Returning to the saddle after a pregnancy, birth and with a new baby has its own unique set of challenges! Solange breaks down all the factors at play and interviews a new mom who made the transition back to riding both successfully and gracefully. Listen in...

Horses in the Morning Stable Riding with Solange Episode 3826:

• Host: Solange of Stable Riding
• Sponsor: Stable Riding
• Guest: Valerie Pflughoeft

Time Stamps:

01:31 - Returning to Riding After Baby

12:23 - The Impact of Stable Riding on Horses

20:06 - Reentering the Saddle After Pregnancy

25:41 - Returning to Riding After Motherhood

31:46 - Rider Tips and Homework: Understanding Time in the Saddle

Takeaways:

• The profound journey of returning to riding post-pregnancy is one that necessitates careful consideration and planning, as discussed in this episode.
• The host's personal narrative underscores the importance of seeking professional guidance during one's transition back to riding after childbirth, which can prove invaluable.
• A key takeaway from the discussion emphasizes the necessity of patience and gradual progression, particularly for those re-entering the saddle after an extended hiatus due to motherhood.
• Emotional factors play a significant role in a rider's experience post-pregnancy, and acknowledging these nuances can facilitate a more supportive riding environment.
• Riders must understand that their bodies undergo considerable changes during pregnancy and childbirth, necessitating a thoughtful approach to reconditioning and skill development.
• The podcast highlights the importance of community and support networks for mothers returning to riding, as these can provide encouragement and practical assistance during their transition.

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What a beautiful day for Horses in the morning.

You are listening to the number one horse podcast in the world.

Here's your entertaining look at the horse.

World and the people in it.

I'm here the fourth Tuesday of every month to talk to you all about the rider and how we can make ourselves better in the saddle.

As an instructor who specializes in all riders, I teach a lot of riders with whom I don't have the experiences.

I teach a lot of men and I'm not a man.

I teach a lot of light mass and small framed riders and I'm 6ft tall and weigh about 150 pounds.

I teach a lot of Mongol Derby riders, but I've never ridden the Mongol Derby, so more often than not I teach riders that have very specific life experiences that I will never have myself.

The theme of this month's All Rider Podcast is really close to my heart because this is a life experience I have had this month.

I'm talking about riders who are returning to riding after having a baby.

I'm the mother of a 13 year old girl who's basically my twin.

She steals all my riding clothes and all my saddles and all my horses when she's not jumping off her own horse to catch snakes, toads and bugs.

I had my daughter at the age of 26.

I planned carefully as I only wanted to miss one hunt season and and Lady Luck was on my side and I indeed only missed one hunt season.

I knew before I even started trying that I was going to not ride during my pregnancy.

I made this choice based on two personal factors.

The first being I wasn't really riding trained reliable schoolmasters at the time.

I was riding the kind of horses that no one else was willing to get on.

So I felt that kind of riding and pregnancy was probably not the best mix.

I was also aware of the limited treatment options available for me during my pregnancy should I sustain an injury.

See, I had this pretty little decorative basket next to my side of the bed with a heating pad, muscle relaxers and prescription strength Advil in it.

Very Tell me you're a horse trainer without telling me you're a horse trainer and those are all things they don't recommend pregnant ladies using.

This decision ended up working out really well for me as I had morning sickness my whole pregnancy Walking too fast on my own feet made me nauseous, so go wing riding was definitely a no go.

My kid entered the world on her own terms six weeks early and breach.

My water broke and I had an unplanned C section less than two hours later.

Luckily I'm a planner and I had the house ready, my bags packed and the hospital forms all filled out.

She was full sized even being early and had zero issues.

She was cleared to go home on day two.

Being a C section, they kept me until day three.

While I was in the hospital, a sweet and easygoing palomino I owned.

Somehow in her stall she managed to splice her front leg from above her knee all the way down to her ankle.

She needed over 20 stitches that were held together with buttons.

In the following four weeks, that mare had three separate vet visits.

I, in the meantime was sent home with a newborn and a Civil War esque gut wound and I wasn't booked to go back to see my doctor until six weeks.

Wild, right?

I decided I could go back to teaching at three weeks.

I started walking hounds and cleaning stalls at four weeks and I got back into the saddle at five.

I had several things going for me.

