Pilates for Dressage Clinic Sept 20-22

September 20-22 Kelly and 4 students attended the Oklahoma Dressage Society’s Janice Dulack clinic. This was not your traditional dressage clinic as it focused on using Pilates to better control the rider’s body and influence while on their horse.

Here is an except from Liz Caudle’s article in the Northwest Arkansas Dressage Club’s newsletter:

”We learned about our transverse abdominis, and our Illiopsoas and the critical role they play in stabilizing our seat. In addition, we learned that the elusive "seat" of an effective dressage rider is NOT isolated to the part of our body that rests on the saddle, but is defined as our "pelvis and rib cage connected by a lengthened and stabilized spine". The Illiopsoas connects our legs to our trunk, and our transverse abdominis works to balance our front and back muscles to stabilize our spine. Throughout the clinic we focused on all of these muscle groups and how to use them most effectively to improve our horses carriage and movement. Saturday and Sunday mornings were spent doing Pilates for dressage exercises on our mats to help us find and strengthen the different parts of our abdominal muscles, transverse abdominis and ilieopsoas.”