Labels

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Fighting The Fear Of Falling



Many great programs for dealing with riding anxiety fail to cover one important point--that, as important as balance is, strength what keeps one on a bucking or severely spooking horse.

Most of our fears of falling are not well grounded in fact.  However, the fear that if you are over 35 you stand a great chance of breaking a bone when gravity is applied to speed and mass is very well grounded in fact.

You cannot do anything to make your bones younger, but you can, in about an hour a week, radically strengthen the muscles that you use when riding. There are a lot of great exercises for strengthening the muscles of the body's core but nothing beats the complete riding strength development of a simple exercise called the Farmer's Walk.

Do a bit of research on this simple exercise. Don't try to become a body builder, but carry enough weight in each hand to get results. With correct technique and sufficient weight in each hand you will likely see changes in your body faster than any other exercise that you have ever done.

Those changes will increase your confidence. The increase in strength that you obtain will make that confidence well grounded. The caveat of checking with your doctor before beginning any exercise program applies here. Unless there is a medical reason to refrain from doing this exercise, I only know of one thing that one can do that is even better for building riding strength and that is to trot without resting for many hours each week.

And when the two are put together you will transform your body and your horse's too.

No comments: