Online Equestrian Fitness Resources

I want to share a few online resources with you guys. They have an equestrian and a fitness slant, so I thought it doubly appropriate! One of my big motivators for being in better shape overall is to improve my riding (and to buy some tall riding boots, who am I kidding? lol). Now, this stuff might not be for everyone, but I just wanted to share some handy resources, just in case someone else found it useful.

(The reason that I’m focusing on the equestrian-type resources right now is that the exercises aren’t hard core. There are a lot of gentle stretching exercises and light callisthenic-type exercises listed.)

One of my goals this week to start adding some basic stretching and resistance exercises (lunges, pushups, etc.) to my routine. I’ve been walking more and watching my portion sizes, but I need more! I feel like a big fluff ball, so I want to start engaging more muscles and start feeling better about that. I don’t intend to get into hard-core weightlifting by any stretch, but I do hope to progress to doing some regular weights exercises over the coming months.

I have become acquainted with a personal trainer in my area that specializes in equestrian fitness. Heather is an accomplished rider herself and does dressage with her Arab gelding. She has all kinds of cool information on her web site, which is http://www.equifitt.com.

Heather has great free monthly “FITTips” that you can sign up for. She has a regular fitness version and an equestrian version. I’ve signed up for both and really enjoy reading them. They are not just about exercises, but about all kinds of tips for riding and staying healthy. There are also a few free articles available, as well as an archive of previous FITTips – some of the topics covered are: stretches for riders, establishing good habits, how to make habits stick, etc.

I find Heather’s writing to be very positive and motivational. Some of the information has a bit of a dressage slant, but is all quite relevant to riding in general. She also writes for a few other publications – check them out if you need ideas about stretching, basic exercises or rider position!

http://www.barnmice.com – a horse message board. Heather from Equifitt.com also blogs here, so check out her writing at “Fit to Ride 1-2-3”. She will also answer questions, so if you were curious about something related to fitness or rider position, don’t hesitate to email her!

Dressage Today Magazine – Fitness Tip of the Month

There are a bunch of books that I found on equestrian fitness with a quick search on Amazon.com, but I wanted to focus on free, online resources…

http://www.localriding.com/exercise-ball.html

http://www.centralequine.com/video.aspx?id=12&type=1 – some videos (haven’t watched them all, so not sure if they are ok or kinda lame)

http://www.equisearch.com – just search for rider fitness on the home page and several pages of results come up. I know what I’m going to be reading up on this evening!

I also have several pages of exercises that I’ve ripped out of horse magazines over the past few years. If anyone is interested in them, let me know and I can scan the pages and email them to you… Sorry this post was so long...! I get all excited about online resources and link and stuff...

I’m interested to see if you guys have any other equestrian fitness links I have missed!