TOPLINE INK TOPLINE INK
™
Business Name
Equestrian Journal JULY/AUG 2010
WWW.TOPLINEINK.COM
Lynne Sprinsky The Rider’s “Blocked” Back: Effect and Remedy Special Digital Edition
The Back
Topline Ink ™ The Back
2010
Cover Art by: donna Bernstein / Donna B Art www.donnabart.blogspot.com
The Back This insightful article gives the equestrian true understanding and shows how harmony is achieved with the balanced and adhesive seat. By Charles de Kunffy
Supple and Tension Free: The Importance of Riding the Whole Horse Read important details for progressing in training with a supple, sound and relaxed horse. By Manolo Mendez with C. Larrouilh
Riders, Keep your Back Healthy! Anatomy notes on how your back works and how to keep it healthy. Useful tips to prevent back injuries. By Beth Glosten, M.D.
2 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
Fitness Facts for the Back This article gives understanding on the horse’s interconnected systems. By Jec A. Ballou IN THIS ISSUE
The Rider’s “Blocked” Back: Effect and Remedy Exercises to increase flexibility and become a supple rider. By Lynne Sprinsky
Details about the Back J.P. shares his experience for the rider searching for roundness of the horse’s back. By Jean Philippe Giacomini
Thoughts on Contact Jenny tells readers how to converse in harmony with your horse. By Jenny Rolfe
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
3
The Myth of the Narrow Twist Saddle knowledge for the savvy rider. By Zsu Zsu Illes
The Rein Back An inside look into the rein-back. Sarah outlines how the rider can reap the benefits of this exercise when done correctly. By Sarah Martin
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal Directory & Marketplace
All parts of this magazine are protected by copyright. Š Do not duplicate in part or whole. 4 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
The Full version of this issue (THE BACK) is available IN PRINT only. Special edition - online preview versions of Topline Ink Equestrian Journal may be enhanced for online viewing. This special edition, THE BACK, includes color photos. NEW In This Issue
Topline Ink ™ Subscribe Today Information at
www.toplineink.com Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
5
For The Rider
The Rider’s “Blocked” Back :
Effect and Remedy by Lynne Sprinsky, Graduate BALIMO™ Instructor CAVEAT: YOU are responsible for the safety of your own body. Consult with your health care provider before attempting to exercise. Do not persist with any exercise where you experience sharp or severe pain, especially if you have a history of back injury. If attempting the following exercises causes you real pain, STOP and consult your health care provider.
6
A
rider’s back can take a real beating. Essentially, the movement of the horse is transmitted through the rider’s body, from seat bones to skull, by means of the bony vertebral column of the back. By itself, the spine and the gelatinous disks between the individual vertebrae aren’t capable of a great deal of shock absorption – and riding in a way that takes the body’s other shock absorbers (about which more later) out of the equation results in a virtual prescription for back pain…sometimes completely debilitating back pain. I’m going to tell you how to avoid that situation if your back is still healthy, and improve your body’s shock absorption capacity even if your back isn’t in mint condition.
The relative inability of the spinal column to absorb the movement and concussion of riding – most evident during the sitting trot -- makes it especially important that the pelvis and hip joints contribute to the shock-absorption function of the rider’s body. With respect to the horse, the rider’s inability to allow movement free passage through the body results in the horse feeling as though it is trying to push a boulder up hill. Sally Swift used to teach an experiential exercise that made this very clear. A pair of dismounted students played the roles of horse and rider. The “horse” crawled on her hands and knees while the “rider” placed her flat palms on either side of the “horse’s” spine while straddling the “horse” without actually sitting down. If the “rider’s” hands resisted the movement of the “horse’s” back, the “horse” would report back that it was much harder to maintain the crawling movement, but when the “rider” let her hands move passively with the motion of the “horse’s” back, then crawling was easy. So, how do we assure that our horses’ job of carting us about is as easy as we can make it?
