Last weekend I went on a long trail ride by the Rio Grande river. It was an amazing ride, up and dow…

Last weekend I went on a long trail ride by the Rio Grande
river. It was an amazing ride, up and down lots of steep hills
and jumping over ravines and such. Great fun.

It's been a terrible winter, cold and lots of snow-so the
truth is I hadn't ridden in several months. When I got off that
horse I could barely walk.

The next day - I was TOTALLY sore. Feeling stiff and sore all
day I got on the internet and dug around for some exercises you
could do for horseback riding. I thought to myself wouldn't it
be nice if I could keep my "riding muscles" in shape even when
I'm not actually riding a horse?

That's when I stumbled on "Pilates Specific Exercises for Horseback
Riders". You can read about it here:

Exercises for Horseback Riders

It's basically designed to make people better competitive riders,
and although I do trail riding and not competitions, I figured it could
be a benefit to me or to any rider. When I was reading the article one
comment hit home:

"Of all the paces the sit trot; it is the most difficult movement to perform dignified and well."

Well, I'm not trying to look "dignified" doing the trot, I'm just trying to avoid
bouncing around like a jackhammer! Anyway this exercise program is developed
by Annette Wilson, a professional horseback rider and physiotherapist.

She's put together a set of training exercises (for YOU, not your horse)
that will help you improve balance, muscle strength, reduce tightness, and
end muscle pain, lower back pain, and neck pain from riding.

As someone who's experienced this when I've been out of the saddle for
awhile, I can vouch for this program-it's "just what the doctor ordered".

Here's the link again:

Exercises for Horseback Riders
http://www.applied-posture-riding.com

Thanks and happy riding,
Dave McMahon
www.aweber.com