Fitness for the Female Equestrian

January 3, 1998

FITNESS, PERMORMANCE
AND
THE FEMALE EQUESTRIAN
--A book report

This is a woman book. If you are a man reading this review - buy this book for your beloved wife, significant other, girlfriend, woman boss who has horses, your favorite woman breeder, a woman friend. (I have to put the exact words down in print as most men have an inability to think of these kind gestures.) I LOVE THIS BOOK. I read it slowly, savoring it; marveling over the words and pictures. I’ve started reading it again, too. Here’s some of the chapter names just to whet your curiosity and appetite:

The Female Rider IS different.

Let the Force Move you.

Common Injuries and their causes.

Exercises for you half of the Partnership (horse and female rider).

Growth, Pregnancy and Aging (growth as in going from age 20 to age 40, 50 ff.) and I skipped right over the PG words...who needs that at my age! The growth words were pretty depressing and it comes right down to enjoy the horse now - while we can (and then buy miniature horses—my advice!)

For your Health and Safety...a big concern of us older women BOY HOWDY!

Now here are a few excerpts that I love:

Why We Love Horses and Why They Love Us Back

Women value love, communications, beauty and relationships. We spend a lot of time supporting, helping and nurturing. Our sense of self is defined through our feelings and the quality of our relationships. We teach and care for young. We have an innate ability to read emotions, which is another way of saying woman’s intuition which is not abstract but a very real ability to understand and predict based on behavior. The female traits carry into the horse world and translate into positive behaviors and messages that can allow the horse to be more trusting, and ultimately to perform to its potential.

Without resorting to amateur psychoanalysis, the horse fits easily into the learned nurturing model of the human female plus the sheer joy of riding, exercise, fresh air and interaction with other women who share the interest. There’s more for you to read.

History of Women Riding - this is amazing once it’s pointed out. Why did women start riding side saddle from 14^th century to the 17^th century? Of course it was then considered improper to spread legs in public and to let the petticoats show...but here’s the best part: We didn’t wear underwear! Yuck! Think about it! Double Yuck...thank goodness we live in this century! There is an amazing picture of a woman jumping. .at least 4 feet...the picture shows the horse at the highest part of the jump and the woman is sitting up there perfectly balanced on a side saddle!!! The book also explains that women fell off a lot during the sidesaddle days.

Body Mechanics

Our hips and pelvis are different than men and our hips want to turn in or internally rotate in the toe-in position. We have to have more supple muscles in the front part of the hip in order to place the leg in line with the pelvis. What does that say to us older "stiff" women! There’s a lot more here to read with a lot of skeletons and real women pictures on a horse.

Lesson in Riding Technique designed for (and by) women.

Couple the female biomechanics and forces generated by riding to create a general awareness of what happens when you sit on a horse. Lots and lots to read with pictures.

Common Injuries

Putting on the saddle is a biggie! We need to swing the saddle over the horse...but even when a short person does it correctly, often the horse is tall enough to cause us to have to lift the saddle too high and strains our back muscles. The problem is partially solved by saddling using a small stepping stool and swinging the saddle up in a way that can’t be described in print!

Saddle Fitting — something really important to me now that my horse has white spots below her mutton withers!

SUSAN’S NUMBER 1 FAVORITE PLACE IN THE BOOK:

Energy Expenditures: Calories Burned per Minute of Activity

Horse-Grooming = .128

Galloping = .137

Trotting (never mind, this is real trotting) = .110

Walking = .041

So for a 120 lb. female to:

Groom a horse, we use 6.9 calories per minute I spend 30 minutes sometimes grooming for a calorie level of 207 times a lot more because of my heavier body!

A day for this mythical 120 pound woman including 30 minutes of grooming, twenty minutes of galloping, thirty minutes of trotting and ten minutes of walking would produce a total of 554 calories. I figure my excessive pounds more than makes up for the lack of trotting and I probably expend thousands of calories when I play with the horse on groundwork, ride and groom.

This one section is the main reason I love this book. It documents the fact that we burn lots of calories when we play with our horses!

To sum it all up:

HORSES ARE EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY GREAT FOR WOMEN!

Book title is:

Fitness, Performance and the Female Equestrian

Author: Mary D. Midkiff

Comments:
Susanfxtrt@aol.com