Horseback Riding 101

Lesson 7: Beginning to Post theTrot

More Breathing Exercises

From yoga

This breathing exercise should be done at home, not on the horse. But it will give you an expanded diaphragm, and will also gently strengthen your abdominal muscles, which are useful for so much on horseback.

This is known as the Complete Breath. Begin by sitting cross-legged on the floor, with your hands on your knees, spine straight, eyes straight ahead.

Start to exhale slowly through the nose, at the same time contracting the abdomen as far as possible to push the air out.

Then begin a slow, quiet inhalation through the nose, simultaneously distending, or pushing out, the abdominal area using the abdominal muscles. While continuing to inhale, Begin to contract the abdomen and expand the chest as far as possible—all this while slowly inhaling.

Still inhaling (slowly, slowly), raise the shoulders as high as possible. Now, hold all that breath for a count of five.

Slowly and quietly exhale deeply, relaxing your shoulders and chest. When you’ have finished exhaling, repeat. How many times? I always liked five. But I do it every morning when I want to improve my riding skills; I admit to getting lazy about it when I’m just coasting on my riding skills. And make no mistake, this is a sport so one has to keep up one’s training all the time to ride well.

Singing This is something you can do on horseback, and it will do two things; help you relax, and help you ‘dance’ with your horse, that is, match his rhythms, or control them.

At first, choose a song that seems to have the same beat as your horse is moving in, and sing it, either aloud or to yourself. You should feel yourself relax; it’s impossible to sing without breathing.

You can also use it when your horse is going faster than you’d like. Sing a song with a slower beat; your body will match it, and nine times out of ten, your horse’s body will begin to move in sync with yours. (You can also slow horses down by slowing down your posting without singing; singing makes it more fun, and a good experiment to see how well trained and cooperative your horse really is.)

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