Virtual Biomechanics Review #2
Quick Reminder: Everyone is doing their best, both in this picture and on my part as the reviewer. As Mary Wanless says, “people are more than the sum of their parts.” These fun virtual biomechanics reviews are designed to instruct and encourage. Thanks again to this rider for being our next biomechanics model!
Here we have a lovely horse and rider combination who are working at home. We catch them at the top of a post in the trot, and they seem to be going left. She and her mare have been together for a while. I believe the mare was originally a brood mare, so she had a later start to her dressage career. This is a big moving horse, and a red head to boot, so she has had her hands full :)
Today we are going to cover 2 items in reviewing her photo: Lineup and Core Engagement.
LINEUP:
If we were to magically pull the horse out from under the rider, would the rider land on her face, her fanny, or her feet? While there is a lot of good going on in her line up, it is easy to see that she would, horse removed, land on her face. How do we correct this tipping forward without using the same old “lean back” cry? Here we go!
In the stirrup, the rider’s foot is parallel to the ground, which is perfectly acceptable in the dressage saddle.
We ultimately would like to see more weight distributed in the thigh than in the foot (ultimately a 70/30 ratio thigh to foot), which allows the ankle to bend softly and the rider to use the stirrup to rebalance themselves, not brace into it. I believe in this picture that she has more weight in the front of her foot than in the thigh, which makes her brace in a sophisticated way onto the stirrup.
Instead of asking her to put the weight in the heel, I would ask her to lift her toes, which would transfer more of her weight into her thighs. This would begin the adjustment of her line up, by increasing her attachment to the saddle and her stability closer to her center of gravity. By attaching the thigh more, she would increase the bend at the back of her knee, giving her more ability to manage the top and bottom of her post.
At this moment, partially because she is tipping forward, she is unable to come to the full top of the post, and therefore is allowing some of the horse’s energy to get lost in the back. To make this idea clear, think of your posting mechanism as the windshield wiper on your car. There are two parts to the wiper, the lower and upper arms. The lower arm merely raises the upper arm, which then comes to the full top of the swing and the complete bottom of the swing each swipe. The wiper moves the same amount every time, taking the same amount of time to complete both the up and the down portions of the swipe.
Bringing this back to the posting mechanism, her thigh is not attached enough to keep the energy coming to the full top of the post. That will also mean she is cannot support herself enough to place herself at the bottom of the post, but will more likely get pulled back into the saddle by the horse’s movement.
For her to take control of this trot, she needs to come up more in the post, not just up but forward, in order to stay with the motion of the horse.
CORE ENGAGEMENT:
In order to balance the top of her body with this more attached and powerful thigh, we want to assess how the torso is working to assist or to deflect her efforts. In this photo, while there is a lovely straight line from the bit to the rider’s elbow, the direction of energy we can see is going down, not forward. Again, she is being influenced by the horse, rather than being the influence to the horse. How do we change that?
Increasing her core strength, known throughout biomechanics as bear down, is a good place to start.
Imagine her torso like an unopened can of soup. To keep the soup from spoiling, the can has been vacuum sealed…that soup won’t spoil for years! There is an equal amount of pressure existing on all sides of the can, not just on the front or the back of the can. There is also an equal pressure between the can and the soup – the can is pushing IN on the soup while the soup is pushing OUT on the can. This is a really brief explanation of bearing down in the core.
Looking at her torso, we can see that there is not an equal amount of pressure or power in the front of her body to the amount in the back of her body. So, while her back is working hard to come forward in the post, the front is deflecting the effort, and therefore the post is cut short of the full action it should take to match this mare’s stride.
How do we fix this issue, which is common in so many riders, and causes back pain from incorrect compensation? The easiest way to work on this issue without a coach is balloon breathing. Grab a balloon and blow it up. Make a note of every action you do to blow this balloon up – the in breath, the way your ribs press out against your skin and how your core muscles push back in to propel the air into the balloon…as you went for your second inhale, you probably pinched the balloon off with your fingers right in front of your mouth to keep the air from pushing back at you…that’s cheating!
Try it again, but this time, when you go for the second in breath, prevent the air from coming out of the balloon with your tongue! Notice the way your ribs stayed out, and your core stayed strong. This made you more like the soup can!
This, my friends, is bear down, and it is what the best riders are doing, whether they know it or not.
Keep blowing up your balloon and making notes about your core – did you notice any parts of you that didn’t work as much as others? That would be like having a dent in the can – the integrity of the can is compromised, so the soup may not be good anymore!
She essentially has a “dent” in the front of her soup can. Working on balloon breathing both in and out of the saddle will help her develop more engagement of her core, which will in turn help her manage the engagement of the horse’s core, which will lead to more regularity of the gaits and better scores at the show!
Have a biomechanics question?
Email me a picture of you and your horse from the side with a little description of what you were doing at that moment. I’ll be happy to review it (and redact your name). Let’s get you reviewed and on your way to a better ride!