Equest Connect Clinic – Rider Balance

Think balance issues are only for beginner riders??? Or maybe just for old people??? Both of these ideas are myths and hold people of all levels and abilities back from becoming the best riders they can for their horses. For lower-level riders, suboptimal balance will certainly affect their own confidence and stability in the saddle, even if sometimes this is at an unconscious level. This is common to see in the Rider Aware clinics when riders feel how balanced and connected they should (and can) be. For higher level and elite riders, any rider balance issue, no matter how slight or which direction  (forwards, backwards or laterally) needs to be identified and addressed. At best this will only affect our horses’ ability to be able to do what we ask of them,  but it may actually contribute to horse soreness. Luckily we can do many things to improve our balance. The Equest Connect Rider Balance clinic begins with an unmounted session where we look at what factors affect our own balance and discuss the many ways our balance will affect our horses. We do fun exercises and drills to increase awareness and improve our balance before moving on to the ridden component of the clinic. Mounted exercises are used to assess the riders’ balance in both the sagittal plane and laterally. Most riders will have a tendency to lose balance at one point of the compass and even if only slightly this has a huge impact on the horse. When this is discovered and improved, the change in the horses’ work, from transitions to lateral work, straightness and collection can be absolutely amazing!  You become a much easier load for your horse to carry!Rider Balance Clinics are part of the Equest Connect Program. More information is available at Equest Connect – Victoria Hamilton Equestrian