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
7
Anatomy First, a quick and dirty anatomy lesson: The sacrum is made up of the last few spinal vertebrae, culminating in the coccix or tailbone, all of which are fused together and hence have no mobility in and of themselves. The sacrum attaches to the pelvis on either side of the spine at the sacroiliac joint, which does have a tiny bit of mobility – perhaps a degree or so. The hormones of pregnancy temporarily induce a bit more mobility, but as we age, the sacroiliac can seize up like the Tin Woodsman of Oz. (So if you’re still young and reading this, the take-home lesson is: keep your sacroiliac mobilized!)
When we speak of a rider’s back being “blocked,” most of the time we mean that the rider’s lower back (sacroiliac) and the hip joints aren’t responding freely to the movement of the horse. But sometimes, the rider’s upper back may also play a role in blocking the movement of the horse from traveling freely all the way up to the rider’s head. I’ll address both of these phenomena and describe some common exercises to restore mobility in both areas.
The Lower Back Age, injury, and a sedentary lifestyle all contribute to the loss of flexibility in the sacroiliac joint. This area of the body really isn’t required to be terribly mobile most of the time (childbirth being the notable exception). It’s taxed by movements that twist the upper and lower body in opposite directions – which is essentially what happens in the sitting trot. When the horse advances a diagonal pair of legs, the rider’s pelvis rises and then falls as the horse’s back on which the rider is seated does the same. But the rider’s upper body is supposed to remain relatively stable and quiet, and may even need to turn at the same time. When riding a corner, a circle, a volte, or any other movement on three or four tracks, the rider’s inside hip and seat bone slides forward to mirror the horse’s advancing inside hip, while the rider’s inside shoulder moves back to remain parallel to the horse’s retarded inside shoulder.
8 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
This type of movement requires that the rider’s back stretch diagonally, becoming longer from one hip to the opposite shoulder. It isn’t a movement that most of us do much of when we’re not riding. And that infrequency of use is what allows the sacroiliac joint to lose its flexibility. It’s literally a case of “use it or lose it.” But there are some simple exercises that you can do to restore some elasticity to your sacroiliac. These exercises also affect the hip joints though; so let’s talk about those before we proceed to the exercises.
The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint. Its function is to move in a circular pattern. But our sedentary lifestyles (especially as we age) have the effect of limiting our use of the hip joint to that of a hinge joint that moves only forward and backward in a single plane. My teacher, Eckart Meyners, likes to joke that American women must not like sex, because when we walk, we don’t swing our hips. Remember Marilyn Monroe and her famous, perhaps notoriously sexy walk? Perhaps because our more puritanical mothers told us not to “walk that way,” we tend not to use our hips as the ball joints God gave us. We need to remember Marilyn and walk the way she did!
Often when I am working with students at a clinic, I will find they are incapable of doing smooth pelvic tilts with a full range of motion. The “bowl” of the pelvis was designed to tilt both forward, as though pouring water out the front, and backward as though pouring water out the back, by means of the top of the femur rotating within the socket of the pelvis. Riding the sitting trot well, especially on today’s bigger moving warmbloods, requires this rotational capability to be “hard-wired” in the rider’s brain. Prolonged disuse of this capability allows the neural pathways in the brain that enable the movement to become less well defined, but that “clogged roadway” can be cleared fairly quickly by specific exercises. Here are a few of the exercises I use most commonly in my BALIMO™ clinics.
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
9
Exercises to re-mobilize the sacroiliac joint The “Knee-Over”: Lie on your back with your right leg straight and your left knee bent so the sole of your foot rests on the floor. Now lift your left leg, keeping the knee bent, and cross it over your body. Note: your left shoulder must stay flat to the ground. This is most easily accomplished if you have a helper to press down on that shoulder as you attempt the exercise. If you don’t have a helper, then grasp a table leg in your left hand, or trap your left wrist under the apron of a sofa to prevent your left shoulder from lifting up off the ground. The object of the exercise is to get your left knee and lower leg to touch the floor to the right of your body. If you can do this, great – your sacroiliac joint is sufficiently mobile. But if you can’t, here’s what you do:
First, move your bent knee towards the foot of your straight leg or up towards your shoulder, to see if you can find a spot where the stretch is not as strong. When you find that spot, “dwell” there for a few minutes, allowing gravity to assist the stretch. You can also use your right hand to apply gentle pressure to the left leg. It takes some time for an increased stretch to happen, so if you are “anal” about things you might like to have a 12-inch ruler handy to measure the distance between your knee and the floor; so you’ll know for sure when you make progress.
