Taking It Home

I ride five days a week for forty-five minutes a piece, and do Pilates once a week for an hour. That adds up to almost five hours of training a week. With most other sports, athletes who want to play at a competitive level often put in many more hours than this. When it comes to riding, however, that isn't always possible. If it were just up to me, I would spend every free second I have on my horse. The problem is that that just wouldn't be fair to him. We need our horses to enjoy their work, not resent their riders. We need to be careful not to work them too hard. So with only being able to ride forty-five minutes a day and Esso getting two days off a week, it is extremely important for me to, as my trainer likes to say, take my riding home.

I try to pay as much attention to my "position" on the horse as I do off. Working my arms independently from my body, standing straight, etc. My trainer is trying to get me to write at school with my elbow against my body rather than sticking out, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds. In addition to all that, I do exercises every night. I stretch, hold plank, etc. As much as I dislike spending 20 minutes every night trying to strengthen my core when I could be snuggled up in my bed, it is always very obvious from my riding when I have and haven't been diligent about my exercises. I want to be the best rider I can be, and if that means giving up twenty minutes of my sleep every day, then that's what's going to happen.