How to warm-up before riding this winter
As the temperature is now dropping, we’re starting to dig out rugs for our horses and think about how we can keep them warm when exercising. But we also need to think of ourselves.
When we feel cold, we tend to feel stiff and hunch forward, meaning our tall, supple riding positions in the saddle rapidly disappear. One way we can combat this is to warm-up before we even get on.
A good warm-up doesn’t need to take a long time, nor does it need to be complicated. There are two main aims of a good warm-up:
- To physically warm your body up and get blood flowing to your muscles.
- To move the joints that are used the most when riding.
Below are 6 movements you can do as a quick pre-ride warm-up. Do the first three exercises fast to get your blood pumping, and then slow down for the last three to get your joints feeling loose and supple! If you’re really cold, do these for a little longer to really warm yourself up! Pop your Flexars on and get going!
This post is written by Heidi Zymela, who is a graduate Sports Therapist based at a sports injury clinic in Hartley Wintney. When she’s not treating human injuries, she is riding her loan horse, and keeping warm in her many pairs of Flexars!
