Riding Skills for Working Moms These are a set of tips designed to improve your riding skills simply by doing them. Practice makes perfect with these skills, even if you only get to practice every once in a while. Improve your balance and strength We would all like to be better riders, but finding the time for lessons can be hard. The tips on this page are meant to improve your riding, by explaining simple little details that you may not learn in a lesson. They are meant to improve your coordination, your muscle strength and your feel. These instructions all work on practice-makes-perfect. You won't need someone telling you whether or not you are doing them correctly, the constant repetition will improve your overall skill. Determine to practice these lessons once a week and I would bet my bottom dollar that after 3 months, you'll see a drastic improvement in every part of your riding. Lesson #1 is good ole' trotting. Matter of fact, don't just trot, post. Trot, trot, trot. Time yourself if you have to. Trot for at least 20 minutes every time you ride. If you have to work up to it, take a break here and there, but make sure you put this exercise in. Posting the trot will develop your leg muscles. It will strengthen your core muscles. And it will develop balance. To specifically work on your core muscles, stand the trot. That's right, stand in the stirrups, hold on to the saddle horn and let your horse trot. The stronger your core muscles are, the better your balance will be. As your balance gets better, let go of the saddle horn a little at a time, till you can let go of it altogether. You can see Hannah is leaning into the motion here. Don't be afraid to lean into the trot. It's a forward moving gait, so you'll want to go forward with the motion. Make your goal that you can stand in the stirrups while trotting a whole round around the arena without holding on to the saddle horn for balance. This will involve keeping your horse trotting and reining your horse to keep him on the arena fence. You will see how hard that is. But it's also something you can learn on your own. On to Lesson #2
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