Hopefully warmer weather will be here soon. So glad you had a good ride!
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This thread has made me look at the Incrediwear website, and I think that Iām going to order a couple of pieces for myself. Thanks for mentioning these products!
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Yesterday I boldly sat on the ASC for 5 minutes in one session. I did not feel terribly tired yesterday.
But today I woke up tired, in spite of lots of coffee and my grandsons visiting, I am still feeling very, very tired.
All of this from sitting still on an unstable platform for 5 minutes;
It never occurred to me that just sitting on a riding simulator for a few minutes would get me so much more tired physically than actually riding a horse.
Live and learn.
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I was supposed to get my lesson today, but when I woke up it was raining, cold and miserable. When I finally got a web site up with the necessary information I called my riding teacher to cancel. MJ would not have been happy at all standing in a riding ring with no wind breaks in the wet and cold. I told my riding teacher Iād ārideā my Home Horse.
I managed to ride the HH for seven minutes. I was a bit more ambitious than usual, besides my normal search for a balance point that the bubbles agreed was a point in which I was balanced, I picked up the stirrups, did 3-point, āwalkedā, tried to mimic my pelvic movements at a sitting trot, tried to get up into 2-point but barely got my seat bones out of the saddle a tiny bit, with all of this I also concentrated to returning to center. I even tried a āstrideā or two of a ācanterā for each lead.
I got out of my paddock boots and half-chaps and did the same on the ASC. Of course the movement of the ASC is not as dramatic as riding the HH but it seems to be mostly for working the core muscles. I was aiming for 6 to 7 minutes but ran out of energy after 5 minutes.
So I just did 12 minutes today but I did a lot more on the simulators than the last time I rode them for 12 minutes. I was hoping for 15 minutes, but oh well. At least I exercised my riding muscles more this time mimicking following the back of a horse in all three gaits.
I missed not being able to ride a real horse, which seems to take less energy for me besides being MUCH MORE FUN!
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At least you got a workout in!
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Iām curious how you make the Home Horse and ASC do different gaits.
Rebecca
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Hi Rebecca,
I memorize how my pelvis is moved by the movements of the horseās back.
At the walk, when a hind leg pushes against the ground the mass of muscles on that side of the horseās spine get bigger. My seat bone on that side is pushed forward and to the outside and the other seat bone goes down and sinks to the inside. My other seat bone sinks down and somewhat inward on the horse (this motion is the easy key to properly timing my aids.)
On the HH and ASC I alternate one seat bone up and forward with the other seat bone down and back. The simulators move under me since their bases are unstable.
At the sitting trot my seat bones alternate faster and more abruptly, As one goes up and forward the other one goes down and back. The simulators, however, do not do the up and down of the horseās back, so while my seat bones are moving like I am sitting a trot my spine does not have to absorb the vertical forces.
I have yet to learn how to post on the HH (no posting on the ASC) because of the necessary combination of the strength of my thigh muscles, my lack of energy, and my horrible balance. I do not get many posting movements each time. Part of my problem is the lack of the horseās barrel giving support to my lower leg. When my feet are in the stirrups then I have the added problem of the stirrups swinging in thin air as the HH moves.
To mimic the canter I use my pelvis like it is an ice cream scoop, with one seat bone moving forward and in a slight upward motion as the other seat bone moves down and back. I do two sessions, one for each leading seat bone.
I also practice 3-point which swings the HH forward. Keeping my heels down, by pressure against the HH base or in the stirrups, helps moderate the forward movement of the HH.
2-point is harder, I can only do it for maybe a minute at a time. So far I am trying to mimic walking when I do the 3-point or 2-point positions as my first challenge. It will take me a long time to get to a poor imitation of the trot and canter.
The ASC targets the core muscles. The HH works the core, thigh, buttock and gut muscles dependent on how I move my pelvis.
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Today I probably got too ambitious, again, for my handicaps.
Since my naps/oversleeping went from two hours last week down to one hour so far this week I got daring.
Today I sat on my ASC for 5+ minutes, just sitting still looking out of my living room window. If I have to take a nap today or oversleep tomorrow I may rethink this but I would dearly love to feel like I am making some progress.
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That is fascinating!
Rebecca
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I WAS too ambitious yesterday.
Today I woke up hurting a lot, in a lot of places. I always hurt when I wake up but this morning was SO MUCH WORSE than usual. I woke up at 4:00 AM and I just could not get back to sleep because my neck was especially painful.
Hot bath, then I put the Fenwick, BOT and Incrediwear stuff on. My neck, my ankles, my head, my wrists, my feet, I ended up festooned with the stuff.