I was young and while I did not ride during my pregnancy, I still fed and cleaned and worked all my normal barn chores, lifting and hauling and carrying the usual stuff.

So I did manage to maintain a base level of fitness.

What I did not have, and looking back, what I wish I had and what I know would have made the transition back to riding so much easier is a me.

I wish I had had a professional who could have provided me with specific incremental logical exercises and advice to systematically work back up to the kind of riding I was doing before.

And I really, really wish that I'd had my lab tools, my equi sizer, my home horse, those I know for a fact would have been a game changer.

But what I did have was Leo, my angel of a beginner school horse at the time, and a big old western saddle.

So I just walked around on him, standing up my stirrups until I felt ready to trot and moved on from there.

This worked well enough and I was back to hunting when my kid was six months old.

But if I'm being honest, dear listener, my kid was 3 years old when I finally felt like I was back to riding at the level I was before I had her.

And some of that was probably the fact that by then she was fully sleeping through the night regularly.

So I was actually sleeping through the night regularly and I'm sure that really helped.

Which brings me to the cold hard facts and logistics of riding while being the mom to a new little baby.

You have less time, less freedom and flexibility in your schedule to be able to go and ride.

You have less energy, you're not sleeping your normal amount, and if you're breastfeeding, you're spending a huge amount of metabolic energy feeding your baby.

If you didn't ride for all or some of your pregnancy, you will have physically deconditioned in your skills.

And even if you did ride the entire time, you have to remember your body still went through a huge process giving birth.

This is not meant to be discouraging.

This is meant to help you reframe your goals and expectations to meet you where you are, to help you be present and extend yourself the grace you both need and definitely deserve.

Throughout this process, all the things I lifted above were the physical factors.

So let's pull apart the sticky subject of confidence, fear and emotional state when you ride post pregnancy.

I broke a horse to ride when my kid was about four months old.

This decision, as you can imagine, was a wee bit controversial.

I heard a lot of what you can't do that.

What if you get hurt?

You have a baby to take care of.

To which I said, oh, I'm so glad my physical safety matters now that I proved I'm breeding stock.

Obviously I was expendable before.

Well, that's what I wanted to say.

I'm sure at the time I probably said something much more polite.

I was younger then.

But here is how I explain the delicate balance of self preservation, risk management, and personal decisions surrounding safety.

I work to cultivate a mental outlook in which I do not want to break my arm the same amount all the time, regardless of what I'm doing.

See, dear listener, I never want to break my arm or sustain an injury.

It's painful and inconvenient to my plans.

Therefore, I don't want to break my arm when I'm driving my car.

I don't want to break my arm when I'm carrying groceries into my house on the slippery driveway in the middle of winter.

I don't want to break my arm riding a well broke horse slowly.

And I don't want to break my arm riding a not so well broke horse fast.

I wanted to not sustain an injury the same amount before I had my baby as after having my baby.

If we have to be more careful since now we have a child.

My problem with that logic is it implies that we were not careful before having them.

Men often seem better at this train of thought, whereas women tend to weigh the risk of certain scenarios based on their mood, which does them a great disservice not when they're being extra careful, but rather when they're not being careful at all, ironically enough.

So now we have the physical factors I listed above mixed with the emotional aspect, and it's easy to see why women either stop riding all the way post baby or return to riding, but as a shadow of their former riding selves.

I'm here to tell you that's simply not necessary.

If you want to return to riding and continue just as you did before, it is fully possible.

Possible, but your chance of success is greatly improved by accessing appropriate external help and guidance.

It's really too big of an ask to try and do it all on your own.

This is one of those times in your riding journey where you really, truly deserve correct and high level guidance.

So for today's episode, I of course have the most fabulous guest, the ever delightful Val, who I met before she had her baby and whom I helped return to riding when she was ready to get back into the saddle.

Val, hello.

Thank you for coming on the Stable Riding podcast.

Hey, thanks for having me.

I'm so excited.

Okay, Val, as always, I like to ask a few background questions before we delve into the main topic.

Are you ready?

Yep.

How old are you now?

How old is your daughter and how old were you when you started riding horses?

I'm 36.

My daughter is just a little over one now, and I started riding horses when I was probably about 8 years old, taking lessons properly.

But before that, if I could touch a horse, I was touching the horse.

I was, you know, the little kid just glommed to their leg.

