Refined Riding

🐎 Have one of the many rein contact habits? This will help as it helps your parts connect and build hand stability. Rein contact habits affect 👉 Your balance 👉 Your rein contact 👉 Your coordination 👉 Creates rigidity & stiffness 👉 And filterers through your whole body. What may look on the surface like a small habit has multidimensional effects! This tip is a snippet from my online course “Screen Time to Saddle time”. Which is currently paired in my double offer with “The Aligned Rider”. Both offer solutions to get to the root cause of your riding problems. And this offer is only open for the next 2 DAYS WITH 33% OFF!! So hurry if you want to grab your spot! Write the word “COURSE” below for my offer information ⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist #horseriderproblems #horseriderbiomechanics #horseriders #horsebackriders #refinedriding #equestrains #equestrainrider #dressagetips #endurancerider #dressagerider #eventingrider #showjumprider #horseriderlife #equestrianlife #onlineequestrian #onlineequestrians #riderseat #reincontact #riderposition #riderbalance #hiptension #alignedrider

😀 The good news is that you can make changes at ANY AGE! My youngest client was 9 years old and my most mature 96! 😖If you want to learn how to take some stress off your joints with exercises and tips that easily weave into your day. And give your body some easily achievable self care that will also help your riding!! My course double bundle offer (“The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time”) will do just that and more. And is open for a further 4 DAYS only with 33% off. Write the word "FOUR" below for my offer information. Full article @chroniclesofthehorse #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist #horseriderlife #equestrianlife #MatureRider #AgelessEquestrian #RidingStrong #ForeverInTheSaddle #SeniorRider #RidingForLife #SaddleUpForLife #GoldenYearsRider #HealthyAgingInTheSaddle

The seat affects the leg, but were you aware of just how much the leg affects your seat? Especially the calf! 😲 The much neglected calf has many roles to play; 🦵Assists in ankle mobility (can’t drop your heels?) 🦶 Foot mobility (influencing the entire body above it) 🧍‍♀️The seat (creating pull in many ranges) The calf carries a lot of tension, as it’s so involved in our movement. Wearing heels shorten the calf muscle and makes your Achilles thicken to cope with the elevation. Now, think about the height of some equestrian heels or sitting in heel at a desk for hours on end. This doesn’t just apply to high heels! This is a brief snippet of my “Screen Time to Saddle time Course” covering the negative affects of computer work on your body and how it translates in your riding and how to stop this! This is a simple taster of a well-known calf stretch. But there is so much more to your calf than this one stretch. In the course, I add specifics to get much more out of the stretch. Make it much more targeted to teach you about yourself. ⭐There are now 8 days remaining of my double course bundle offer. The Aligned Rider and Screen Time to Saddle Time—at 33% off. Start transforming how you ride and move, and work and live happier! Write the word CALF below for the offer information⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist ##RiderBalance #RiderPosition #HorsebackRidingTips #EquestrianPosture #SaddleSkills #BalancedRider #HorseRiderLife #RidingConfidence #alignedrider #screentimetosaddletime #legposition #onlineequestrians #riderseat #dropyourheels

😖 Tight hips? Foot or toes turn out when you ride? But what are you unknowingly doing in your everyday life to promote this? Start noticing your habits that are stacking up to your hip tension and weakness patterns. The one I've shown here is very common and stacks up over your day. Hanging out on your hip ligaments, causing tension and weakness patterns through your pelvis. Then, when you get in the saddle; 🦶 Your foot turns out 😖 Your hips feel like a tight peg on a washing line 🦵 You're not as connected to one leg 😖 You feel a lot stiffer on one side. It’s more difficult to use your leg 🤪 You sit slightly crooked Many riding problems are silently crafted through your day! Backing up your hips (tension-free) easily loads and strengthens them, reduces stress on overused areas, and boosts awareness. Want to learn more simple exercises and tips that are super easy to weave into your day? My Double Course Bonus Offer is live! Get 33% off “The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time” for the next 10 days. Transform your riding, move better, live, and work happier—starting today! Write YEY below for the course information link #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist #RiderTransformation #SaddleTime #AlignedRider #EquestrianLife #RiderBalance #PostureMatters #RiderWellness #HorseRiderTips #EquestrianTraining #RiderConfidence #RideStrong #RiderHealth #EquestrianGoals #RideBetter #onlineequestrians

