Rider Balance Awareness

Want to improve your balance as a Rider? As riders we want our horses to be balanced and symmetrical in their body and movements to maintain their health and optimise their performance, but are we sufficiently aware of our own balance?

Every rider needs to communicate with their horse through their body.

Sometimes our horses don’t give us the expected response to what we think we are asking of them. We can sometimes think of this as disobedience but when this happens it can often be because we have some sort of imbalance in our body and/or we need to work on strengthening particular muscles and straightening our posture to be sure that we have a clear line of communication and your horse understands what you are asking it to do with your body and it is the same thing as you are asking with your hands at the same time.

We are running Rider Balance Awareness sessions which will involve rider straightness training and core strengthening evenings during the autumn and winter at Oakfield Farm with Mary Concannon.

We start by assessing rider balance, sitting, standing and moving. Then will look at how Tai Chi body work and movement can improve our awareness.
Using both stationary and mechanical ‘horses’, Mary will see how you use your body to cue your horse under saddle. We will progress to exercises to improve agility for mounting and dismounting your horse, as well as core strengthening.

These two hour evening assessment and exercise sessions are designed to identify and strengthen areas of the body that need improvement.

Have you photos of you riding? It may find it useful to share these with Mary as they will help her identify areas where balance and control may be an issue. Those of you who took part in the Oakfield show should have pictures from that weekend.

Please contact Mary if you are interested. Clickthathorse1@gmail.com Or Message on Facebook

£25 per session including supper (£20 without food) Get together from 5.00pm – eating at 6.00pm. Training from 6:45 to 8:45 pm. Numbers limited to 6 per evening

Provisional dates are below – click on the date you are interested in to book:

• Thursday 14th Nov
• Tuesday 19th Nov
• Thursday 21st Nov
• Tuesday 26th Nov