Improve your Horse Riding - Balance

Ok! who feels like they need better balance when they are riding?  How do you know?  What are the signs of needing better balance?

Some of the symptoms you might have that indicate an improvement in your balance would help are;

1.  being in front of the movement, 
2. getting left behind the movement, 
3. horse keeps falling in on the circle, 
4. or if your horse is tossing his head a lot when you keep hitting him in the mouth.

These are just a few examples!  When jumping it is even more obvious when you are in front of behind the movement, because you will either "starfish", thump on the horses back when landing, or fall off a lot!

"starfish" is what one of my coaches used to call what I did when I would go over a jump with straight legs, straight body, a mile off the seat, and generally I would end up with no reins on the other side because I was terrified of hurting my horses mouth so I would let go instead . . .  not really the cleverest thing in the world!

I knew it was terrible, but I could not figure out how to stop myself from doing it.  She could yell at me all she wanted, to try and make me stop, but I found that until I trained myself with an alternative movement, it was still my habit whenever I was nervous.  

SO, I am going to address this issue in two parts, first for flatwork/dressage, and second for jumping. 

Flatwork

Improving your balance for flat work is actually not that difficult (yeah right, wait till your legs are jelly). No, seriously, the exercise is simple, but your muscles may take a bit of time to get used to it, so you may have sore legs for the first week!

The best exercise for improving your balance is, on your horse, to simply stand up in your stirrups.  Now I don't mean to stand up in a two point seat, I mean to literally stand up with straight legs in your stirrups.  Make sure to try it at halt first, it is not as easy as it sounds.  Then move your horse to walk, then to trot,  then to canter.  It may take you a few days, or even a week before you are comfortable doing this at trot and canter, but your seat will have improved a mile once you can!

I would also suggest starting out trying it in a round yard on a fairly loose rein.  You don't want to end up using the horses mouth to help you stay up there.  You will find that your weight will drop down into your feet, and lo and behold, that is what it feels like when you have "weight in your heels"!

It might be that you can't do it for long, but that is ok.  Even to start with, go for four strides up, four strides down, five strides up, five strides down.  Again, be very careful that you are not using your reins to balance on.  

Once you are good at that, then start doing some exercises on your horse.  You know the ones you see all the little kids doing?  there is a good reason for that, it really helps you improve your balance out of sight.  

1. Hands out like an aeroplane, 
2. touch both shoulders, 
3. touch one hand to your nose, then the other
4. touch one had to your knee (are you still standing up with straight legs?)
5. Touch one toe then the other (make sure your other leg stays still or you will fall off when you try it at trot and canter)

Once you can lean down at canter and touch one toe, you have AMAZING balance! just ask any Vaulter!

Jumping

OK, your jumping balance is going to be improved a lot by all the previous exercises.  The next step is to help your timing as the horse jumps, so you don't get the "starfish".  I can't tell you how many videos there are of me doing a "starfish" over a jump, and it makes me cringe every time.   I still do it every now and then, if I get particularly nervous, but I have improved out of sight.  

It really took me a very long time to change this habit, but now I know how to change it, hopefully I can make it faster for you to change.  For a start, I knew that it was a fear response.  It always happened when I got scared, my body would stiffen, and I would not flow with the horse.  I couldn't stop myself from being scared sometimes, but I could change how my body reacts.  I used a technique called NLP to give myself a new pattern of behavior.  I wont go into to much detail about this, but I can give you a bit of an idea how to apply some of it to yourself.

First of all I picked a random word, mine was "rabbits", then I practiced squeezing my thumb and forefinger together (thumbs on top) and saying "rabbits", then, folding at the hips at the same time.  It does work to practice this standing on the ground, because when you go over a jump, your position should be such that if the horse was taken away, you should be standing well balanced on the ground anyway.

I will find some pictures of a really good jumping position and post them on here later.

Now when I am going towards a jump that I am particularly nervous about, you might here me counting, 1 2 3 4  5 6 7 8, to keep my rhythm, and then as I go over the jump, you will hear me yell out "rabbits"!  Sometimes I forget, and then you might see me "starfish" but I guarantee, if you see me "starfish" you will hear "rabbits" the next jump!

Also dont forget where your heels should be.  They are extremely important in jumping, if you have done your flatwork exercises you should find it fairly easy to make sure they are down.  Sometimes almost thinking of pushing slightly forward with your heels may help.

Both

Now the other things to remember for BOTH flatwork and jumping, is side to side balance as well.  This is where you want to be aware of the relative distance of various parts of your body to the ground.  eg, is one shoulder closer the ground than the other? is one earring closer than the other? is one foot closer to the ground than the other?

One of my favourite ways to improve side to side balance is making use of your hat brim.  ALWAYS be aware of your hat brim and how it relates to the horizon.  It should always be parallel to the horizon, if one side is lower than the other, you can guarantee that something else in your body, and therefore you horse, is going to be wonky.  When this happens over a jump, your horse will drop a leg, and it is likely he will drop a rail.  When you look to the next jump, make sure your hat brim stays even!