😳 Hold your breath when you ride? One very common reason is nervous tension. Anxiety or fear can cause riders to unconsciously hold their breath when riding. 🤯 Concentration, we can focus so intensely on a task that we old our breath! 😖 And then there is anticipating a transition or movement. (We’ve all been there!) Stress, placing too much pressure on our riding performance. It can also become a habit with some riders. 🫁 Postural issues, poor alignment, or tension in the body can restrict natural breathing. Your alignment directly affects your health and performance in ways you probably never considered. This exercise is super easy to do in and out of the saddle (You may have to take care with the hiss initially with some horses when riding). This exercise not only helps with your breathing and tuning into it. It can also help with neck and shoulder tension I have found with many clients I work with! ✅️ So there are oodles of benefits! If you want to learn more about super easy ways to help your body and riding, I have a double bundle course offer opening on September 3rd for 10 days only! “The Aligned Rider,” and “Screen Time to Saddle time,” with 33% off! Write “Breath” below to join the waiting list ⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist #horseridingtips #equestrianrider #horsebackriders #riderposition #horseriderprobs #breathandride #riderbalance #ridermindset #ridingfocus #confidentriding #nervousrider #anxiousrider #alignedrider

Do you struggle with any of these habits? Your riding position is more than just how you look—it’s your foundation and shapes your tendency towards certain habits, your difficulties, and most importantly, your connection with your horse. It could literally make you fight against your own body when you ride and your horse’s. 🧍‍♀️ Riders come in all shapes and sizes, and it’s not about fitting the equestrian stereotype. Or achieving some ‘perfect’ look. Building connections through your body will bring more body control, awareness, and balance when you ride. 🐎 Ready to experience these benefits? My summer double course offer is launching soon! For 10 days only, get “The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time” at 33% off. Elevate your riding, move better, feel better, and connect more with your horse. Write “33” below to be added to the waiting list ⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist #RiderTransformation #EquestrianLife #RidingTips #ConnectedRiding #HorseLovers #RidingPosture #EquestrianWellness #riderconfidence #riderbalance #riderposition #alignedrider #onlineequestrians

👐 Not got the feel and dexterity you would like in your hands? You might work on a computer or do manual work that involves you doing lots of repetitive movements with your hands. Remember, the tension in your hands also is also building in your wrists, forearms, around the elbow, upper arm, shoulder, and neck!! Helping your hands will help all these areas! Tight hands will affect your feel, dexterity, and connection with your shoulders. This simple exercise REALLY works! It will help with stiffness and aches and pains. Do it gently little and often through your day and keep the form I mentioned in the reel. So you're not sidestepping and moving around your tension patterns! If you like this, you’d love my courses! “The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time” are filled with simple exercises and strategies that are really easy to fit into your day! And I show their benefits and importance in the saddle. Imagine stepping into the fall season with a newfound confidence in your riding, people commenting on your improved posture, and your horse feeling happier than ever—thanks to the transformative changes you’ll make this summer with my 2-course bundle. 😁 Get on the VIP waitlist and unlock a 33% discount. Write LIST below ⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist #horseriderposition #alignedrider #riderbalance #horseriderposture #connectedriding #reincontact

😖 Knee pain, stiffness, and restriction when you ride? Maybe you grip with your knees or find they flap around a little. You probably never considered the way you knee tracks. And how this affects their function, their movement, and the amount of wear and tear placed upon them. And how this not only affects them, their affect on the rest of your body! Which is really heightened when we ride. You may be surprised to hear that age is often not a factor in their decline. It’s how they are being used. Restoring their alignment takes the pressure off them and how they interact with the rest of your body. 👀 Look out for my next post, where I look into ways to help this! This reel is an excerpt from my online course “Screen Time to Saddle Time” packed with easily actionable bite-size exercises and strategies to push back against that desk-chair slump and office posture And its affects on your riding, body, and horse. I have a summer offer launching on August 17th for 1 week only. Where if you purchase this course you get the “Aligned Rider” course for free! Write YES to receive the information on these courses⬇ #riderbiomechanics #horseridingtips #horseriderbiomechanics #horseriderproblems #horseriders #horsebackrider #horsebackriderprobs #movementspecialist #riderposition #riderposture #riderseat #onlineequestrians #horseriderlife #rideralignment

🤔 Recognise any of these riding problems? Often, we try and try to master certain corrections. But our body seems to have a mind of its own! 👉 How does it silently do these sneaky things? 👉 Why don’t you feel it happening? 👉 You try so hard, but you just can’t get your body to do what you want! 👉 You painfully smile at your trainer as it bounces away from you again! 👉 Why does your body do this? Often, where you repeatedly try to correct and the root cause are in entirely different places. You're correcting the symptom, not the root cause. The lack of awareness of some areas is because they are weak and underused. And when you ask for a certain movement or correction, it’s really highlighted. Riding is unlike anything we do in our everyday lives! Want to superpower your body awareness and riding position and alignment? Have a great foundation in and out of the saddle? I have an offer coming very soon! That will really help you in ways that are super easy to weave into your life! Taking very little time! Do you have any of these riding problems above? ⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #riderposition #rideralignment #riderbodyawareness #riderprobs #horseridingtips #movementspecialist

