THE POSITION FIX

Katie Wood, PT

Registered Physiotherapist, S&C Coach and founder of The Equestrian Physio

Why Your Position Keeps Slipping (and How to Fix It)

Almost every rider has a version of it. The collapsing side you can't seem to shake, the swinging lower leg that shows up the second you get tired, the bouncy sitting trot that never quite lets you settle. Most of us have our coaches repeat the same few cues lesson after lesson, and no matter how hard we try, we keep defaulting back to old habits!

In this session we'll break down the most common rider position faults and where they actually come from. Beyond the surface-level "just soften your hands" or "shoulders back" cues that never seem to click, diving into the underlying strength, mobility, and motor control patterns that create the fault in the first place (and what to actually do to change them off the horse).

You'll learn how to identify your own position patterns, why some corrections stick and others don't, and how targeted off-horse strategies can produce bigger changes in your riding than another year of struggling to get them to click.

About the Presenter

Katie Wood is a Registered Physiotherapist, MSc Equine Science graduate, and lifelong equestrian who competed in eventing as a member of the OHTA between 2012 and 2018. Through The Equestrian Physio, she works with riders to build strength, recover from injury, and train for the real demands of the sport.

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Join me for a FREE webinar THE POSITION FIX on September 30! TWO live sessions, 11 AM and 7 PM EDT, both covering the same material. And attendees are entered to win a Video-Based Rider Performance Analysis, drawn in each session 🎥

Comment POSITIONFIX and I’ll send you the link 🍂

Because the thing is, for a lot of us, we know WHAT our position faults are. We can feel them. We can see them in the mirror. And our coaches have told us roughly four thousand times (in just the last month😂).

What nobody tells us is WHY it keeps happening.

As a physiotherapist and strength coach, most of the position faults I see in riders trace back to the same handful of contributing factors, and once you know what’s driving yours, you can work on that thing directly and finally open the door to fixing it in the saddle.

Mobility. Strength. Skill and confidence. There are a few others, like endurance, power, old injuries, body awareness, etc. but these tend to be the big ones. Swipe through for what each one actually looks like.

And the tricky bit is that the EXACT same fault can come from completely different places in two different riders. Two people collapsing left, for two entirely different reasons, with two completely different plans. Which is why generic exercises off the internet so often go nowhere.

The webinar is going to dive into all of it, plus how to work out which pattern is YOURS.

So tell me, which one do you think is yours?

LinkDM *047*

How long do you want to keep riding? For most of us, riding makes up a significant portion of our life. It’s more than just a hobby. It’s our social life, stress outlet, a therapeutic connection to the horse and satisfies our competitive goals.

Many riders I ask tell me they wish to stay in the saddle for as long as possible. But what does that look like?

Do you just leave it up to chance and hope for the best, or do you do everything in your power to ensure you’re still comfortable swinging your leg over the cantle in the next few decades?

It’s no surprise injuries, arthritis, spinal changes and other factors compound as we age. But when I talk to riders, that’s often NOT the reason folks slowly stop riding. It’s the fear of fall or injury, or a lack of stamina/strength, that eventually overcomes us.

But what frustrates me is that so much of that is PREVENTABLE. Sarcopenia and osteopenia (muscle & bone loss) are both highly prevalent conditions in the aging population.

Often, these “diseases of deconditioning” progress over decades, and slowly build simply because we STOP doing things that challenge our body. I’m not denying that it takes more effort to build muscle mass or bone density as we age, but the beautiful thing about being biological is that we NEVER loose the capacity to rebuild and adapt. And on top of that, if we start early enough, we can avoid most of that loss altogether!

Cross training out of the saddle is what allows you to build that muscle mass and bone density when you’re younger, or rebuild it even when we’re older. Unfortunately, riding itself isn’t often enough of a stimulus to build muscle or bone, but if we cross train, we can make those investments into our long term health and ENSURE we give ourselves the best possible chance of still swinging ourselves into the saddle into our seventh, eighth or even ninth decades

Which is why I built something to help. The PLEASURE RIDER program in the TEP Training app is specifically designed for the masters athlete in mind, but all the programs would be suitable to help prevent muscle and bone loss. Interested to learn more? Comment STRONG and I’ll send you all the details!

LinkDM *034*

A super common comment I get when doing intakes with new 1:1 clients, when I ask about their goals, or what they feel is “lacking” in their performance. The answer almost inevitably has something to do with “core strength”.

And while there’s no denying that core strength is absolutely a necessary component of riding, it is not THE ONLY component that needs to be addressed when looking at performance impairments.

There is SO👏 MUCH 👏 MORE👏 that goes into an effective rider than core strength.

If you’re dealing with an issue in the saddle, you have to look at the WHOLE picture and ask yourself where you might be falling short.