Second, relax your bottom leg and gluteus maximus (butt cheek). Almost everyone with a tight sacroiliac joint will tense those body parts to unconsciously “defend” themselves from the strength of the stretch, but doing so actually prevents the stretch. So relax, and breathe! If you’re familiar with yogic breathing, think about directing your breath to the area where you feel the stretch most strongly.
10
Correct - Knee-over
Correct - Knee-over
Third, give it time. Take a good five minutes to let gravity do the work. Then slowly and carefully straighten the bent leg, roll back onto your back, and repeat on the opposite side. It’s not uncommon to find that one side is a great deal stiffer than the other, but both will benefit from this exercise. Do it daily for two weeks and you will notice a significant improvement.
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
11
Correct - Forearms Crawl
Three Ways of Crawling: This exercise helps unclog the disused neural pathways that existed when you were a baby, just learning to move around independently. Crawling is one of the most primitive movement patterns we humans have, and re-learning how to crawl helps restore flexibility in the sacroiliac joint as well as creating more connections between the left (thinking, analytical) hemisphere of the brain and the right (feeling, visionary) hemisphere.
First, crawl on your hands and knees like a baby, but take care to maintain a diagonal gait pattern. Just as horses have a specific footfall pattern for each gait, this exercise requires that you move your
12 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
Incorrect - Lateral Crawl
legs and arms in a diagonal sequence: left knee, right hand, right knee, left hand. You will have to think about or plan this movement in your head before you move. If you find that you have lapsed into a lateral movement pattern (left leg, left hand, right leg, right hand), STOP, PLAN, and begin anew. Travel back and forth until you’ve covered about 50 feet in distance.
Second, crawl the same distance on your knees and forearms, with the forehands and palms of your hands flat on the floor. Again, retain the diagonal movement pattern.
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
13
Correct - Alligator
14
Incorrect - Alligator
Third (and most taxing), do the “military low crawl” or “alligator crawl” for another 50 feet. Again, maintain the diagonal pattern. Your chest and stomach should remain flat on the ground as you draw up one knee so that your thigh is perpendicular to your trunk, and your lower leg is at a 90-degree angle to your thigh. Push yourself forward using your foot and knee, and advance your upper body at the same time. Raising your belly and buttocks up off the ground negates the value of the exercise. Pretend you’re a soldier crawling under concertina wire while the enemy fires overhead – keep your belly and chest down, because if your butt gets too high, you’ll get a bullet in it! This exercise can be quite challenging for those with tight sacroiliac joints, but once you have mastered it, you will find that your entire pelvis feels like it is made of ball bearings.
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
15
The Upper Body One of the diagnostic exercises I often have students do is to assume the yoga position known as the Child pose. In the Child pose, you first kneel so that your knees, shin bones, and the tops of your feet are on the ground. Then you bend forward at the waist, lowering your chest and belly onto your thighs so that your whole body is shaped like an “S”. Finally, place your arms alongside your trunk, fingers pointing towards your toes with the backs of your hands on the ground. Lower your head so that your forehand also touches the ground – or as close to it as you can get.
Child Pose
16 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
This posture opens up the spaces between the spinal vertebrae and allows the back, from sacrum to skull, to adopt a gentle curve. Ideally, that curve should be uniform, without any flattish areas or more rounded areas. (You’ll need to look in a mirror or have a helper look at your back in profile.) I find that many people do have flat areas, which indicate less than ideal mobility between the vertebral bodies in that area. The areas of flatter curvature indicate a series of vertebrae in which the disks may be under greater pressure because the space between the vertebrae is narrower. Obviously, where the vertebral disks are under greater pressure, the concussion of riding is more apt to cause injury over time, perhaps even resulting in the rupture of one or more disks. A ruptured disk is extremely painful, so using exercises like those described below may help you avoid such an extreme outcome by encouraging the opening up of those narrower intervertebral spaces.