Yes.

Wanted to ride them.

So that's perfect because that feeds into my next question, which was what drew you to horses?

You knew from a very young age horses were it for you?

Yeah, ever since my grandpa held me up and I touched their nose and you know, it's a horse breath in your face, you just infected.

Well, it's often I tell people this about, like advertising.

People will go, well, do you advertise?

Do you put like your card up?

And I'm like, it's not like getting your carpets cleaned.

Like, people don't see a flyer and go, oh, I should ride a horse.

But the people who want to ride horses really want to ride horses, and they always, they always find you.

It's kind of like, it's like in your blood Yep.

So you fall under my vets and vets rule.

I teach a lot of veterinarians and a lot of veterans.

And you are an equine vet and acupuncturist.

Does being a horse vet make it easier to have your own horses?

Does it make it harder?

I feel like it'd be a little bit of both, kind of.

It is a little bit of both.

It's easier.

And I think the day to day things of knowing what they need to eat and what they need to be happy and healthy and safe, but definitely harder in the time commitment that my job is and being on call and just the baggage that you have coming home from working with horses all day.

Right.

Sometimes you see yours and they give you a dirty look and you're like, well, all right, then I guess we aren't doing anything tonight because I can't take any more dirty looks from horses today.

Right.

You've used up all of your grace.

All of your grace, your horse grace for the day at work.

Exactly.

Where you're just.

You've kind of.

You've had your limit.

I get that.

I've heard that from school teachers where sometimes when you have your own kids, you're like, I just did kids all day and now I have to come back to more kids.

I don't have any living things in my house.

I have no pets and I have no plants because I take care of stuff all day.

So when I come home, there's nothing alive in my house.

That's how I do it.

All right, Val, do you remember how we met?

Because I remember it being in Washington state at the clinic that our mutual wonderful friend Cassie held, and I ended up standing next to your trailer and talking to you about stirrups for like 30 minutes.

Was that it?

Was that how we met?

That is how we met.

Wow.

Isn't that wild how it goes?

And you were endurance rider.

Right.

And that's why we're talking about stirrups, because that's such a big thing in endurance.

Okay, I remember correctly now that's what I thought happened.

Now I talk a huge amount about how I observe that the stable riding system is obviously good for the rider's body.

And since the subject of riders bodies is so involved and complex, I rarely have time to speak about how the stable riding system is also good for the horse's body.

But whenever I have a veterinarian or someone who does like that long distance and endurance riding, I like to talk to them about how they feel the stable riding system and how they're riding in their own body might be beneficial to their horse.

I observe that when a rider is stable and skeletally aligned, it's easier for the horse to carry the rider.

As an equine vet yourself, have you found that to be true when you start to use some of the stable riding principles on your own horses, in your own riding?

Absolutely.

I think one of the biggest examples that jumps to my mind is doing endurance rides.

And we do a lot of trotting downhill, which for a lot of riders, I think is probably a big no, no, or they don't know how to do it, or it's just something you don't do because it's uncomfortable if you don't know how to do it properly.

And it was one of those things as an endurance rider that I hated until.

Because I would post downhill, and it's just really hard and exhausting.

But when I started using the stable riding system, it just kind of made sense.

And my horse had learned how to move with me sitting back and sitting deeper so that when we.

We were on an endurance ride, when I learned how to ride downhill on an endurance ride, because we had been using a stable endurance or stable riding system, and he kind of, like, shifted his back and, like, told me, he's like, sit back.

Oh, okay.

And so I sat back and I sat deeper, and he kind of just, like, shimmied me where he wanted me, and all of a sudden I was leaning back.

And it's really similar to the, like, deep seat setting.

Caner.

Yes.

Where we're just sitting back and I was shimming with his movement.

Yes.

And he just wanted to re.

Like, he did this big sigh, and his ears popped up, and he was like, now you're doing it.

And Jesus flew down the hill.

I have never ridden such a fast downhill trot.

And now that's our downhill trot.

It's just this massive flying canter or flying trot down the downhills.

And it's all because of the stable riding system.

And I would have.

I don't think I would have figured that out on my own.

Well, and that's.

First of all, I love hearing those aha moments.

I love hearing that.

I can tell you exactly what happened.