🧍‍♀️Meeting your body where it’s at now, what do I mean by that? Nurturing your body out of its current boundaries is the way to make lasting changes. And increases your body awareness along the way! Integrating the elements it needs. Which shouldn’t be painful. Many training programmes work at the body rather than with it and your individual needs, and that’s why they fail. You don’t need to follow the “no pain, no gain” line of thinking! Getting stronger, fitter, more mobile etc shouldn’t be painful. If you have a chronic injury, you already know pain well! Having rebuilt myself through movement after a decade of restriction and pain after a significant injury, I certainly didn’t want anymore. That’s why I have put a summer offer together coming soon! That will help you. And it’s super easy to weave into your life. You don’t need to set time aside to in a portion of the day! Write YAY below if you want to know more when I unveil the details ⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #horseriders #horseriderprobs #horseridingtips #horsebackriders #movementspecialist #horseriderposition #horseriderposture #rideralignment #onlineequestrians

👐 Developing feel through your hands to feel the signals through your fingers, thumb and palms takes time. But this exercise helps increase your feel and the connection your hands have with the rest of your body! Your rein contact is an information highway between you and your horse. And the gentler and quieter you are, the more you will feel! 👐 Our hands don’t work on their own. Your neck, shoulders, and arms influence them. One muscle involved in the movement of the scapula has origins that span from part of your pelvis. You get a sense of how connected everything is! The exercise is also good for body awareness. Feeling how the movement of one body part influences another. And learning about your habits. You can also practice finger dexterity, and correcting your hand placement and feeling the connection with the rest of your body. Do you have any rein and hand habits? tell me below⬇️

😖 Is stiffness, aches and pains, or restrictions affecting your time in the saddle? Or are old injuries or chronic injuries raising their heads when you ride? I have met so many riders over the years that have largely given up on their body, who believe they can get no improvement from the discomfort they feel, because of the amount of time they’ve had the problem. Or from the described limitations of their diagnosis parameters. Some ignore their problems like the stereotypical equestrian until they can no longer do the things they enjoy. Then, they become ready to address the issue. Or tied it to the ageing process and belief of inevitable decline. Which often is nothing to do with age. It’s the way a rider has used their body over the years.. I restored my body aged 46 after 10 years of living a very restricted life with constant pain and limitations. I had prior injuries, one of which was 25 years old and healed through this process. I've worked with many riders who were: 1) Very surprised at what their body was doing 2) How this was causing them problems 3) How a few specific exercises sprinkled into their day could make a difference. Are you experiencing any limitations or aches and pains when you ride? Tell me below⬇️ #riderbiomechanics #horseriders #movementspecialist #horseriderproblems #ridertherapy #horsebackriderprobs

🏇 Turn your foot out when you ride? Often the origins of this lie in the hip! You can see how subtle this is when this lovely rider is walking. If you want to find out the root cause of your riding problems, being assessed on the ground is so important. As riding problems, habits and difficulties are TAKEN to the saddle. Addressing them at ground level will speed up your riding progress, help your body and your horse. And it’s so easy to fit in the movement your body needs into your day! Learning to use your body in an improved way. You can see here is putting riders through exercises and movements. Really shows up weak areas, overused and misused areas. That they often have no idea about! It’s like being a body detective. ⚠️ This exercise should be done with no tension, or force and it should not cause any pain. Listen to your body. You may want to lean against a wall first to do this. Or place your hand on a chair to aid your balance. Do in front of the mirror initially so you can see what’s happening with your body Push one side of your hip down. Feel your weight go into the heel on that side. Don’t use your waist to produce the movement. The other leg will lift or just lighten off the floor. Do sets of five sprinkled into your day! Are your hips causing problems with your riding? Tell me below.⬇

