Hello,
This weeks' participating rider sent in a very technical description of her question. You can see her description in the comments section of last weeks' blog. She gave me some excellent and specific information, but I wanted to hasten to encourage you that you don't have to be as technical. Just a description of what's happening when you ride that you'd like addressed with some unmounted suggestions, and a few photos suffices..even if you don't have a photo, we can still work with descriptions. Last weeks' blog did not start with photos, and the feedback has been really great.

Please keep in mind that I'm limited here to three exercises, though I sometimes throw in a few more. It takes time to retrain your body and to build up both muscle memory, and endurance. You're better to do just a couple of things consistently, than get gung-ho on a huge program, and drop off it two months later.

The Rider
This week's rider is Chris (see photos in comments below). She rides in a dressage saddle, and is not competitive. She has had some structural issues with her hips which are being treated by a chiropractor, and also was born pigeon toed. This condition was largely corrected but is still somewhat noticeable (not in the pictures, though I can see the effects in the photos). Chris identified with last weeks' legs creeping forward problem- hers tend to ride forward in canter. Her inner thigh tightens and she finds her seat pushed out of the saddle at the faster pace. She would like to achieve better symmetry in her seat, and also get some suggestions which might help some low back pain and tight sacro-iliac (SI- where tailbone and hip connect) issues she is experiencing.

Pigeon toing can create a medial knee rotation or valgus condition (inward turning of knee). If you imagine one end of your femur (knee end) moving in, the mechanical effect on the other end (hip) is to put some outward pressure in the hip joint. The specific outer thigh and hip issues that Chris has noted are tightness in the SI joint, and also sometimes in the iliotibial band (IT band), which runs down the outside of the upper leg. It's possible the pigeon toing tendency is responsible for both of these, though since I am not a physiotherapist I am not in a position to make a clinical statement.

The SI joint is not really a joint. As we age it gets tighter in all of us because the ligament type tissue which is the connection between the hip and sacrum gets less flexible. As the SI joint trends toward soft tissue fusing, hips become less mobile and the disks and muscles in your lower back tend to absorb more motion than they used to, and they were meant to. Lower back issues often result.

The inward knee rotation from the early childhood pigeon toeing would typically result in a tendency toward tight inner thighs. Riding is probably one of the best activities for Chris.

Posture Analysis
In Chris's facing and rear-view photos you can see that her lower leg sticks out, and the bottoms of her feet are not parallel to the ground- they stick out. Since her toes are pointed forward, the stiff sticking out lower leg would be my only clue to the valgus in her upper thigh. You can observe her knees quite close in suggesting tight adductors (inner thigh muscles), even when she is not in motion. Additionally, she does have a tendency to sit to the right. In the rear-view shot you can see her spine curving left somewhat, and her head tilting right to compensate. We didn't discuss her ride much, but I'd be willing to be the horse has a tendency to fall in or out to the right.

Biomechanics
Looking at her feet, you can see that her weight does not move straight down from her seat, into the bottoms of her feet and down to the ground. In her still shots she is fairly straight with good posture, but when she picks up pace her feet go forward and her seat comes up out of the saddle because her balance wasn't in her seat in the first place- it was in the pinching inward knees. The tightness in her IT band is probably created from pull on the opposite side of the leg (inner thigh) against a weak IT band. Strong muscles don't need to get tight because they have adequate strength for the demand. That's why tightness is often a clue to weakness.

Suggested Exercises

I'm going to stay focused here on the two areas Chris asked me to focus on: her tight hips and back pain. The same exercises that will help with these issues will also help her loosen her grip with her inner thigh while riding, and balance better on her seat bones with straighter alignment.

Chris would benefit from hip opening stretches in several directions, inner thigh stretching, and strengthening of her outward rotating muscles: glutes, IT band, hamstrings. She would also benefit from balance training to help her find a centre of gravity more directly over her feet.

1. Hip Twist: This stretch should be done when you have time to relax into it for a few minutes. Lie on your back on the floor with your arms out, and your knees up like you might do a sit-up. Then let your knees, legs, hip fall over to one side with your shoulders remaining on the ground. Lying on your back hugging your knees with a hand weight or weighted pilates ball under your hip right at the SI joint will also releaes the tightness in your fascial tissue. Tight SI is a deep tissue problem, not something that can be fixed with a quick muscle stretch. Chris should also be doing a runners' lunge for both her hip flexors, and the splits with her upper body supported by an exercise ball our couch to take the weight off of her legs and allow a longer stretch on the inner thigh.

2. 'Fire-hydrant': This exercise is for the outward rotating muscles which need to be strengthened to adequately balance her inward rotating muscle groups. On all fours, lift up one leg with a bent knee and put it back down. 30-40 repetitions on each side, 3 x a week would be a good start.

3. Balance Board Squats: Chris needs to have her feet flat under her, and legs about 'horse width' apart. Doing the squats with her arms out like an airplane will simultaneously build shoulder and back strength, but also force her body to maintain straight alignment as she rises up and down. The exercise will help her body get a better sense of vertical alignment, as well as horizontal symmetry. Using a bosu would be another good option. Using a wobble board would not be as effective since it goes in 360 degrees, and also keeps your legs close together to stand on it. 30-40 repetitions, 3-4 times a week would be a good start.

I'm not a riding coach and out of my league to make riding suggestions, however I would love to see Chris doing more lunging work without stirrups and mounted exercises holding her legs away from the saddle to establish better balance on her seatbones.

If you liked some of the ideas in Ride Better blogs so far but wonder where you'll get the time....don't be discouraged. Most of these exercises are do-able within a few minutes a day. It doesn't cost you any extra to use TV time to stretch, or to squeeze in some exercises through your day-- but it will make a huge difference to your riding.

Until next time- happy riding!

Heather Sansom, Equifitt.com Equestrian Fitness Training