Stretching before/ after riding human not horse

S

StoptheCavalry

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 August 2012
Messages
812
Visit site
Does anyone stretch before or after riding?

I don't but am noticing, given that I'm quite unfit when I get off after schooling I am really stiff and will be stiff for the following few days. I always stretch before or after running but it has never crossed my mind with riding.

I have quite hurt my knee this time after being thrown around a little by my naughty horse and just wonder maybe if I had stretched before I might be ok. Would feel a bit of a fool lunging round the yard before getting on though :)
 
Tnavas said:
My riding instructor years ago used to insist that I did stretching exercises prior to riding

Makes sense really especially if you are about to have a lesson.
Click to expand...

I can see how it make sense, particularly if it stops me hobbling round for a few days. I hack more than school so while I ride quite a lot I don't think I use my "riding muscles" very often.

What stretches did you have to do? I imagine you have to stretch different bits for riding than you would for running.
 
I always do stretching before and after the lesson or ride. Often IN the lesson I will do stretches while on the horse. No stirrup work is good for stretching the leg length and heel drop, etc.

...and yes, I probably do look a fool stretching before the ride! ;)
 
Kunstenaar said:
I always do stretching before and after the lesson or ride. Often IN the lesson I will do stretches while on the horse. No stirrup work is good for stretching the leg length and heel drop, etc.

...and yes, I probably do look a fool stretching before the ride! ;)
Click to expand...

What kind of stretches do you do? Just the normal ones or do you stretch specific riding muscles? I agree with no stirrup work, I think I REALLY need to do this but until I can manage to get my horse to agree to go round the whole arena without taking off due to the terrifying monsters lurking in corners I might have to pass on that for now. I had become quite used to my old horse bucking and I think that has really affected my position now when zak is in one of his little moods in that I seem to jam my heel down as far as I can and ride almost with a straight leg which is making my knees quite sore as there is constant pressure on them.

Whoever (my other half) said all you do when riding is sit on a horse while they do all the work is seriously mistaken!!! I find it harder doing 30 minutes schooling than I do going for a 5 mile run.

I know my old instructor really recommended horse rider pilates to strengthen and stretch, in fact I think she does lessons half not ridden pilates and half riding lesson.
 
I do a lot of leg stretches before a ride as thats what gets most sore the next day. But as I tend to tense up while riding I also do upper body stretches. Nothing wild or particularly intense though. Just simple stretches. Putting my foot up on the mounting block to stretch out the legs, maybe some upper body twists each direction, arm circles etc.

I've only started riding as an adult a few years ago, and I ride at a school on 'mostly' bombproof school horses - I dont have my own horse yet. I suppose this makes it a bit easier to ride no-stirrups and do other things while being somewhat supervised if things go wrong.

I also do some fitness work at home, and do some running and occasionally tennis in summer and skiing in winter, but I consider my horse riding now as my 'gym membership'.

...And, yes we all know people who dont ride, dont understand how physical it is!
 
Yes, definitely! I do pilates to strengthen my core etc and If I've schooled my horse and not stretched I really feel it in my legs. Problem is I'm not consistent and a couple of weeks ago mounting my horse I strained my achilles tendon. It was very cold and I hadn't stretched and I am rather old but I'm sure if I'd warmed up properly before I got on, it wouldn't have happened!
 
Static stretches are really not good to do on cold muscles, and they certainly don't warm you up for dynamic work. Ideally, you want to be doing a dynamic warm up, then using static stretches after your cool down.

So my dynamic warmup would be to do something which raises my cardio rate a bit (mucking out, grooming, jogging, whatever), then leg swings - one hand on wall, 4 gentle swings, then 4 high to the front, swap sides, repeat, swap back, same but to the back, then the other leg, then face the wall, swing across the body, swap legs, then swing out to the side, swap legs. Then squat in front of the wall, and turn quickly to tap the wall on each side, 20 in total. Then standing away from wall take your arm from 2 oclock position to 7, same with other arm (obviously 11 to 5!). I have a whole heap of others I also do, but this is a good starting point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top