Equestrian Training: Link Off-Horse Practice to Your Lessons

Useful equestrian training starts with a specific task: maintaining your posture through a lesson, controlling your descent in rising trot, or applying a leg aid without tipping sideways. Off-horse exercise gives you somewhere to practise the physical components without also managing a moving horse.

The British Horse Society recommends developing cardiovascular fitness, core strength, flexibility and balance, and notes that fitness requirements vary with the riding you do. It also explains that fatigue can reduce your ability to maintain posture and balance. That makes repeatable control—not exhaustion—a useful starting goal. British Horse Society rider-fitness guidance

Choose one riding priority

Ask your instructor to help turn a recurring correction into something observable. “Improve my seat” is broad; these targets are easier to review:

• Posture: keep your trunk from progressively folding forward during a familiar exercise.
• Leg control: give a leg aid without an obvious sideways shift of your upper body.
• Rising-trot control: lower back into the saddle without a heavy landing or sudden lower-leg swing.

Do not assume every position fault means a weak muscle. Timing, technique, discomfort, tack and the horse’s movement may also need attention. Use the off-horse work to explore your own control, not to diagnose the whole partnership.

Record when the problem appears: immediately, on one rein, or only late in the lesson. That gives your instructor more useful information than simply saying you feel unbalanced.

Practise three movements between rides

The following starter session adapts the facing-wall squat, countertop shoulder tap and single-leg clock reach described in the FEI’s exercise guidance. In that guidance, biokineticist Catherine Tonks identifies trunk and hip stability, flexibility, balance and symmetry as useful areas for riders to address. FEI core-strength exercises

The doses below are suggested starting points, not an FEI prescription. The riding links are practice objectives, not promises that a particular drill will correct your position.

Before starting, walk or march gently for a few minutes. Use a clear floor, a stable chair placed against a wall, and a fixed countertop. Keep movements comfortable; stop for pain, dizziness or loss of control. If an injury or health condition affects exercise, seek individual guidance.

1. Controlled chair stand

Setup: Sit towards the front of the chair, with feet roughly hip-width apart and soles flat on the floor.

Action: Lean forward from your hips enough to stand. Rise smoothly, then lower slowly until you sit. Start with 6–8 repetitions, using your hands for assistance if needed.

Checkpoint: Do your knees follow the direction of your feet? Can you return quietly rather than dropping into the chair? Keep your weight spread across both feet.

Riding task: This rehearses controlled rising and lowering, a physical component of rising trot. It does not reproduce the horse’s rhythm; timing still needs mounted instruction.

2. Countertop shoulder tap

Setup: Place both hands on a fixed countertop. Step back into a comfortable inclined plank, keeping your body in a long line.

Action: Lift one hand, touch the opposite shoulder, then replace it. Alternate for 4–6 taps per side. Breathe normally rather than bracing as hard as possible.

Checkpoint: Can you move your arm without visibly twisting your pelvis? If not, move closer to the counter and briefly unweight one hand instead of reaching to your shoulder.

Riding task: The objective is to move a limb while controlling your trunk—a useful distinction when you want to use an aid without shifting your whole body. A quiet torso should not mean becoming rigid in the saddle.

3. Supported clock reach

Setup: Stand beside the counter with light fingertip support. Balance on one foot with that knee slightly bent.

Action: Use the other foot to make small toe touches forward, sideways and backward, returning to the start between touches. Complete 3 circuits on each side.

Checkpoint: Keep the supporting knee aligned with the foot and your pelvis approximately level. Shorten the reach if you lean or twist. Compare sides using the same reach distance and support.

Riding task: Practise moving one leg without an accompanying torso shift. A difference between sides is something to record, not proof of a mounted fault. See our single-leg exercise progressions for further options.

Fit the work around your riding

Use this as a starter schedule, not a tested corrective programme:

When	Practice	What to record
First off-horse day	One round of all three drills	Repetitions, support used and any loss of control
Between sessions	A comfortable walk or other familiar aerobic activity	Duration and how it felt
Second off-horse day	Repeat the same drills and doses	Whether control is repeatable on both sides
Next coached ride	Review your chosen riding priority	Your instructor’s observation during a familiar task

These drills are targeted practice, not a complete strength or aerobic programme. If you want a broader session, use the two 25-minute rider workouts.

Start slowly and build gradually, as the BHS advises. BHS guidance on starting a fitness routine

Once you can repeat a drill with its checkpoints intact, change one variable: add a couple of repetitions, add a second round, or reduce hand assistance in the chair stand or clock reach. Do not make every exercise harder at once.

Avoid arriving at a demanding ride with tired legs from an unfamiliar workout. If training leaves you too fatigued to ride comfortably, reduce the dose or move the session.

Check whether it transfers

At your next lesson, tell your instructor what you practised and ask them to review the original task. Train any position change with a qualified instructor before testing it independently on a horse.

Better chair stands or smoother clock reaches show progress in those exercises. They do not, by themselves, establish better riding. Look for the mounted change you actually wanted—and if it is absent, review the task and exercise choice rather than simply adding more repetitions.