In the last month's article, we looked at fitness for mature riders. One aspect that surfaced was the issue of balance. A common goal at a recent clinic I gave was "getting better balance." The majority of clinic participants are usually over 40. Though, it's possible that more middle-aged riders have some extra cash to pay for clinics or are aware of the need for some bodywork in addition to their riding, training balance should not be seen as "therapy for the old gal/guy." Top athletes in all sports include balance training in their conditioning programs.
Assessing Balance
We often think of balance as separate from other fitness aspects: something you are either born with, or without. While it's true that people have varying degrees of innate ability for finding their center of gravity, it's not a static ability. You can improve your balance. In my fitness practice, clients' ages range from 12 to 83, giving me a wonderful opportunity to observe fitness issues by age group and developmental stage. It's fairly common for balance to become more of an issue with age. Key factors affecting your balance include ligament and joint flexibility, proprioception, muscle memory and stamina, inner ear infections or blockage, core stability, low blood sugar (not having eaten in a while) and stress or mental "busy-ness."
Before improving your balance in motion (on the horse), you need to assess and develop your static balance. Of course we know the horse moves under us, but riders to not always break down their own training into static and moving phases. We ride around and around trying to fix something that can't be fixed effectively in motion: a bit like learning to drive starting at 55 miles per hour. All that is accomplished is the teaching of incorrect muscle memory, since your body uses compensating patterns to stay up there. If you find yourself losing your center of gravity in motion on your horse, it's definitely time to take it down to the ground and do some work. Take things slowly, and allow your body and brain to "anchor" a more accurate sense of balance before expecting to see large improvements in motion.
Even if you are fairly balanced, it's a good idea to test yourself on the ground every once in a while. If you are a professional rider, you may not notice changes in your body that will affect your responsiveness to abnormal situations, such as a spook or misbehavior. Testing your balance and proprioception on the ground will give you some guidelines, so you stay flexibility and strong enough for all the situations your riding will put you in. We all want to avoid injury. But, if you ride professionally, downtime may be even more costly to you, and effectiveness even more important.
Riding Posture
While space here does not allow an exhaustive discussion of the key balance factors, let's summarize by using the riding posture as an example. Riding posture involves what is known in sport conditioning as "triple flexion"--bent ankles, knees and hips. Stacking a straight torso above your legs and hips is the second part of the equation.
As you ride, you make constant adjustment to all joints involved (ankles, knees, hips and the 24 joints in your spine). If you have stiffness in your ankles, tight leg muscles or tight hips, the first three of those joints will not have the right flexion to carry your legs in correct hip to heel alignment. Either your hips or your knees (if you are pinching them) will become a fulcrum: Your upper body will have a tendency to lean or tip either forward or backward, depending on your lower body's direction off of the vertical line.
Being slightly off of a central plumb line dropping straight down from your seat bones puts you off of your center of gravity: You are already out of balance, even before you start moving. Actually, your body creates a new center of gravity. The problem is it may be over the pommel or cantle instead of over where your seat should be. A shifted center of gravity on a moving horse puts you in perfect readiness to fall off or get very wobbly and insecure for a moment if your horse deviates in rhythm, gait or direction.
Stiffness in any part of the lower body joints will often cause a rider to tense up or stiffen up the upper body to try to create stability in response to the compromised balance--particularly in the shoulders. Alternatively, a rider with a rigid spine may end up with clamping legs as the body tries to compensate for lack of ability to absorb and follow the horse's motion in the upper half.