All those things plus coffee helped a good bit. Thank goodness for the modern therapeutic fabrics!
Back to resting a full day between sessions on the simulators or riding a horse.
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I rested three days.
Today Shannon came over. My first session on the Home Horse was 6.5 minutes. Then I spent just one minute on the Anywhere Saddle Chair. I rested aroung 15 minutes and could not get beyond 6 minutes on the HH.
I was a bit more active on the HH, trying to mimic the walk, sitting trot and canter, and I practiced 3-point and failed to get my butt completely out of the saddle for 2-point.
I asked Shannon if she got particularly tired after using the ASC. She tends to use it around twice as long as I use it. She said she could definitely feel that she had worked out with her core muscles but she did not get tired at all. She spent a good deal of time on the HH and was moving it around with her seat. That did not get her very tired either.
I got tired and had to take a nap, not a long nap but I just could not keep my eyes open before I drifted off.
I really appreciate you readers who keep on reading this thread. I know it is quite boring. I just hope someone else trying to get back into riding while weak and exhausted can use the information here.
Iāll keep on doing the simulators. I woke up to thunder and rain this morning so I would not have been able to ride Shannonās mare so at least I am still keeping active even when I canāt get up on a horse.
It just seems to take FOREVER for any positive effects to show up (besides improved balance from the HH.)
Right now I feel like it is three steps forward and 4 to 5 steps back.
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Thank you for sharing your journey with us. I admire your commitment and look forward to your comments.
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Itās not boring at all. Itās inspiring.
Rebecca
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I had gotten my saddle, brush bag and butt blankets on my wheeled walker out to the living room last night to get ready for my lesson today. I was excited since I missed my lesson last week due to rain.
Then Debbie called. She was apologetic, but all the horses are getting their inoculations today. She did not schedule this, it was her daughter who is the barn manager.
I just told Debbie that it was good the horses were getting their shots (very quiet sniff.)
Before breakfast my husband helped me on the Home Horse. I made it 6 min. 20 secā¦ I had moved my HH to a new place on the folded up cardboard box I use to somewhat protect my floor, and this made a BIG difference in how it balanced under me.
Usually I need to put more weight in my right foot, not today. My husband kept on telling me I had to shift to the left and to get my weight forward. I finally shifted the saddle forward on the HH so that improved somewhat, but my whole ārideā consisted of my getting used to weighing my left foot instead of my right foot. It took me a while to get to a balance point and every time I moved I had to spend more time getting balanced.
I did not pick up the stirrups. Since my feet were on the HH base I had a more solid place for my feet and I could 2-point and post without many problems with getting my seat bones out of the saddle. I improved with dismounting, I was actually able to lift my right leg high enough to clear the cantle without much help from slanting the HH back to lower the cantle.
After breakfast my hubby drove me to the stable so I could give Debbie the Fenwick Head Band, which the Fenwick people claim is the closest human product of theirs that can mimic the effect that their Face Mask has on horses, help with head pains, help with keeping cheerful, and helping with stress. Since Debbieās barn has around 48 horses (her barn is FULL) I figured she could really use it today helping the vet give all the shots. She put it on right away, since the horse Face Mask turned her crazy Arab gelding from an incredibly challenging spooking and shying ride to a more normally acting horse she figured it would do her good just like it helps me.
I am supposed to get a lesson next Wednesday morning. I hope it works out, this month I have been on a horse a grand total of 3 times. As usual this year it is supposed to rain on Saturday so I wonāt be able to ride Cider at Shannonās place this week either.
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Friday I sat on my Anywhere Saddle Chair for 2 minutes. For the first time I did not oversleep the next day or need to take a nap. I am hoping that this is progress.
Shannon came over today so I got to use my Home Horse as well as my ASC. My routine today was 7 min. 11 sec. on the HH for the first ārideā with my feet on the platform, 2 min. 22 sec. on the ACS, and after resting my second ārideā on the HH was for 6 min. 20 sec. and I picked up my stirrups. Even though the balance point still feels different I am having fewer problems each time finding the center of balance. I sat there just balancing, did 2-point (today I got my seat bones out of the saddle using the stirrups), and I āwalkedā.
I did not get too terribly tired until I walked out to my mailbox. NOW I am quite tired.
Weatherwise it looks good for my lesson on Wednesday so I am hoping big time that I can get up on a horse next week. Shannon really likes coming over to use my HH and ASC and I told her it was fine to go on doing our current method for a while, I just want her to heal up and get stronger!
