12/3/2023 0 Comments Major timer 30 minutes![]() ![]() Close email and social media or put your phone in another room for 15 minutes. Multitasking has been shown to greatly decrease productivity and efficiency. Work only on that task until the timer goes off. Staying in the moment during your everyday life can help you improve doing the same with your horse. If he stumbles, spooks or bucks and our mind is elsewhere-thinking about what to make for dinner, the big meeting tomorrow, our kid’s last report card-that minor blip in our ride can turn into a fall and a major injury for us or our horse. Horses, on the other hand, are always in this moment.Ī key to good riding is staying present with our horse. With social media, games, texts, videos and music as close as our phone, it’s easy to get distracted. Our world doesn’t make it easy to stay present. It can help to put your hands lightly on your lower ribs and feel the expansion. Take a long, slow inhale, expanding your lower rib cage as you inhale. Repeat for five cycles, then return to regular deep breathing. Inhale for five counts, hold for five counts, exhale for five counts, hold for five counts. ◆ If you discover your breathing has been shallow or quick, take a few minutes to use one of these tips to deepen your breath. Are you relaxed and breathing deeply? Are you tense and breathing shallowly? Don’t change anything-just bring awareness. When it chimes, simply notice your breathing and how you’re feeling. Set a timer to ring every hour during the day. When you change your breathing to deeper, slower, full breaths, you relax and your horse does, too. ![]() He may respond with tension, bracing, shying, bolting, or being fearful. Not only does shallow breathing create tension and stress in our body, it does the same for your horse. It also limits the amount of oxygen in our brain and body, which slows down decision making and reaction time. When we hold our breath or our breathing is fast and shallow in our upper chest, it triggers the sympathetic nervous system and the fight or flight response. The quality of our breathing impacts our everyday life and significantly affects our riding, and is a key factor to improve. Photo by Mariia Boiko/Shutterstock Improving Breathing This will help your riding aids become more independent. Standing yoga poses help to improve balance and body alignment. ◆ Use a saddle chair or yoga ball instead of a regular desk chair. ◆ Stand on a BOSU ball or balance board for a few minutes a couple times a day. Try Mountain, Warrior, Triangle, Tree and Chair poses (visit Yoga Journal for tips). When we can balance in the saddle with our body aligned correctly, we can ride without gripping with our legs, shoving our feet forward in the stirrups, or hanging on with the reins.īetter balance means our aids-legs, hands, seat-become independent and precise, and it can help us ride with less pain, too. Improving Balanceīalance is a key part of being a good rider. You can do them anywhere, and all you need is a timer to get started. Because our days are packed, each of these practices takes just a few minutes a day. ![]()
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