Strength

For the past six months I've being toying with the concept of strength. Does one need to be strong to ride and handle a horse? How strong?

In all the available literature it constantly stresses that it's all about technique, in some languages there are proverbs along the lines of "if the horse knew his own strength then no one would ride him" implying that riding horses is not all about strength.

Now, I do agree, that muscle for muscle, the horse is stronger. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be so useful. But I think when we are constantly bombarded with "it's technique and not strength", we forget that once you get the technique right, you still need strength. It takes strength to groom a horse, to saddle a horse, to clean out his feet, to get on, to balance during riding, and then to issue commands with your seat and legs while balancing.

Let's compare it to riding in a train carriage, or in a tram. Imagine you have to stand in the middle of the carriage, without holding onto anything, while it's taking off, going around corners, bumping across track changes, and then stopping at a station. There is the technique - legs shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, one foot forward, one foot back, feet at right angles - yes, this is how I practice. But then, as the train corners and bumps, strength starts to play a very big part. Your feet feel like they have claws that grip the floor, your quads tense to absorb the changes in momentum, your knees become shock absorbers and your calves flex. And then, if you dont have a handbag and two books, you can use your upper body too. After five minutes, you're about ready to hold the rail!

This is exactly what you need to do on a horse. In fact, you need to do more. Because while you're desperately trying to maintain that balance, you need to also indicate go left, go right, bend this way, move this leg (yes, it can get that precise). So you need strength. Lots and lots of strength. Yoga kind of strenght - I'm not moving much, but I can't be pushed over.