WHAT LIES BENEATH
Article by Debbie Rolmanis Photo provided by Hayley Beresford
The Strength and Conditioning Journey, Part 1
Debbie Rolmanis, founder of db Muscle Therapy is a fully qualified Personal Trainer, Human Sports Massage Therapist and Equine Sports Therapist. Debbie holds a BSc (Equine), BHSAI, Diplomas in Human Personal Training and Sports Therapy and Equine Sports Therapy, all gained in the UK. Debbie currently works/lives in the UK, with regular trips to clients in Germany including successful Grand Prix rider Hayley Beresford. www.dbmuscletherapy.com
Strength and Conditioning the dressage horse is often overlooked by riders and coaches as training tends to focus on the acquisition of skill, rather than the impact each session might be having on the body. The truth is, every step your horse takes has the potential to either positively or negatively impact his body. The form/ posture he is ridden in each day will impact not only how well he will ‘acquire skill’ or learn a movement, but also how sound he will be able to stay. Building an athlete requires a much more comprehensive approach than being completely skill focused. Let us look for a minute at the fastest man in the world; Usain Bolt. He makes running 100m in sub 10 seconds look like it requires no effort at all. What we see is him running 100m in under 10 seconds. What we don’t see is how he has made that possible. It is the same with the top equestrians. We see the end product and marvel at their skill, finesse and apparent ease with which they perform a GP test. What we don’t see is the road they have taken to get there. Mechanically, the engineering of Usain Bolt’s framework (skeleton) enables him to have a naturally higher aptitude for running than say, me. However, this doesn’t mean that his training consists only of nurturing that skill, he has to strengthen and condition the structures that will set that skill on fire.
24 | DRESSAGENZ BULLETIN | OCTOBER 2016