Work on the fit: shoulders back!

How many of us constantly hear the command “Shoulders back” from the coach. It seems that it is not difficult to perform it – it is a matter of one second. How about keeping your shoulders in the correct position?

Most riders have trouble getting their shoulders in the right position and it takes them a long time to develop this skill by teaching it to their body.

It doesn’t seem obvious, but one of the things that makes us lean forward and roll our shoulders is fear! When we’re nervous or afraid, often our first response is to lean forward, grab the horse’s sides with our knees, grab onto the horse’s neck. If you watch people riding a horse for the first time (regardless of their age), you will see that they lean forward, and the trainers have to constantly convince them to relax and sit upright, upright.

Just a few weeks ago, I trained a new student. In the neighboring levada there was another horse, which took it into her head to play a little. The day was very windy, and the girl’s horse, with its tail up, showed us a beautiful piaffe, only the nose was up. The horse did not react at all to its rider! The girl’s first reaction was to lean forward, lock her knees (heels up) and grab the horse’s neck – she was frightened (she was riding this horse for the first time and did not know how this horse might react).

I tried to quickly explain the “emergency stop” method to her, but keep in mind that when a person is in a state of fear, it is very difficult for him to control the automatic reactions of his body, as well as heed the instructions. Your brain goes into “reptilian brain” mode, acting instinctively and quickly rather than logically.

The problem is, if you do an “emergency stop” and lean forward with your eyes down, your heels up, you will fall! It is very important that you look up, drop your heels down and even push them forward a little and lean your body back a little. Try it! Have someone try to pull you off the horse and compare how you feel when you put your heels down and when you lift them up by turning and rolling your shoulders.

But how do you overcome your fear reaction? Changing the instinctive response is a task difficult. It takes awareness, time and practice, practice and more practice.

Let’s go back to the shoulders. Think about how your response to fear is perceived and felt by the horse. The horse is the prey animal, and we are the predators. Often this fear reaction occurs in us at those moments when the horse is also frightened. We fall on her neck, cling to her with our hands and shift our weight forward. You do realize that won’t make the horse feel safer, right?

Does your horse start to accelerate when you lean forward while trotting on the circle? When a horse is accelerating into a canter, where do you tilt your body – forward or backward? When you enter an obstacle that is higher and larger than you normally jump, are you waiting for the jump, or are you ahead of the horse’s movement? Does your horse give up regularly when overcoming obstacles?

Even the slightest shift of the rider’s weight forward affects the horse’s ability to engage the hindquarters (carry more weight on the hindquarters). One rider did an experiment with four floor scales and a saddle to see how weight shifting forward is affected by whether you roll your shoulders or start hunching over. Armed with this knowledge, we can now use it as a control tool! Lean back when you want to slow down or stop before using the reins. If you do this every time, pretty soon your horse will start to stop for no reason!

Shoulders turned inward will affect how your elbows and hands move as well – it will be difficult to achieve and maintain the perfect “tight contact” feeling, the elastic connection between the horse’s mouth and your hand. It will be more difficult for you to set your hands to move rhythmically back and forth.

Make your first response to fear by flattening your torso, rolling your shoulders, and lifting your gaze forward!

An exercise that can help you improve your shoulder position

Sometimes the easiest way to fix a problem is to exaggerate it first. Really (!) roll your shoulders forward, then turn them around. Feel the difference?

When you turn your shoulders, one problem can arise – you tense them and block the energy flow that passes through the hands and reins. So, another way to achieve the correct position of the shoulders is to think about something else.

I often think about bringing my shoulder blades together and lifting my chest. So you will even have a double benefit – you will connect the small muscles that support your spine to work. This way you will develop a beautiful posture that can be observed not only when you are in the saddle.

I also use one great visualization. This is a picture that “settled” in my mind, having a huge impact on me. It concerns the Spanish Riding School. If you have seen photographs of these amazing Lipizzans and their riders, you will remember their magnificent camisoles. The camisoles have a double line of gold buttons on the front. The riders sit very nicely and the buttons point forward. No one slouches so that the buttons look down to the ground, do they? Therefore, when you ride, imagine yourself in the place of the rider of the Spanish school in front of a thousand people. Let everyone see the shine of your golden buttons!