Cob Jockey

One of the gymnastics exercises we did at the LandSafe clinic got us into an inverted plank position with our feet way above our heads, and we stayed there for several seconds before rolling out of it.  Some of the ladies started murmuring that they weren't sure they could do that. 

When Danny heard that, he stopped what he was doing and said, "You'll able to do this, actually, you should be able to do a push-up in this position.  I'm not going to make you do a push-up, but if you were fit enough to actually do a push-up in this position, you'd be fit enough to avoid falling off, and then you don't even need to use what you're learning here and that's best case scenario.  I mean, we're teaching you what to do at the moment of impact when things have already gone wrong, and that's great, but ideally you wouldn't come off in the first place."

PC: Olivia because I didn't get any pictures of this, but he said you should be able to do an inverted pushup with your feet on the top of the pyramid (and your hands on the ground, not on the tall mat shown here).

Since he said that, I've been rolling around this idea in my head that there's fit enough to ride, and THEN there's fit enough to not fall off.  To keep yourself safe.  To give yourself a fighting chance to not hit the ground when shit starts going sideways. And those two levels of fitness are not the same.

...not that our shit ever went sideways when we were eventing

What if we treated Danny's inverted push-up (and the level of fitness it requires) as an essential piece of safety gear just like a helmet?  I'm fascinated by this idea that CrossFit has been protecting me in the saddle this whole time.  I knew it was making me a more effective rider already, but protecting me, that I had never considered.

I've only come off once in the last 11 years (on a strange horse and landed on my feet), but especially while eventing, I nearly came off many times.  Every time, I was able to cling onto him and heave myself back into the saddle from a lot of different close-call positions.  The last 11 years are also the fittest I've ever been, since I first started hitting the gym the summer before I got Connor. 

Doing biomechainics drills in the gym with a nearly empty barbell last week, just like I do at the barn.  Shoulder hip heel in line!  All my muscles are gone after not working out for a month due to work, sigh :(

(And yes, Connor himself has a lot to do with me not coming off, because another "essential piece of safety equipment" is the right horse at the right level with the right rider.  I know I'm not cut out for something tall, spicy and 5* level athletic.)

I'd love to see us all treat out bodies as another piece of safety gear, and it's difficult to develop the amount of strength Danny is talking about outside of strength training, whether that's bodyweight P90X in your living room or my own personal one true love, CrossFit.  I know it's definitely given me one more reason to get myself to the gym as often as I'm able to.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear some chatter about this.

In the words of Mike Polk Jr, "I know there are more important things in life than (horses), but you are supposed to be our pleasant distraction from those things!"


(Funny video, whether or not you're a football fan.)

I've had an awful week.  Things are crashing randomly at work, requiring lots of overtime and early mornings and I wasn't able to ride Connor at all since my last lesson.  So I was looking forward to my lesson today as a nice bit of stress relief, but then Connor played hard to catch until we cornered him at the pipe gate outside his field after a half-hour of walking him down with tears in my eyes.  Not exactly my "pleasant distraction" at that point.


CrossFit really helped my jump form yesterday, as I had the best jump form of my life (says my trainer) after applying the principles I'm learning in Kelly Starrett's Mobility WOD website and book, Becoming a Supple Leopard.  "I've never seen you ride like that before!" my trainer said, "in a good way!"  I tend to round my shoulders forward, upper back out and lower back in all the time, and I've heard from both my CrossFit and riding trainer about that negatively affecting me lately.  Right now I'm working on the section in Becoming a Supple Leopard that talks about keeping your back straight and spine neutral by "resetting" it, which I approximated in the saddle yesterday.  It consists of three steps:

1) Tighten glutes as hard as you can to bring your pelvis underneath you.
2) Tighten abs to hold the pelvis there, release glutes (ideally, you should always have approximately 20% muscle contractions of the abs at all times for good spinal alignment without getting fatigued)
3) Pull your shoulders back by thinking about pulling the shoulder blades down.

After doing 2 and 3 in the saddle just before the jump exercise we did, I did not jump ahead of him (big deal for me), he did not break to the trot at all, and my shoulders were back.  My trainer was delighted and kept calling it a big breakthrough for me, because in addition to having my shoulders back I also had a flat back over the fence.  She kept telling me that my engaged abs were working to push him into the bridle, and that my lengthened inside leg was asking him to not blow through my aids and stay active.  I'm feeling aches in long-neglected muscles, especially the muscles in the middle of my back, as I try to ingrain this new and better posture into my body, but it's worth it since it made such a huge difference yesterday.

