5 Top Fitness Tips to help Rider Balance and Posture: Whatever you do off the horse, your muscles will remember when you’re on the horse. Start making a difference now!

Whatever discipline you follow with your horse: Make a difference to how you ride by improving your balance and posture.  It is as important to a top professional trainer as to the grass roots rider and will make a difference to how you ride.

Horse Scout Blogger is on the case: Being fit, independently of riding, mucking out, poo picking etc. will boost your riding and make things a whole lot easier for you and your horse. Your riding gets a boost from performing a regular exercise regimen at least twice per week, but you can also do little things in between to enhance your fitness.

1. Walk instead:  walk just a little bit further when you are going shopping or to the office.  Park further away than usual, park your car away from the entrance and take a brisk walk to the door.
2. Avoid the lift: Walking up even a single flight of stairs puts equestrians’ thighs and calves to work. Walk the stairs briskly and get a mini-aerobic workout, too. Doing two at a time is even better.  Lucinda Green’s top tip!
3. A balance in life is one thing but balance is critical for success in equestrian sports. Develop balance every day by standing on one leg, then the other for 10 to 15 seconds whenever you’re brushing your teeth, having your coffee or whenever else the opportunity presents itself. Lightly grip a convenient surface (your shopping trolley in the queue for instance), until you can progress to doing this with no surface support.
4. Don’t slouch: Good posture is critical for balance in the saddle, and for getting the long, lean look that catches judges’ eyes. But don’t just sit up straight in the saddle; do it at your desk and the dinner table, and walk with good posture, too. For those of us who are office bound there is a seat balance cushion….brilliant invention (if a bit prickly!).
5. Your muscles have a memory and when it comes to posture and balance, whatever you do off the horse to help balance and posture, your muscles will remember when you’re on the horse.