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
17
Knees to Chest Rocker - Stage One
Exercises to help mobilize the spine: The Knees-to-Chest Rocker: This one is simple, and looks just like it sounds. In a sitting position, bend both knees and grasp them to your chest by wrapping both arms around them. Then allow yourself to roll backwards, using your rounded back like the rocker on a rocking chair. You can keep your knees close together, or separate them slightly and
18 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
Knees to Chest Rocker - Stage Two
hold each one in the palm of your hand on the same side as the knee. Use the momentum of the rocking motion to roll all the way up to the base of your skull, and then back almost onto your seat bones again. To help develop more momentum, you can lift your feet away from your buttocks momentarily, thereby opening the angle behind your knee, the way you did when you were a kid on a swing.
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
19
Clock Face Knee Rocker - Beginning Stage
The Clock Face Modified Knee Rocker: a bit more complicated, but if the Knees-to-Chest Rocker doesn’t challenge you sufficiently, try this one. Start by hugging only one knee to your chest – let’s say it’s the right knee. Your left leg remains straight. The object is to rock back far enough so that you can touch the toe of your left (straight) leg to the ground behind your head. It may take a few tries to get there, and you’ll probably need the momentum of the movement of that straight leg to do it. Once you’ve mastered that, abduct (separate) your left leg slightly from your right so that your whole body rotates slightly to the left, and
20 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
Clock Face Knee Rocker - Mid Stage
your toe, when it makes contact with the ground, is in a slightly different spot than it was before: if you think of the original toe/ground contact point as 12:00 o’clock, the rotation will put the new contact point at 11 or 1 o’clock. Try to rotate completely around the clock in one direction. Then change legs and go for another rotation in the opposite direction.
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
21
Clock Face Knee Rocker - End Stage
Summary Many life-long riders suffer some degree of back pain as they age. In the worst cases, they may be told to give up riding or risk losing the ability to walk. The use of exercises like these, as well as sensible precautions like not sitting the trot on a horse whose back is not up and swinging, can help riders keep their backs healthy for a lifetime. And as if that weren’t enough, when your back is as flexible as it can be, your horse will go more willingly forward with a lot less effort.
22 Subscribe at http://toplineink.com
Do all these exercises on a well-padded surface. One of your horse’s sheets spread on soft grass is easiest, or if you care to make a small investment, you can buy a set of eight puzzle-piece rubber mats from Sam’s Club or the like for a little over $20. Conventional yoga mats are too thin and not spacious enough for some of these exercises.
Lynne Sprinsky is a life-long rider, teacher, and author and has been fortunate to have spent many years studying with Susan Terrall, Erik Herbermann and Walter Zettl. She has also worked with Karl Mikolka and Manolo Mendez. Her time spent with these riding masters and her natural gift for teaching led her in 2003 to Eckart Meyners, a world-renowned kinesthesiologist who has worked with many top European dressage riders, notably Heike Kemmer. Meyners has developed a methodology for unlocking the muscles and neural pathways that time, gravity and our lifestyles have either over- or underused. The key to better riding is to improve the balance and flexibility of our own bodies so that our horses don’t have to compensate for us, but instead are freed to express their own athleticism. Meyners' exercises for riders are used to rediscover our body’s balance and free motion; they are very specific but not difficult. Usually results can be seen immediately, and the improved movement of the horses testify to their efficacy. Lynne teaches and writes from her home base in Montoursville, PA, and is in growing demand nationally as a clinician. She can be reached at her email: lsprinsky@gmail.com . Model in photos: Waylene Young
Topline Ink Equestrian Journal
23
www.toplineink.com
www.holisticequestrianlife.com
www.horseriderworld.com
www.horsebusinessworld.com
www.totalhorseriding.com