I really encourage you to check out the Becoming a Supple Leopard book, it's got so much in it that will help equestrians improve their form and lessen their chances of injury.  Even though it's designed for CrossFitters, the principles of good movement and balance are the same in everything.  I look forward to seeing what the rest of the book does for my riding.

Let's talk about rider fitness.  I'm genuinely interested in hearing what you have to say about this one, regardless of who you are, so comment away!  I want to know what makes people tick and why they do or don't work out.  No judging whatsoever here, just genuine curiosity.

I'm currently in the best shape of my life, and it's having such a dramatic effect on my riding that I make time, no matter what my schedule is like, to work out, and hard.  There's no super secret method to my motivation, besides not ignoring my alarm clock when it goes off at 5:40am on days that I ride.  I just want it that badly.  I look at the strength I've gained, and I decide at every workout that I don't want to lose it.  That's not to say I'm perfect; I had three days in a row off last week, and I definitely like my beer and bread!  But knowing that it's not helping me achieve my goal makes it easier to ignore it...most of the time.

It's not always been easy.  I've been a lifelong team sport athlete, so without a coach, I understand fully the feeling of walking into a gym alone and going, "...why am I here and what is all this for?"  Put simply, I have always needed a coach to kick my ass, and I still do.  It wasn't until I started doing Crossfit, did six weeks of personal training, and really learned why I do what I do in the gym that it all clicked for me, and I became officially addicted.

Six months ago

Today.

So what prevents you from working out?  Really, get to the bottom of it.  Don't say lack of time, because there's always an excuse buried deeper than 'lack of time'.  Fear of being ridiculed?  Not knowing what to do?  Subconscious peer pressure to fit in with friends?  I'm here to tell you: the rewards, especially in riding, are SO WORTH IT!  My trainer tells me to ride from my core, and I CAN, because I have a core!  She says "Ride stronger," and I know what that means, because I have the muscles to back me up when I ask my body to do it.

That's what fitness comes down to for me: having the knowledge that I can ask my body to do ANYTHING, and it will be there for me.  Run a 5k?  Sure.  Deadlift 145 pounds (I weigh 103)?  Absolutely.  Ride my horse from my core instead of my legs/hands?  Definitely!  Part of it is the Crossfit goal, which is creating functional strength for all areas of your life, but the other parts are being fit and accepting the temporary discomfort that working out provides.  Let me tell you: it's worth it!

So talk to me.  Why don't you work out?  If you do work out, how has it affected your riding?  If you don't, what would make it easier and less intimidating?  I'm not just trolling for comment love here, this is the one issue I feel genuinely passionate about in the equestrian world, and I want to know how you feel.

(I would like to add an asterisk: working out doesn't have much of anything to do with weight loss, only getting fit.  Weight loss is a whole other post that centers primarily around diet - and trust me, I've been there too!)

I unsuccessfully tried to find someone to go with me to my lesson yesterday, but my instructor was kind enough to teach and take a few photos.  So here are the first photos of me riding since September of 2010.  Critiques are absolutely welcome and encouraged.  First, a comparison photo from September of 2010, in which I was riding Dillan for Lisa:

What I see in this picture: I'm tense, my position is artificially produced, my heels are jammed down hard and I am very "clicked into place" as my trainer described my riding when she first saw me.  I'm tipped forward a bit and arching through my back.

Now on to yesterday's photos:

First, a photo at the walk.  Mac doesn't look the greatest in this photo, but it's a good shot of my position.  Everything about my position is less tense in this photo compared to the one above.  My leg is relaxed and against the horse the whole way down, I'm sitting up tall and I'm not "perched" on the horse's back.  My hands look like they're uneven, and they could be, but I think it's because she didn't take this picture dead on.

And a trot photo.  My heel has gone down a little more and my toe has rotated out just a bit, which makes me pinch with my knee just a tad.  This is a fault of mine that we're working to correct.  Compared to the 2010 photo which is also a trot photo, though, I'm sitting up taller, arching my back a little less, and again, none of that tension.  I look like I'm in control of my ride rather than just sitting there.  My hands are funky here and I'm definitely doing a pitty paw with that outside, though in my defense we spent much of this lesson working on widening my hands and I felt like a five year old learning to ride again.



We didn't canter yesterday due to the oppressive heat, which is disappointing because I've made the most changes to my position at the canter.  Anyway, what do you see?  What do you think?  I have no local horsey friends, so you all are all I've got!


Finally, a gratuitous "look at how fit I am now!" shot, because I'm damn proud of those arm muscles and the effort it's taken to develop them!