The horse is our mirror...

Riding and working with horses everyday is often viewed as a luxurious job that is really quiet glamorous and refined. Wrong! I must admit there are moments of glamour but they are often very short lived and when I say short lived I am not talking as in days or hours but rather in minutes! It is a job that requires physical and mental strain for hours on end; this not only includes riding but physical stamina and endurance also come into play.

I am currently at the end of my annual holiday which has allowed me time to reflect upon the year that was and the year ahead. While looking back over the year that was 2009; reminiscing over the blood, the sweat, the tears and sometimes those rare but ever so precious moments of accomplishment and joy; I also begin to plan and formulate my goals for the coming year that is now 2010.

2009 was the year that highlighted for me the importance of the body and physical health. On approach to my holiday my body was screaming with aches and pains but yet (and only as horse people tend to do) I continued as ever to push on and ignore these pains. On the long and somewhat lonely flight back to the land of Oz the aches and pains that plagued me every day continued to do so and by this stage they were in Olympic form. Every time I rose from my seat I would come half way up and pause as my back would catch, oh the pain! To support myself I would then proceed to hang on to the head rest in front of me much to the irritation of the unfortunate passenger; and then in resemblance of all animals prehistoric I would hobble half crouched down the isle huffing and puffing until I reached my chosen destination.

Something was seriously wrong. It got me thinking; Why does my body feel so bad? How on earth do I ride horses all day everyday? I began to think about our beloved partners, our horses.

Our horses are our hearts, we see them, we feel them and we love them. We also recognize that to get the best of out of our horses we must take the required management steps to ensure health and peak performance; this includes things such as ice packs, cold hosing, acupuncture, massages, bandaging and vets, you name it our friends recieve the works! But what about the rider? It is not so often you read material that is not almost soley focused on the horse. The horse is our mirror. Every thing we do with our bodies when riding will have an effect on the horse; so why do we leave the health of ourselves, the rider, lower on the list of priorities?

I decided that something needed to be done and that for 2010 I was going to start looking after my body the way it deserved and needed to be looked after if I was going to reach a level of good performance. This quest to better my physical condition lead me to Massage Therapist Shebnem Giner. Shebnem Giner owns a business called ‘Revitalized’ and specializes in Remedial, Sports, Trigger point and Deep Tissue massage. The moment Sheb laid her hands on my back I new it was trouble; ‘ I bet you pay more attention to your pot plant than your body!’ Sheb was very right, although I don’t own any type of ‘Living’ flora I got the message...

In my next blog I will be interviewing Sheb to find out some key facts about our bodies as riders, what happens to muscles when put under stress and some simple things that we can do to help our muscles especially when you have limited time!

Until next time!

Briana

Pictured above: Briana chatting with the two year olds at Bradgate Park during her holiday home in Australia