Synopsis
Achievable, riding-specific fitness for equestrians looking to up their game, get back in the game, or stay in the game. In this accessible, highly illustrated guide, former Dartmouth Equestrian Team Coach Sally Batton shares her secret to 30 years of winning riders and championship teams: a unique series of progressive, mounted exercises that improves cardiovascular and muscular fitness for riders of all abilities and levels. Batton's proven program, which she calls Equicize , can be used as part of a horseback rider's daily warm-up by targeting specific muscle groups, or it can be a more intense workout in the saddle once or twice a week, making up the bulk of a mounted training session. Easy to learn and flexible by design, riders can pick and choose the Equicize exercises that best address their personal “problem areas,” or they can dedicate a specific number of rides per week to performing an entire sequence. As Batton explains, there are literally hundreds of ways to adjust, modify, and adapt this fun fitness program to suit specific circumstances. No matter what level of fitness a rider starts at, when the Equicize system is practiced regularly, everyone will see improvement in balance, strength, coordination, and flexibility. And Batton has made it easy to incorporate her training into the modern rider's full and complex life, with exercises designed to fit seamlessly into time that has already been set aside for grooming, tacking up, and riding. With sensible, achievable goals, easy-to-implement steps, progressive how-to photographs, and dozens of QR codes to scan and view engaging instructional videos to help readers perform the exercises for the best result, this book is both a superb launch point for ambitious riders looking to grow their abilities and a stable lynchpin for those aiming to stay in the game, and in the saddle, as long as possible.
About the Author
Sally Batton was the head coach of the Dartmouth College Division I Varsity Equestrian Team for 30 years, coaching dozens of riders to regional, zone and national titles. She is the past Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) National Steward and was presented with the IHSA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 and was inducted into the inaugural class of the IHSA Hall of Fame in 2019. Batton is a certified instructor with both the United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) and the American Riding Instructor’s Association (ARIA); in 2008, she was named ARIA Instructor of the Year. She is the Founder and current President of the Athletic Equestrian League, an organization that offers horsemanship education and competition opportunities to English and Western riders from first grade through adult. She lives in New Hampshire (athleticequestrian.com).
Christina Keim, M ED, MFA is an award-winning equestrian journalist. Her work has appeared in The Chronicle of the Horse, UnTacked, Equine Journal, Practical Horseman, The Eastern Equerry, Northeast Equestrian Life, Green Mountain Horse Association Magazine, Woodstock Magazine, and The Plaid Horse, among others. With Sally Batton, she is the co-writer of The Athletic Equestrian and Equicize. For nearly two decades a top intercollegiate hunter seat coach, Keim now teaches compassionate horsemanship and offers equine-assisted coaching out of her Cold Moon Farm in Rochester, New Hampshire (christinakeim.com).
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