Yoga samples for riders

General tips for Yoga:

In doing Yoga with hubby, I’ve noticed that men, especially tall men, are generally very stiff and inflexible in the back of the legs. You need to adapt and take it slower into the stretch. Trying to get the total stretch might just hurt you so work into it and adapt with a strap or block.

Yoga is not a contest. Just do what you can and take note of how you are personally improving. There are ways to adapt with straps and blocks so check out some books or classes for assistance.

Note which side of your body is stiffer then the other. This will effect your riding (i.e. most commonly the horse has a problem taking a circle on your stiffer side – which is the stronger side with contracted muscles that don’t fully release).

Try to hold a pose for 3 full minutes. Holding into the stretch gives you the most power of the stretch. Breathing into the deepened stretch is the beginning of meditation and mindfulness.

Breath while holding the stretch. This also translates into riding where we forget to breath while concentrating.

Once you are familiar with Yoga and the poses you feel most comfortable doing, you can do a couple before riding as opposed to a full routine. Although, of course, doing a full routine a few times a week can continue your improvement

Riders have some general problems that are common:

1.) Stiff and locking hips

Yoga Jason Crandell – Hip Openers toward Lotus

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2.) Stiff and rigid back

3.) Crumpled upper body position

Yoga Jason Crandell – Jason Crandell: Shoulder Sequence

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Find more at Yoga Journal or Yoga Downloads.

Slo-Go game for half-halts

I thought I would give you details on an exercise I’ve been using with BigT. It’s done at liberty and here in a roundpen, though if your horse has learned free lunging you can do it in this matter.

I use a clicker because I want to shape the movement. JMO but the clicker really helps in getting the horse and you on the same page faster then if you do a “good boy” or a pat or even a food reward without the clicker. The click is given at the moment the desired behavior is given by the horse so it serves as a marker.

In this video, BigT already knows voice commands. I am blending my voice with certain body movements so eventually he will respond to the physical cue without the voice. Horses pick up on this much quicker then you think! In the video, several times BigT started the trot just from me lifting my leg.

This was some video we took last year. Unfortunately, the long winter shadows impair some of the view, but I think it still gives the basic idea and the view of what we are doing.

Stage One: Warmup

Warm the horse up with the voice command to walk. Go both directions. Find out if he is responding to your verbal cue to whoa. Add in some trot. At this stage you do not want your horse rushing about – getting him to look to you and paying attention is far more important.

Stage Two: Adding physical cues

To trot, lift your leg higher and in a more animated position. Body is upright. Click and reward when your horse responds. Eventually you will fade out the verbal cue but for now link the voice which your horse is probably familiar with, with the body cue you select. Always use the same body cue for the same command.

To slow, you will bring your knees down like you are about to kneel. The bellybutton is thrusted forward, the back tall.

Your horse will most likely slow, drop from trot to walk, or maybe even stop. In the beginning, reward for any slowing. Eventually, you will remove the stopping and even the dropping out of gait.

Stage Three: Adding a GO!

Once your horse is slowing, add a GO! before he breaks down from the desired gait (in this video it is working in trot, though the same applies to canter work). We are now removing the walk from the trot – and the halting.

Things to see in this video:

In the slo-mo portion of the video, note the huge increase in stride. The hindleg now has an overstride, especially at video marker – 4:50.

After the slow-go command, the trot becomes more rhythmatic (you can hear the hoofbeats in some of it)

The head relaxes and is neither held too high or too low. However, he does push his nose to the outside of the circle and we will correct in a later video.

The back rises but it is very subtle. You may find it impossible to see the back change unless you have an educated eye or are using videotape.

The horse is not rushing about – the work is controlled and afterwards, though he has flared nostrils, he is not out of breath, no pink in his nostrils and neither is he lathered.

You are looking for the horse to be paying attention to you – rushing about and looking to the outside and not obeying your commands means your horse is too distracted. Take a step back in the process and look for connection before you ask for improvements.

Anatomy of a Bad Turn

What is baffling in watching some videos is the question why trainers are overbending their horses? I’ve seen this more in the western training but I don’t get it. To me, overbending is a beginner riding problem and not something I would want to train my horse to do while riding.

If you were riding and turning a horse, you would simply want to see the horses’ inside eye during the turn. That is enough bend for your average 20 or 15 m circle turn.

When you overbend you are causing several problems to occur:

1.) makes the horse go crooked – if looking from above the bend comes from the poll and not the length of the spine. It’s not surprising that horses rode this way become sore in the poll;

2.) puts the horse on the forehand – because this turn puts the horse out of balance, the weight is thrown onto the front. The majority of western horses I’ve seen are on the forehand as well as hunters;

3.) simply overkill – you are teaching the horse that he must have over-the-top requests before responding. I would rather teach the horse to respond to light and small requests for movement.

You will also see, when given the aid to turn, that these horses move away sideways – escaping in the outside shoulder and not using their spine or hindquarters to generate the pivot.

I deliberately put Z in a bad position during turning to take these photos:

In the above photo, too much force is given, too quickly on the side rein. This pulls the horses’ head to the side, but the horse is not providing a bend throughout the body for a proper turn.

As a rough guide, you want the nose over the chest. The red bars show how far we are from this ideal. The horse is clearly only turning it’s head – not it’s body.

You will often hear someone say, “the horse has popped his shoulder on the turn” or he is “escaping in the outside shoulder.” In the above photo, the darkened area shows how the shoulder is outside the bend because the turn is being made out of balance.

A bad turn also results in the horse being heavy on the forehand. In the above photo, Z is landing heavy on her inside front leg. If you were riding, you might feel your inside leg “falling to the ground” or have the feeling you were leaning into the turn.