Riding fit?

[Happy Ponies]

For college they want me to be riding fit and I don't have a lot of a clue what this actually means. I've been riding for 6 years and have never done any exercise to support this.

How would you deem being riding fit and what would getting there involve? Because currently I am about as flexible as a plank of wood (my instructor makes fun of me for this as most of the older riders are a lot looser than me) so I've figured maybe I should be more flexible but I'm not sure about how to do it. Any ideas of exercises to do/what you do to be riding fit?

 

[[69117]]

That depends on what you'll be doing.

In my opinion there are different levels of riding fitness, and those levels would depend on what you're doing. For instance, I am fit enough to comfortably hold a conversation whilst cantering for ten minutes riding one polo pony and leading two. But I haven't jumped since before Christmas so have lost all my jumping fitness.