Body proprioception is our ability to sense where our body parts are without looking at them.
This is an invaluable skill for all equestrians; however most riders don’t understand how to train proprioception.
For instance – how often do you look at your hands whilst riding? Most riders look at their hands more frequently than they even realise. The simple movement of your head forward as you look at your hands brings your bodyweight in front of the vertical, and your horse onto the forehand.
Your brain has a very large area attributed to receiving sensory information from your hands which it then responds with a motor pattern. If you consider what you do with your hands all day, this brings into respect how much information your brain receives from your fingertips etc. On the other hand, your brain has a very small area attributed to receiving information from your back.
Developing from a baby to crawling as a toddler to learning to walk, your body has learned how to use your back muscles to keep you upright. But horse riding isn’t a natural process for most of us, we have to learn how to sit upright on a horse, and how to engage the correct muscles so we don’t slump or lean forward. This is where proprioception exercises that allows us to isolate and feel our back muscles working is important.
As equestrians need a high level of balance combined with body proprioception skills, using tools that create an unstable or moving surface are highly beneficial. Whilst you could do this exercise on the floor, using a fitball is better as the ball will move and provide your body with feedback on how to adjust your back muscles, much like you do when riding a horse.
The Strong Stable Seat sessions are designed to improve riders balance and proprioception by helping to integrate the neural system with the muscular system.
