Equest Connect Clinic – Rider Balance

Rider Balance is so incredibly important as it affects our horses and our riding  in so many ways.  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.  All riders need to be aware of their balance tendencies, even elite riders and luckily we can do many things to improve it. The Rider Balance clinic begins with an unmounted session where we discuss the many ways our balance will affect horses and what factors may affect our balance. We do fun exercises and drills unmounted 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 will become so much easier for your horse to carry. Unbalanced riders can result in horses becoming muscle sore or travelling crookedly which can lead to unsoundness. So this is a must for riders of all disciplines, including endurance riders and pleasure ridersRider Balance Clinics are part of the Equest Connect Program and more information is available at Equest Connect – Victoria Hamilton Equestrian