front of us. i try to work out in the opposite direction of what i spend most of my time doing. just started using the abductor machine at the gym for my TI band again too; a trainer there gave me a bunch of leg stuff to do that, again, makes me go in the opposite direction from when i’m riding horses or bikes.