You need mobility for your riding and stretching alone won’t do it!

Rider mobility is a must for equestrians and just stretching alone won’t do it, but isn’t mobility the same as flexibility?
The answer is no, you can be super flexible but lack mobility! To improve our riding we need excellent hip mobility, without it we’ll struggle to have a good rising trot or to give precise leg aids (especially on a wide horse). You CAN improve your mobility!

Mobility is being able to actively control your joints through their full range of motion. Think about a rising trot as you come up in the rise, the hips needs to come into a more open extended angle, then as you come down your hip angle closes (if you’re on a wide horse your hips will also be in a more abducted position which demands greater range of movement). If you can’t control this range of motion, you are going to fall back down into the saddle heavily or/and be very tipped forwards in the up part of the rise. So you need both strength and flexibility around the hips aka mobility. When you need to take your leg back for a leg aid, again if you don’t have good mobility around the hip you won’t be able to control HOW you apply the leg aid, soft, quick, vibrating, pushing.  All leg aids aren’t the same you nee to be able to control the timing, the pressure and the release on a well trained horse. This is impossible if your tight, weak or overly flexible with no control around the hip joints.

Passive stretching won’t lead to good mobility on it’s own. Passive stretching is where you stay in a position and apply an external pressure (like a prop or the wall) to intensify the stretch. We need passive stretching first to give us good flexibility but then we need to learn to control our bodies through this range of motion actively and this is what creates a much more functional body. It doesn’t just have benefits for riding though, good mobility stops us from being injured when we slip because we can control our range of movement in that unexpected moment.

We can improve out mobility by firstly working on passive stretching then active stretching. Then we need to focus on eccentric training which basically means increasing the load on the muscles while they are in the lengthened position. Basically strengthening while the muscles are lengthening. Our muscles can tend to take more weight during the eccentric phase and also we tend to gain strength faster by working in this phase.

Fit 2 Ride One was all about the basics, developing strength, symmetry and body awareness. Learning good movement patterns to make you a better rider. In the Fit 2 Ride Second series I have included a specific Mobility session for you each week to work alongside your strength session. You’ll notice the control of your strength and flexibility allows you to be far more balanced and effective in the saddle.