And I appreciate, as a riding coach that you heard your h clearly and that he was able to communicate to you, and you were in a place where you heard him and you understood him, and you had the agency and the freedom in your body to make that change so that he could travel better for you.

And that's really what I'm looking for with all my riders because obviously the horse rider combinations are also different.

Different body types, different saddle types, different horse types, different horse body types.

And as you were saying, the pitch of the ground is a big one.

When we start talking about real world riding, are you uphill, are you downhill, Is it mud, is it grass, is it slippery, is it rocky?

Right.

So to be able to in real time, put your body in the position that your horse is asking so they can travel really well, that's, that's what I love to hear.

That makes my heart happy because I know that you've been able to access that with your horse.

I know you're both so much happier.

Absolutely.

And I'm sure he's less sore carrying you and you're less sore from the bouncing because anyone knows that if you've ridden incorrectly for a long period of time, you feel it the next day.

Like hell.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's another thing is he feels so much better.

I've seen so much less back soreness.

So many horses I see on a day to day basis are back sore.

And like our massage therapist will come out and see my horses and she's like, well, most horses are back sore.

And she runs her hands down her back and she's like, well, actually he's doing really well.

And I was like, oh, good.

And isn't that, that's what everybody wants?

Everybody, regardless of our discipline or our breed or our chosen, like, activity with our horses, really the underlying vein is we all want our horses to be healthy and happy and pain free.

Yes, we can all agree on that.

So I remember when you told me that you were pregnant and how excited we both were.

And I made you promise right then that you wouldn't get back on a horse until I called you and you told me how you're going and I could tell you how to go about doing it and give you all the help and pointers that I wish that I had.

And then we ended up being sisters in C sections.

So I felt it became doubly important for me to be able to help you.

So let me ask you this.

To start.

Did you ride into your pregnancy and if so, how far?

I did.

I rode until I was about four or five months pregnant.

I don't remember exactly, but I started having round ligament pain.

And if anyone's ever been pregnant and have felt that, you know exactly what it is.

But it's this deep pain in your groin and I felt it on the downhills.

And just the way my horse swung his back, shifted my hips and my.

Felt like my belly was just this round thing flopping and tugging on my round leg.

Yeah.

With every stride.

And I actually got off and just walked the rest of the way back because I was like, this is terrible.

And that was when I stopped riding.

Usually, you know, like women will ride and they'll go, I'll know when I need stop.

And usually if you need to stop, it's really apparent.

You're like, well, now I can't get my foot in the stirrup or oops, I, I can't trot.

Or this has just become too.

Because we all carry different too.

You know, all of our pregnancies are different and our bodies are different.

So how old was your daughter when you started riding again?

I think she was about eight weeks.

Because that's when I got cleared from the doctor to keep.

I did not ask, I just started writing.

I was impatient.

But I think it's probably best that you.

Well, they gave me, they gave me some kind of massive pain pills and they said, you, at some point you're gonna overdo it and you're going to need to take these pills and you need to have them on hand.

And I am such a stubborn person.

I was determined to take such good care of myself that I didn't need the pain pills.

So that, that's how I kept myself off the horse for so long.

They sent me home from my C section with Vicodin and I remember just taking it and holding the baby and people would like come and see the baby and give it gifts.

And I felt like I had.

It was just like the Dalai Lama was in my house because I didn't have to do anything, but people just brought food and gifts.

And then I kept repeating myself and my husband was like, it's probably time to stop taking the Vicodin.

I went, oh, okay.

So that's, that's how I. I think she was maybe two weeks old when they were like, that's enough.

You've had enough of that.

But it was a very delightful.

I remember those early days very.

With a very rose tinted glasses because that's fantastic.

I would just sit and hold the baby and I'd be like, yes, would you like to see the baby?

It was very funny.

So I had the good fortune of being able to train you several times before your pregnancy.

I saw you at the clinic and then you came to my house and did a three day.

So I knew pretty well what your base competency level was what your fitness was, what type of horses you had, your motions and your saddles.

And that made it easier for me to give you some of those step by step guidelines on how to re enter the saddle, which was handy because you were all the way in Washington state on the other side of the country.

So we did it over the phone, but working within the parameters of the horses and the tack that I knew you had available, I feel like we were able to put together something that allowed you to transition back into the saddle more successfully.

And here's where I want to ask you.