• Do you have sufficient strength in the muscle groups required to be effective in the saddle?

• Do you have the mobility to effectively GET your body to the position it needs to be in, and control it there?

• Do you have the awareness to effectively KNOW where your body is in the tack? Where your lower leg is placed and how much weight is in each seatbone? And on top of that, do you have the capacity to CONTROL it?

• Do you have the POWER (strength x speed) to get your body where it needs to be in the time you have? In a 15 second barrel run, or split second to ask for a flying change, can you effectively provide the aid or stability you need to achieve that?

• Do you have the ENDURANCE to hold your body where it needs to be, and sustain the output required? Whether that be for a 15 second pattern, 8 minute dressage test, 10 minute cross country course or 8 hour endurance race?

• And lastly (and this is the only one that can exclusively be trained in the saddle), do you have the SKILL to predict the horses movement? To feel what’s going on beneath you and respond? To know how to time your aids or master that movement?

Yes, not saying core strength isn’t important here... but there’s a lot more to being an effective rider than just rock hard abs🤷‍♀️

Two riders head out for a hack. It’s peaceful...until a deer bursts from the shadows. Both horses spook violently, spinning 180 degrees.

Two riders. Same situation. Two different outcomes.

Both are in their 50s, with desk jobs and a love for riding. Both ride regularly, take lessons, and enjoy the occasional hack. But there’s one major difference.

The first rider has trained 2x/week for over 10 years, lifting weights, building strength, power, & bone density. She’s had setbacks, of course (injury, illness, life) but she’s stayed consistent.

The second? Riding is her only fitness. She’s done a few bootcamps but never stuck with it. Besides, she rides, stacks hay, mucks stalls. That’s enough, right?

It wasn’t.

The first rider wobbles but stays on, using her strength and balance to recover her seat in a few strides. The second isn’t so lucky. She’s thrown over the shoulder, landing hard on her wrist.

Later, at the hospital: fractured wrist, suspected osteopenia. She thought she had more time. Now, with a cast and weeks of rehab ahead, she realizes she was wrong.

And you can translate this same story into 100 different versions:

A 12-year-old gets tossed over her horse’s head, suffering a concussion she didn’t have to if she had the strength to hold her body back.

A barrel racer tears her rotator cuff and meniscus after coming off in a turn she didn’t have the power to hold through.

A jumper sprains their ankle dismounting awkwardly as their horse sidesteps, lacking the balance to recover the landing.

So, what’s the moral of this story? I think you already know.

Does strength training guarantee you won’t get hurt working with horses? Of course not. Horse sport is dangerous. But with something so unpredictable, why wouldn’t you do everything in your power to prevent injury?

Riding alone is NOT enough to keep you fit to ride. It’s not strength training. It’s not mobility. It’s not even really cardio. Riding is incredible, but it requires more than riding alone can give.

Injuries will happen, that can’t be changed. But we can sure as hell build our physical capacity so when they do, we know there was NOTHING more we could have done to prevent them.

I get this one a lot...

People think riding is "bad" for their knees or their back. They talk about how the "used to" be able to jump and run, and how riding has "destroyed" their joints.

Which is a logic I find really interesting...

We know from research in things like weightlifting, or running, that physical activity is generally protective for joints, not damaging. When we progress what we're asking of our body slowly, allow it to recovery in between bouts of exercise, and keep overall demands in a reasonable range (like, recreational athlete levels), that type of activity generally leads to healthier bodies with less pain/injury overall.

Short bouts of exercise challenge the tissues, causing brief spikes in inflammation or small levels of damage to the muscles, joints and ligaments, and the body responds by making these structures stronger, healing them, and overall lowering levels of inflammation.

So why is riding suddenly different? I'll admit, I don't think we have a lot of research into the long term effects of recreational equestrian on the body, but likely we can extrapolate from what we know about other sports.

BUT, the one thing I do see in riders (and this is just anecdotal) is that they are much less likely to be doing some kind of cross training out of the saddle. Riders tend to ride, and that's it. Of course, trying to change that narrative is a big reason I do what I do. But overall, it's a big ship to turn.

So it leads me to this line of thinking... riders tend to complain about chronic pain they get from riding, but don't really do anything to prepare their bodies for the demand of what is arguably a very high impact sport. So is it the riding itself that is "damaging", or the fact that we don't do anything to prepare for it, or build the strength to support it, or train other movement patterns outside of it?

What are your thoughts? Drop them in the comments below ⬇️

THE POSITION FIX

Live webinar on common rider performance faults and asymmetries, why they happen, and what to do about them.

Thanks so much for your interest...

...but this event has now passed.😢

Why Your Position Keeps Slipping (and How to Fix It)

About the Presenter