 |
| Dr. Jim Warson with his beautiful horse, Gallahad Golden Warrior, “Trigger” |
Each rider began with a 30-minute individual session with Dr. Warson. After a few questions about past medical history and surgeries, Dr. Warson conducted a physical evaluation of our abdominal and back muscles. To challenge our core or abdominal strength, we sat on the edge of a chair and attempted to raise our legs straight in front of us. After surgeries, children and shall we say “maturity”, this can be quite a challenge for some people. Sitting more forward in the chair makes the exercise more difficult and also graphically shows our weak points.
For the back test, we laid face down on the chair on our stomach, our midsection on the chair seat, with our arms raised out to the side, our legs and body extended parallel to the ground. This shows the strength of the back muscles and it is highly recommended you don’t try this without supervision and/or a “spotter”.
When we moved on to the horse session, Dr. Warson handed me a mounting block. My little Quarter Horse filly is only 14.3, so I explained I didn’t need it. “Oh yes you do,” he exclaimed. It turns out the stress we put on our body by mounting from the ground is very unnatural and not very good for our muscles and connective tissues. “The horse likes it because there is less lateral force against the withers. For a human, mounting from the ground puts more stress on the knees, as the posterior aspect of the femoral condyle is ‘ground into’ the menisci of the knee joints. In cases with a hip replacement, it allows better positioning of the leg, which stresses the replacement less”.
As we individually rode our 20-meter circle, first at a walk, then a trot, Dr. Warson corrected our body posture and saddle positioning. A common problem Dr. Warson finds is that rider’s place their feet forward of their body, in a “chair” position. This creates an imbalance on the horse, causing the rider to lean back so their head and shoulders are not aligned above their hips. This can be the cause of various sore and stiff muscles after the ride.
After our alignment lesson, Cliff gave a 30-minute personalized mentoring session as he continued to correct our posture plus add to our riding skills. What a treat!
This clinic was deemed a huge success by riders and auditors alike. What I learned during this hour relaxed both me and my horse, making our ride an enjoyable reward.
Some other comments from the clinic attendees:
“The clinic helped me learn how I was compensating for my back pain throughout my body. Not only do I limit movement in my lower back; I also carry my head forward and twist in my pelvis. All this transmits to my horse and affects her movement. Dr. Warson and Cliff Swanson’s suggestions helped me to adjust to lessen the pain and ride in a more balanced manner. I really appreciated that he made positive suggestions without criticizing the rider...”
“I learned something that has really stayed with me -- improving my posture while riding by lifting my rib cage up off my stomach. Sounds like such a simple thing, but my horse will actually step further under herself when I do that. It feels good on my part, too. I still have to remind myself to do it, but at least I am remembering to do it. How we sit on our horses does makes a difference.”
“That was money well spent. I finally have exactly the instructions I need to sit my horses better. Cliff and Dr. Warson were a great combination of feedback for each of us. Auditing was really interesting, but you really need your own time so they can figure out exactly what posture and muscles are lacking. We were all so different. I'm excited to practice what I learned. I've been practicing it just sitting and walking!”
“This was a great clinic. Dr. Warson's evaluation and riding pointers were valuable. It was good to know that at 64 I still have pretty good balance and muscle tone. Cliff, as usual, is the super star when it comes to instructions and identification of issues and what is needed to correct them. Cliff always amazes me with his attention to detail, focus and amount of energy he puts into each rider and horse. Practice, practice, practice - but it is also necessary to have some check to see if you are getting better and not just practicing something incorrectly. This is one reason the WDACO skill set clinic and these other seat related clinics are so good - you get to learn something and then go practice it and then come back and see if you are doing better and improving and pick up another thing to practice. I feel so fortunate that I finally found WDACO, Cliff and the other instructors. With their help, your horsemanship and riding improve and your horse improves and of course that is what we all want.”
Look for more of these helpful clinics at http://www.wdaco.org and http://www.westerndressageassociation.org. We will also be starting a new blog with Dr. Warson on the WDACO web page during February, answering questions from riders on how to prevent or overcome common problems with our riding bodies.
Pat Van Buskirk is a founding member of WDAA and serves as the Technical and Website Manager on the Board of Directors for the Western Dressage Association® of Colorado, an official recognized WDAA Affiliate. She is an avid horse enthusiast and has been writing for various horse and auto magazines since 1994.
 |