Using Knowledge to Cultivate Compassion: Muscle Physiology

Compassion in riding can be challenging to cultivate. After all, the horse is an entirely different species with a different way of thinking. When is the horse misbehaving, and when is there something blocking the horse?

This is why it is important to learn about muscle physiology and to use those ideas to help guide our riding.

When building muscle, we use progressive overload. This means we push the muscle to a little below its limit repeatedly so that it can adapt and build itself. This applies to both strengthening and stretching. If we push past the muscles capacity, we risk injury, sometimes serious injury. Just like a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so also will muscles tear wherever they are weakest, even if that means at the tendons. Once it does, it can take quite a bit of time to properly heal. There is even more to this, which is addressed in our biomechanics workshops and will be addressed in our biomechanics course (under construction).

Most of the time, horses are peacemakers. Keeping the peace is easier than fighting, even if that means allowing themselves to be strained to the point of injury. However, the muscles themselves will try to protect themselves, and this is often when riders will try to push through “resistance” or “tension” to try to make the horse do what they think it should do. This is when we risk injury. 9 times out of 10, it’s not through malice that this happens; it’s through misunderstanding.

So how do we avoid pushing our horses too hard and risking injury? How can we push the horse just enough that they develop but not so much that they get hurt?

While riders can handle up to 30 reps of different exercises in one fitness session, horses tend to struggle more with that, mostly due to the nature of the exercise. So, the Old Masters used to limit their exercises to 3 repetitions of a pattern, at most 3 sets of 3. So instead of spending the whole ride on a 20m circle, they’d ride 3 circles and then move on. They’d make 3 longsides of shoulder-in and then move on. It forces the rider to become more precise as well; if you only have 3 chances to make something happen, then you become much more diligent.

They also tended to make a lot of the basic exercises much shorter. Flexions only went to the horse’s limit for a brief moment, not holding for minutes at a time. Asking the horse for a leg-yield also only lasted a stride or two. Turn on the forehand was started in steps, gradually working up to a full turn. While it sounds somewhat unsatisfying at first, real progress goes faster because the horse is less sore and less anticipatory of discomfort.

These traditions still withstand the test of time and science; even in human exercise physiology, this isn’t a bad way to condition. There’s less soreness and less recovery time while getting used to exercise. Gradually, demands can be increased, but the body is ready to meet them.

So keep in mind that sometimes, no matter how much the horse wants to obey, sometimes the muscles get tired and simply cannot comply. You would want the same grace given for yourself, after all.

To learn more about this side of horse biomechanics, check out both ridden and theory lessons! Remember that we are also teaching lessons at Bridlewood Dressage in Hillsdale, NY on certain days of the week!