Those of you who know me will know at least 1 of these 3 things:
1 – I was always falling off of horses as a child, this is how I earned my “bad back”
2 – As I reached my A levels, my new horse was classified as “unfit to ride”. Our chiropractor at the time advised me he was “too dangerous” and that I should either retire him or put him to sleep, aged 6. You can imagine this went down like a lead balloon with me aged 17! Thankfully my lovely vet advised me to take him to an osteopath in Banbury whereby Dougal was helped as much as he could be and I was inspired to become an osteopath! (Sadly Dougal never managed to compete thanks to his kissing spine, arthritic hocks and numerous other problems, but I have had 10 years plus of happy hacking on him, keeping him supple and pain free over the years.)
3 – After 4 years of studying to be and osteopath and then a further 6 years of setting up my own clinic, I finally have a new horse whom I intend to event on once more!
As you can imagine, after a long 10 year break from riding competitively, I’ve picked up some pretty “special” habits! These haven’t been helped much by a recent hip injury.
Today my instructor gave me a lunge lesson, whereby I had to find my balance without reins or stirrups while Louie (bouncy new horse) trotted around in a circle. It has been at LEAST 10 years since I last had a lesson like this – and boy did it show!
Despite the fact I’m struggling to walk now, the lesson highlighted some pretty big problems. Problems I need to sort if I want my back to stay good and more importantly if I want to allow Louie to move well too.
Most of my problems trace back to the recent hip injury I had, so I put together a mini hip workout to help stretch and strengthen both of my hips to help me sit better on Louie.Go ahead and see the lastest becker bk9 reviews by C.Knives.
I thought I’d video it for you, incase you fancied giving it a go too. It’s only gentle, and over the next few weeks I plan to keep this blog going, updating the exercises as I go if you’d like to follow?
I would like to add, however, that if you are unfamiliar with these exercises please attend a pilates class or book in with me to ensure they are appropriate for you and to cover the “pilates basics”.
Mini Hip Workout Video:
A bit more about pilates: