Rider Fitness

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Scroll through this page and you will find a number of equestrian
videos for fitness that you can do at home.  

Fitness for the rider, especially as we age.
by EEAHC Member Marianne Love

     I’ve never been a fitness follower.  Having lived  almost all my life on a farm, I’ve always figured that farm and yard work provided more than enough exercise to keep in shape.  No need for the gym when you’re using your muscles in so many ways while doing chores, bucking bales, gardening, raking leaves, etc. For the most part, that belief has been true.

     In the past few years, however, my aging body has been telling me a completely different story. Its muscles, ligaments and tendons aka soft tissue seriously need a little warm up before going back to specific kinds of work. If they don’t get that warm-up, they protest and scream in painful ways, and even sometimes just plain refuse to work.

     As an active outdoors person and lifelong horse lover, I’m slowly adjusting to a new outlook on how to take care of my body if I want to continue doing the activities I love, especially riding my horses. 
    During the past couple of years, I have endured a few long-lasting painful experiences after engaging in situations which, in my younger years, simply led to a day or two of discomfort and then went away.
    With that in mind and knowing that I have a few years on most of the other members of this Arabian Club,  I’d like  very much  for my recent misfortunes serve as examples for others, especially those just entering the “golden years” to observe, get proactive and hopefully avoid.
    It’s not fun spending two or three months dealing with a stiff and sore knee or an aching back or sore shoulder.  Sadly, I have learned this fact of life the hard way:  the older we get, the faster our anatomy breaks down and the longer it takes for muscles, ligaments and tendons aka soft tissue to heal.
     We can avoid much of this avoidable pain by being smart and embracing some forms of exercising to prepare those muscles for running, riding, working, etc.
     Therefore, we have added this fitness page to the website, in hopes that you may check out the possibilities available in the videos for tuning up before you saddle up.
    
    Also, if you have some tips to add, send them our way. Your suggestions and tips can be sent to us at emeraldempireahc@gmail.com . We'd always love to hear from you. 

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