Another HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Mitchell & Melissa Kirby for their many MAHA, SLADS & USEF high point year-end awards!

Slads Awards – Melissa and GV Monte Cristo

• Champion Silver Level Rider – Training Level
• Training Level Horse of the Year – 6th place

USEF Region XI HOYT Awards – Melissa and GV Monte Cristo

• Champion PB Arabian Training Level dressage
• Champion PB Arabian Hunter Pleasure – Jr. Rider
• Res. Champion PB Arabian halter
• 3rd PB Arabian Training Level Dressage – Amateur
• 6th PB Arabian Sport Horse

USEF Region XI HOTY Awards – Mitchell and Carmalots Quest

• 3rd PB Arabian First Level Dressage
• 3rd PB Arabian Halter

MAHA High Point Awards – Melissa and GV Monte Cristo

• Res. Champion Class A PB Sport Horse
• 5th Class A Exhibitor 13 & Under
• 5th Class A PB Dressage
• 5th Class A PB Speciality Horse
• 6th Class A PB Hunter Pleasure
• 4th Class B PB Geldings
• 6th Class B Exhibitor 13 & Under

MAHA High Point Awards – Mitchell and Carmalots Quest

• 4th Class A PB Sport Horse
• 3rd Class A Exhibitor 14-17
• 6th Class A PB Dressage
• 4th Class PB Speciality Horse
• 5th Class B PB Geldings
• Champion Class B Exhibitor 14-17

AHA Reagion XI Youth High Point Awards – Melissa and GV Monte Cristo

• Champion PB Hunter Pleasure
• Champion PB Hunt Seat Equitation
• Champion PB Sport Horse
• Res. Champion PB Halter
• 3rd PB Dressage
• Champion PB Non-Rated Dressage
• Res. Champion Overall PB Horse
• 5th Overall PB Exhibitor
• 3rd Overall Horse/Exhibitor Pair

AHA Region XI Championship Awards – Melissa and GV Monte Cristo

• Top 4 PB Arabian Geldings in Hand – Amateur Owner
• Champion PB Arabian SH Geldings in Hand – Open
• Res. Champion PB Arabian SH Geldings in Hand – Amateur

AHA Region XI Youth High Point Awards – Mitchell and Carmalots Quest

• Res. Champion PB Sport Horse
• Champion PB Halter
• 4th PB Dressage
• Res. Champion PB Non-Rated Dressage
• 4th Overall PB Horse
• 7th Overall Horse/Exhibitor Pair

AHA Region XI Championship Awards

Mitchell Kirby and Quest won their First Level Test 2 class, and placed 5th in their First Level Test 4 class.

Melissa Kirby and Monte placed third in both their Training level test 3 and Training level test 4 classes.

Jennifer and Rain placed 4th in Training level test 2, and Jennifer and Rio had great rides, considering this was only Rio’s second show, and that he came from the race track less than 1 year ago.

Heather Ajzenman and Wrocky won their Training level test 3 class.

Heather Romreill and Lily won Training 1 and placed second in Training 2. On Rowdy, Heather won Training 2 and placed 3rd in Training 1.

Congratulations to all of the competitors and thanks to all of the friends who came to watch and support Drew Training Stables.

First Session

I enter the gym to find Liz working on a piece of equipment called a Roman chair. She has her arms by her sides, but is holding herself up only by her arms, suspended in mid air, with her feet straight out in front of her at a 90 degree angle to her torso. But that not being enough, she then opens and closes her legs while in the 90 degree position and holding herself only by her arms. Hoping that she did not see me I was thinking of making a quick exit as there was no way I was going to be able to hold myself up on that piece of equipment with only my arms, much less one with my feet 90 degrees from my torso! But, she sees me and off to the mats we go.

Liz explains that the most important muscles that are needed to have a secure seat are muscles that we do not normally use for other activities, so the typical exercise such as crunches and leg lifts that we all did in P.E. classes in school are not very effective. She starts me on the mat with a simple exercise to develop my transvers abdominus muscle. Since I did not know that I even had a transvers abdominus muscle, finding it was going to be a challenge. This muscle runs horizontally across the lower abdomen in the pelvic area and is a very deep muscle. I lie flat on my back with my knees bent at a 45 degree angle, feet on the ground, and push my tailbone into the mat but do not arch my back. I then proceed to lift one foot and slowly straighten my leg, then return to the 45 degree angle with that foot on the ground and lift the other foot, straighten, then place that foot back on the ground, while concentrating on keeping my tailbone pressed against the mat, but thinking about using the deep muscle in my pelvis (that t.a. muscle) to press my tailbone down during these movements. Once that muscle was burning I was apparently doing the exercise correctly. As I gain strength in that muscle I should be able to keep my feet off the ground and do a bicycle type movement in this position – but not today!

The next exercise she demonstrates will develop my obliques, those muscles that lie on front and side of the torso. Liz lies on her side, knees at a 45 degree angle, back straight, puts her hands behind her head, and pulls her self up on her side, taking her elbow toward her hip. At the highest point her head is about 12 inches off the mat. My turn – my obliques (they are described in the plural case because there are both interior and exterior obliques) are in permanent retirement and have no intention of returning to the work force. I discover this because I cannot even lift my head 2 inches off of the mat when emulating the position Liz is in. After several unsuccessful attempts in which I am making no progress, Liz has me stand up, flex my knees slightly, hands me a 5 pound weight for each hand, and has me allow the weights to pull my torso down sideways, then tells me to use the oblique muscles on the opposite side of my body to pull my torso back up. This I can do, so with practice I may coax those obliques out of retirement. Relating this exercise to riding, when we ask our horses to bend around our leg, we are asking our horse to strengthen muscles in their body that correlate to our obliques.