🐎 This exercise targets many areas, bringing movement from the sternum through the spine. After I’ve worked on a horse, I use this to: 👉Get some movement through the sternum and wither. 👉Gentle movement through the spine. Plus, the rock back motion gently stimulates: 👉 Some of the quarter muscles 👉 Shoulder Muscles 👉 Pelvic girdle Muscles A fabulous gentle exercise, gentle, can be very powerful!! Do this slowly and gently. I usually do in sets of 5-10 at a time and gradually sprinkle more at different times into the horse’s day! Want to know more about this and other great exercises and tips? My course, “Keeping your Horse Sound,” covers this plus ways you can really help your horse, which is easily placed into your time together, taking very little time. I’ve gathered essential key factors for injury and pain prevention in every aspect of your horse’s life and condensed them into a guide for you! Drawing from my 25 years of experience as a therapist. Write the word “SOUND” below for the course information🔽

Ankle problems often affect the way you sit. 🦵You may feel like your leg draws up on the injured, stiff, or weak side 🦵And that leg is harder to connect with and use 🦵Your leg might not feel like your own! 🦵And you find it harder to ride when that leg is on the inside 🏇Your balance will be affected Now there are many variations of this, as everyone is highly individual. 🏇 Remember, everything below and above the seat affects the seat! But over time, your restrictions will affect the horse’s movement. Out of the saddle, you move through your day and probably don’t realise the impact on your entire body. 🚶‍♀️How the rest of your body has to move around this restriction. Leading to extra wear and tear to areas. The saddle highlights what we do on the ground. Have you had experience with any of the above, tell me below?⬇

Feel is a skill that really elevates your riding. Ever wondered how to enhance your feel? To enhance your connection, you need to practice the art of letting go. Stop trying to manage every moment and feel what’s happening. Allow your body to flow with the horse’s movement. Start off small and try to feel and trust the balance and feedback through your body, a skill that takes time to master! 🏇 The lighter you ride, the more you feel. Becoming more receptive to your horse’s feedback. Similar principles apply to therapy; A lighter touch allows the tissue to reveal valuable insights, allowing a conversation with the body. Versus attacking it and the tissue bracing and tensing against a firm touch. Drop a comment below on your experiences⬇

🏇 Seat problem or ribcage? Now there will be an element of both, as every part of the body works together. Does your body feel a little twisted one way? Blaming your Seat? The pull from the ribcage alignment might be the real culprit! 🚶‍♀️Riders bring many postures TO the saddle. Shaped by their daily movements. 🖥 So if, for example, you do repetitive manual movements like mucking out. Or work at a computer station where you constantly twist one way.Your rib cage and the rest of your body will develop into that posture. ⛓️ As the body works in patterns, not parts. Have a riding problem you just can’t seem to get past? Are you correcting the root cause or affect of it? Have you noticed your body feels a little twisted? Keep noticing this in the saddle. Tell me about your experience below⬇️

But this feels straight! Those riding corrections you can’t feel and connect with. They feel so wrong as you’re not very aware or connected to the area, which can often be from its lack of use. And this lack of awareness can happen in larger correction when a rider is crooked to more subtle corrections and many in between! 👀 Going through movements can be a complete surprise and a great insight, like the case with this lovely client. Learning about how your body gets you through the day. Which explains why you have a tendency towards certain riding difficulties and habits. Drop a comment below about your experiences with this⬇️

Forward head posture affects your core and entire body! Try this exercise and feel the connection! 😳 Your body has a natural alignment. Where your parts can work together correctly. 🧍 This is not a fixed position, or a held posture. Often, the way we use our body throughout the day changes our body out of our natural alignment. And we end up with weak areas, tension, misused areas, stiffness, and, in some cases, aches and pains. 👉 Now slowly ramp your head back, move your ear towards your shoulder. ❌️ Don’t lift your chin up ❌️ Or force your head back quickly. 👉 Feel your way (slowly!) 👉 You will start to gradually feel the connection with your core. And this is just a taster of what your body should do! Your whole body is connected. And when aligned, it’s stimulated from your movements and loading of other body parts. When it’s not areas weaken. Many riders worry about core strength (which is a whole body event), but you can see in this reel how you could be actively hindering its use all day long from the change in position of another body part. ❌️ Trying to spot treat an area in horses or riders never works. No area works alone, and often, the problem and the area we believe we have a problem are not in the same. Like to restore your alignment? And be working more of your body in your everyday movement taking no extra time? And get a much more connected, balanced, aware riding position? My online course “The Aligned Rider” does this and much more! Write the word ALIGN for the course information⬇ #horseriders #riderbiomechanics #movementspecialist #riderbiomechanicscoaching #horseridingtips #dressagetips #refinedriding #horseriderproblems #equestrainsofinstagram #equestrianrider #equestrain #horsebackrider #eventingrider #showjumprider #dressageriders #rideralignment #horseriderposition #riderposition #corework #thealignedrider