For the listeners, would you recommend if you were coming back to riding after pregnancy and birth, accessing some professional help to help you make that transition?

Absolutely.

Nothing's quite where you expect it to be.

It's not where you sit before you were pregnant.

That's such a good way of saying it.

It really is.

It's like someone came in and rearranged all your kitchen drawers.

Yeah.

So in your head you know how to ride and your body, no, it remembers how to ride, but when you try to talk to your body and you try to feel things, it's not quite right.

And, you know, the horse knows too.

And thank goodness, my horses are really lovely and really patient and kind and especially Twix.

I'd be riding and he will just stop and turn and look at me and be like, what are you doing?

Do you want to.

Do you need some help back there?

Do I need to call somebody?

He's like, I don't think you can trot right now.

And I would say, I can't trot right now, Twix, but we need to figure this out, so just hang on.

Right.

Yep, yep.

He was, he was really important and me getting back to it because we, we were out on the trail one time and I was feeling so good and I said, come on, Twix, let's canter.

And he actually stopped then too and looked at me and said, ma', am, you cannot canter.

You need to slow down.

You didn't file that form and triplicate.

Yeah.

But he, as soon as I was able to canter again, he knew.

And then we were, then we were galloping, so we had a great time.

But yeah, back to your original question.

I think knowing, because your, your recommendation to me was to do a lot of walking, just get out and get in the, get on the saddle.

Get in the saddle, get on the horse and do a lot of walking.

And then if I felt good enough to start doing some of the exercises, which were standing in my stirrups and posting the walk.

Posting walk, man, that's the one.

Yep.

And when I got really bored and if I still had energy, then maybe I could do something more.

But to my incredible frustration, that was really hard.

Yeah.

Omg.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

So as soon as I got back on, I would do.

We would walk around, and then I would post my walk for, I don't know, a minute.

And then I'd be like, okay, I'm exhausted.

Yep.

So we walk around, and then I'd be like, okay, I can do it again.

And so we post the walk again for a minute, and, okay, I think I might be done for today.

And that was all we would do.

And we would just ride in his paddock where he lives, because it's boring and he didn't care, and he wasn't going to do any big jumping spooks or get excited.

That's what we did for, like, a month, just to.

Until my.

Like, I could sit on the horse and I could be like, all right, my legs are where they expect it.

I can post a walk.

I can post a little bit of trotting, and I'm not going to fall off.

It's so much about when you're returning to riding after any sort of prolonged break, whether it's an injury or an illness or a lifestyle change or pregnancy.

It's about managing the frustration of not being able to just do it and managing your expectations and giving yourself that grace to go, we're gonna do this in little bitty pieces.

It doesn't have to be perfect because I teach so many, like, eldest daughter perfectionists, you know, who want everything to go exactly right, and if it's not exactly right, then they can't do it.

So it's giving yourself the freedom to do a little bit and that that's enough, and to enjoy the fact that you're just back to riding again.

And then also managing that sense of, like, unease tinged with dread and anxiety when you go to reach for something that's not there anymore.

It's always like, I always say, it feels like when you jump out of an airplane and you go to pull the cord and it's not there.

You're like, I went to use my legs, and they weren't there.

You know?

Yeah.

It's a.

It's a big ask.

So I think having someone to help guide you lets you have some more obvious parameters so you don't judge yourself too harshly or overdo it physically and then lose time in your Training because you injured yourself being.

Being too crazy, which is what I would have done.

Absolutely.

And I, I'm always the person, and I know this about myself, that I'll try to think of something and say, what would be, you know, step one, what would be an easy goal?

And my easy goal that I make for myself is like step 50, which is, is why I need help to be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We are not going to start by riding in a 25.

You just got back from having a baby.

How about you go sit on your horse in your pasture and see how that goes?

Yeah, give yourself 15 minutes and then let me know how that ran.

Yes, exactly.

Man.

The first time I took Twix, my beloved Steady Eddie, and it was our first real out and about ride that we.

There is a local endurance ride.

And we just did the intro, we did the 15 and we had so much fun, but I got off of him at the end and my legs were just shaking and I was like, oh, wow, we've got a ways to go.

Now that, now that you're a mom, has your relationship with riding changed in any way?

Yeah, definitely.

It just the time commitment, you know, of being a mom and having a full time job is probably the hardest thing.