I gave both Debbie and Shannon the Fenwick Head Band. I have not seen Debbie since but Shannon put hers right on and after a few minutes told me she was going to go on wearing it all day. Later on she told me she liked its effect on her mood, etcā¦
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I hope you get to have your lesson this week!
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I got my lesson yesterday.
It was getting WARM yesterday (the high ended up being 84F) and somewhat muggy. I did not mess around too much, summer riding tights, riding shirt, mesh half-chaps, cooling head gaiter, and I thought I had removed all my BOT/Fenwick/Incrediwear stuff. BUT for some reason I did not notice my BOT neck collar when I changed to my riding clothes. Thus I started my ride under the handicapped of worse nerve conduction in my central nervous system. I did not realize I was wearing the neck collar until I changed my clothes after I got back home from my lesson.
By the time I made it to the ring I was sort of tired. In spite of me being less physically capable than usual my lesson horse MJ was reasonably cooperative. Normally the lesson horses do not give me proper contact with the bit if I wear any of the Far Infra-red therapy stuff, the horses will pretend if I get too insistent but it is not the real thing, at least for me. Yesterday MJ decided I was OK enough for our normal lesson horse riding range, but anything more āadvancedā like impulsion, flexing at the poll, and carrying along a subtle and nuanced conversation with the bit just did not happen.
MJ was gracious enough to take contact with just the Weymouth curb after thinking about it for three strides and he strode around the ring with his normal confident stride at a medium speed. ALL requests to extend his stride were marginally obeyed, life a half inch, and he did not want to reach out further. He obeyed the rein aids fine (I checked with my riding teacher.)
For the first time in weeks I had to recenter the saddle once.
My work on the simulators seems to have made a difference. Though my sense of balance was worsened by the BOT neck collar I did not have to have his girth tightened and my saddle shifted to the side only once versus my old normal three or four times. My contact with his mouth may not have been as good as normal but it was MUCH BETTER than it usually was if I wore the BOT stuff (a polite āno, I donāt think soā.)
I even managed to do the posting trot 3-4 times for somewhat longer distances.
The āworseā problem I had with MJ was when I did my āriderās push-upsā. He was facing the gate and decided to start walking to the gate. My nervous system was probably messed up enough so that I was giving him unintended leg aids. My fault entirely, I did not take off my neck collar.
At least I got to ride a real horse!
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He sounds like a good boy. Iām glad you got to ride!
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Heat with humidity can sure cause tiredness ā itās like the air is thick and one has to swim through it. Good that you had a chance to ride an actual horse!
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Today I was ambitious. Hey, I had increased my time on the Anywhere Saddle Chair by 50 percent and I did not NEED any extra sleep. I went from 2 minutes on it to 3 minutes without any bad side effects from the increase.
I had called Shannon yesterday and I did not get an answer. I figured they had a big Easter celebration, shrugged my shoulders, and decided to ride the Home Horse today as usual since my husband is here to help me and keep an eye on the bubble balance. Shannon called me half-way through my first session so I talked on the phone while balancing on the HH. I told her I was already āridingā, she could come out if she wanted to but she decided to recover from the Easter celebration and do some work on her place since the 2 days of rain, widespread soaking rains, finally stopped.
My first session I did a little bit over a minute with my feet flat on the platform until my husband told me I got the little bubbles in the right place. Then I picked up my stirrups and rode for 7 minutes, mostly just balancing, āwalkingā then re-balancing, a tiny bit of 2-point then re-balancing, then the rest of the time just trying to keep the bubbles centered while I was feeling horribly off balance. Left, no now go right, you are too far forward, you are too far back, to those sweet instances of you are now centered. Centered I concentrated on trying to relax my tense muscles especially in my shoulders while teetering trying to stay CENTERED!
Then I rested on my bed for 15 minutes, then I rode the HH again.
It was pretty much a repeat of the first session, feet flat on the platform for the first minute or so working, working, working at getting the little bubbles right. Then I picked up my stirrups. More āwalkingā then more re-centering. My second session was mostly spent balancing while I relaxed my tense muscles from bringing myself back into balance. So the second session was another minute + with my feet on the platform and another 7 minutes using my stirrups. Today I did not try to post and I did minimal 2-point.
16 minutes on the HH today! I am trying to work up to 30 minutes in two sessions at first, with my aim of doing 30 minutes in one session, so I still have a long way to go.
Off the HH I my lower front gut muscles feel like they have been exercised so I am working my core muscles, with some work on my thighs, both in keeping centered and for trying to 2-point.
I actually made a little bit of progress today! One minute longer on the HH than last Sunday. progress is progress after all, even if it comes at the speed of a snail requiring patience on my part.
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