The Most Overlooked Piece of Your Horse’s Performance? You.

Fix Your Foundation, Not Just Your Tack!

One of my favorite things about horseback riders is this: we will do just about anything for our horses.

🟢 Supplements? Check.

🟢 Fancy shoes? Check.

🟢 Multiple blankets and a spreadsheet to organize them? Check.

🟢 Massage, chiro, MagnaWave, acupuncture? Check.

🟢 Saddle fits, flocking, new tack on rotation? Check.

We love to love our horses.

But when it comes to taking care of someone just as influential in our horse’s performance and comfort… we fall short.

👋 Ourselves.

Now, I’m not here to lecture you on self-care. You’ve heard that spiel before.

But here’s what’s harder to ignore:

Your riding posture, body alignment, and core support directly affect your horse every single ride.

We are the most overlooked part of our horse's performance!

I’ll give you an example. I have a client who shares a horse with her daughter. For the mom, the mare goes better to the left. For the daughter, she goes better to the right. Some call this balance. I call it proof that horses adapt to us just as much as we adjust for them.

Take Elsa and me.

My preference for right rotation, plus my long-time right low back injury, combine with Elsa’s natural preference and strength going right. She is stronger this way, and I like to turn this way. She is less technically correct going to the right, but man is it comfortable!

We’ve worked more on the left lead and left direction, so while she is tighter and stiffer going left, often having a hard time getting left lead unless set up just right, she is more technically correct. She had a right front leg injury in 2015 and a left SI joint injury in 2019, so we’ve done more to help the left in recent years. 

Add in my tendency to hollow my low back and tilt my pelvis forward with Elsa’s long stride, tighter topline, and massive movements, we have to work hard to get it together and collect.

One of the most important things I’ve done for Elsa is work on my own injury, develop my Internal Pressure System, and work on my natural tendency to rotate right. I cannot overlook how I am the most important part of my horse's performance!

Through better breathing mechanics, I created spinal stability and core support from the inside out. Not crunches. Not planks. Not stretching for hours.

Just… better breathing. Breathing the way our anatomy intended for us to breathe so that we engaged our core naturally and supported out bodies.

When your trunk is stable, your aids are clear.

When you’re not stable? You grip, brace, pull; and your horse stiffens or tunes you out.

I’ve used breathing mechanics to improve my IPS and build support from the inside out. This gives me a stable trunk from which my aids can actually communicate. If I weren’t stable in the trunk and seat, I would grip with my legs, arms, and butt, stifling our communication and Elsa’s ability to move forward.

By building my Internal Pressure System, I give myself the most stable and supple foundation I can. I show up better for my horse, and I'm less likely to be sidelined by an injury or chronic pain.

Think for a moment of those inflatable dancing tube people, like you see at car dealers. When fully inflated, they stand up tall and their arms are able to “dance” freely. When they are poorly inflated, the bodies flop around or fall own completely; and their arms sort of hang feebly or make erratic gestures.

A deflated, unstable, fallen dancing tube man

We are similar-ish. We function better when we are supported from the inside out, and don’t have to ask our muscles to do all the work of holding us up while moving us through space on a horse.

Your spine and muscles need internal pressure to move well, not just stay upright.

I’ve also retrained how my body moves using pendulums - motor control drills that reset your brain-to-muscle connection. They’re fast, effective, and honestly kind of fun.

Here’s a taste:

✅ Side bend to the right. Feel your left side lengthen and right side shorten.

✅ Now use your left side to pull yourself back to center.

The left side practices activating and shortening while the right side is able to let go of being in control of the motion.

Instead of doing core workouts and stretching, I’m changing how I breathe and retraining basic brain-to-muscle signals. And - best part - I’m doing this in under 5 minutes a few times a day (more if I have an acute issue, less if I’m maintaining).

I can do the breathing while I’m working/driving/standing in line at CVS. I can do my pendulums while I’m walking the dog and she’s taking a sniff break; while I’m tacking up; in the saddle!

My system works with your life, not against it.

And here’s the best part:

It helps you support your horse without missing saddle time, taking a break from showing, or overhauling your life.

Because when you move better, you ride better.

And when you ride better, your horse feels it.

We undervalue how impactful we are to our horse's performance. It's time we honored them by working on ourselves.

🎯 Want to try it?

My Breakthrough Session is perfect for you! 90 minutes of movement, posture, & breathing assessments, plus we chat about how you’re struggling with your riding. Then you get immediate relief in our session with my coaching; and 2-5 specific corrections tailored to you for daily work.

👉 Book your session now