Support Your Back when Riding Horses

Finding time to exercise can be a challenge at this time of year farm chores yard work summer vacations competition you name it its on your plate. Unexpected downtime due to back injury or strain would really put a kink in your summer plans. 
If you are competing you have a lot invested in every minute you spend under a judges eye. The additional fatigue created by the preparation involved in simply arriving at the show grounds places more demands on your body than your regular riding routine. Your fitness level for this added demand can make all the difference between placing well or not at all.

Whatever your discipline the suppleness and strength in your back is a big factor in your posture performance and ability to stay injury free and stay in the saddle. For most people the fact that we do most tasks in front of our bodies means back strength is often not sufficiently addressed in fitness programs or not addressed at all if you have no fitness program. This problem is especially true among riders with busy schedules who have even less time for personal fitness. If you are a female rider you have an additional need to spend time training your back because nature does not equip women with the same ratio of upper body strength. This takes what I call deliberate acts of exercise.
If you are male and over 45 you need to do this as well. After running a fitness test most middleaged men I work with are surprised when they learn how much less of their upper body mass is muscle than they thought. Those great biceps from doing chores just might be distracting you from the truth about the condition of the muscles in your shoulders and back.
While you might be tempted to think that routine chores condition your back they are actually more likely to wear you down through repetitive strain. If you knew that you could keep your back muscles long strong and supple boost your competitive advantage and reduce your risk of injury for free and with an investment of just a few minutes a day wouldnt you jump on it?
You have 24 vertebrae in your spine which need to move constantly to allow your torso to absorb the motion of your horse. With age and depending on your conditioning your body may start to tighten up areas