The Bosu Stability Ball

The Bosu is a piece of equipment that looks like an exercise ball that is flat on one side. Liz sits on one Bosu and instructs me to sit on another one. They are fairly comfortable to sit on, although they require you to keep your center of gravity in the center of the Bosu or you will slide off of it. By gaining stability on this ball, you use the same muscles that you need to keep your stability on a horse. Liz then lifts both legs off the ground and instructs me to do the same. Now if I were sitting on a couch, lifting my legs off the ground and out in front of me would be easy. But on this Bosu ball, I cannot even lift just one leg off of the ground without losing my balance and tilting off the ball. Finally with a little practice, I can lift each foot briefly, but have to quickly regain my balance by putting it back on the floor. I am glad that I am sitting on the Bosu and not trying to stand on it. (Unfortunately, that comes a little later!)

Now we work on the Latissimus Dorsi muscles. I once heard someone refer to these muscles as the “arm pit muscles”, and that description has stuck in my mind, although these muscles are actually on the sides of the torso, below the arm pits. To strengthen these muscles, I pull down slowly on an elastic pulley while trying to focus on using my latt muscles, and not my biceps. Having strong latt muscles allow the rider to keep their shoulders down so that their hands do not have vertical motion, even though their pelvis is moving vertically as they move with the horse. Well developed latt muscles also keep a rider’s seat secure in the saddle in case their horse becomes rude and heavy on the bit, but at the same time allows the rider to keep their arms and hands soft and flexible to invite the horse to seek contact with the bit.

To improve the position of my legs when riding, Liz instructs me to stand with my knees slightly flexed, then raise my thigh out to the side of my body with my knee at a 45 degree angle, and rotate my knee and toe inward. When I am doing this exercise correctly I can feel a pull in my glute medius muscle, in my hip flexors, and in my obliques. I have to hold onto a post or door way to stabilize myself while doing this exercise. The muscles I am stretching and strengthening will allow me to keep my knees and thighs rolled inward and my toes pointed forward when I am in the saddle.

Another stablizer muscle that a rider needs to develop is the rectus abdominus muscle. This muscle expands and contracts when taking a deep breath and letting your stomach expand and then contract as you exhale. To strengthen this muscle, Liz demonstrates the plank exercise by lying on the floor face down, then pushing her entire body up keeping her back straight, hands under shoulders, so that only her hands and toes are holding her up, and her body is straight. When I try this exercise, Liz reminds me to make sure my back does not arch while I have my body raised above the ground, as that causes back problems. The closer to the ground I lower my body without touching, the harder the exercise becomes, but the more I also feel the rectus adominus muscle working, along with my hip flexors and obliques, as all of these muscles must work together to keep my core straight and horizontal to the floor. As dressage riders, when we ask our horses to round their backs and carry themselves, we are asking them to strengthen a similar muscle to our rectus abdominus.

Back to the bosu ball, Liz stands on the ball, then lifts one foot and balances, then the other foot. Since I am having enough trouble standing on the Bosu ball with both feet on it, she has me stand on the floor instead and balance on one foot at a time, while holding my arm straight out in front of me, then sweeping my arm in a quarter circle and following this movement with my head, still standing on one foot and balancing. Then we switch to using the other foot and other hand in a similar movement. Rider stability is again the focus of this exercise and I discover that it is easier for me to balance on my left foot than on my right foot. I can relate this to how my young horse tends to lean to the inside when he goes to the right, as he seems to have the same issue with balancing my weight on his back. Or maybe I am making him unbalanced because I am unbalanced? I plan to practice this exercise alot at home and hopefully by my next session with Liz, I may be able to try it on the Bosu ball.

The last set of exercises Liz demonstrates are on the exercise ball. Lying on my back, Liz has me flex my knees and straddle the exercise ball, as if it were a horse. I am now suppose to pick up the exercise ball off the ground using my thighs. Liz calls this the ‘pick up your pony’ exercise, and I immediately understand why, as it feels like that exercise ball weighs the same as a pony. In other words, it was really hard to pick up the ball. To modify this exercise and make it easier, I sit up, lean back, support my upper body with my arms behind me, and then pick up the ball with my thighs. Still tough to do, but I manage to lift it a few inches off the ground, and repeat this movement a few times. Finally I get to do an easy exercise, sit on the exercise ball and lift one foot at a time off the ground. This one I can do, even while typing on my computer right now.

The entire session took a little less than an hour, and my homework assignment is to practice these exercises, and then be re-evaluated in two weeks to see how I have progressed. Once I have mastered this set of exercises (the ‘Training Level’ exercises), Liz will start me on the next set which she describes as the ‘First Level’ exercises.

I will be posting my future rider training sessions so check back often. To start a rider fitness program with Liz, see the Rider Fitness Section of the Special Programs page, or contact Liz on the Contact Us page.