What we figured out is that we just need to schedule time and say, this night is Valerie.

Valerie's gonna ride this night, this week.

And that way everybody knows and it happens.

Yes.

And as far as my relationship with riding, I. I've never been a super fearful rider and.

But it did become a bigger factor after having a baby because I'm like, I don't want something to happen to me and not be here for her or not be able to be as active in her life because I made a bad mistake riding.

So I think that that's a big thing that's changed in my mind that I'm battling mentally, but that's the biggest thing.

I speak about exactly that in the part of the podcast that you haven't heard yet.

But I talk about how I broke a horse to ride when my daughter was four months old and everybody was like, up in arms and I tried to explain to them.

And that life experience of breaking that horse when my daughter was so young really helped me clarify my own internal mental narrative of I want to have the same level of self preservation all the time.

So I don't want to break my arm in equal amount of time all the time.

And I think that what happens to a lot of women when they have a kid is not that they're now overly cautious, it's that they were under cautious before.

That makes sense, you know, because you're like, woo, let's go, gallop.

And now you're like, maybe I shouldn't.

So oddly enough, when, when women sort of have a little bit more thought put into like the risk management and the risk reward ratio and their self preservation, they feel like they're being too cautious and more cautious.

But in reality, I feel like now they're just being more logical.

That makes a lot of sense.

You're.

You're probably not wrong.

You've probably just settled to a place that's more appropriate because, you know, you don't want to break your arm all the time.

Right.

And that's, that's kind of how I talk about pulling apart that, like physical, emotional fear.

Is there anything that you would like to say to any moms out there who are returning to riding, who might happen to hear this?

Any words of wisdom, any encouragement?

I would just encourage you, if you, if you want a ride, to do it.

Make it a priority.

Yeah, you can do it.

It's possible.

Yes, yes.

We're here for you.

There's lots of support.

We're here for you.

100.

Yeah.

And I mean, for me, it's a personal goal that, you know, as an equine veterinarian, I had so many people tell me that if you're an equine veterinarian, you can't ride horses.

You won't have time.

Time.

And then I said, well, I'm going to be an equine veterinarian and endurance writer.

And they said, well, you can't be an equine vet and an endurance writer.

There's no way you'll have time.

And I said, well, okay, I did that.

Yep.

And then, okay, you're an equine vet and an endurance writer that has a kid.

There's no way you're going to be able to do that.

And we did do a 25 this summer.

So it's okay.

We're doing it.

You're doing it, you can do it.

So you guys can do it.

It's possible.

Don't listen to the people who say you can't.

Yeah, I mean, that's really true in a lot of things and in a lot of aspects of our riding, regardless of whether we just had a baby or not.

And there is, we are here for you.

And there is such a community in horses.

And community is important, I think, to women all the time.

And I think community is really important when you have a baby, because it does take a village.

You need a lot of help.

God only gave you two hands.

To this day, my child, who's 13, will come up to me while I'm talking to another person actively doing something, and then try and hand me something or ask her a question.

And I turn and I go, how many hands do I have?

Look at them both.

They're currently occupied.

You need to wait patiently in line for your turn.

And we're rolling up on 14, and that happened just a couple days ago, so.

All right, Val, I have to ask you the most important question, the question that's on everyone's mind.

When is that kid getting a pony?

Has it happened yet?

Are we pony shopping?

Should people submit ponies?

Well, currently, if I set her on a horse, she'll stay there for about four seconds and then freak out.

So you got a little time.

You got some wiggle room.

We've got some time before she gets a pony.

But Grace's pony, Pudge, is lined up.

He's.

He is application spot number one for when she's ready for a pony.

I am a big Pudge fan.

He's pretty great.

That's a great name for a pony, too.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, that's some good purse.

First pony vibes.

Pudge the pony.

I'm in love.

My favorite pony name I ever saw at a high level show was a little palomino jumper pony who was named Al Capone.

Oh, my gosh.

Like, oh, well played.

I was like, yeah, you guys might be winning with Al Capone.

That was pretty good.

Well, Val, keep us updated on the Pudge situation, because now this is one of my new favorite.

My new favorite episodes.

I need to know when Pudge is going to come live at your house.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much, Val.

That was so wonderful.

That was so easy.

Thank you for coming on and telling everybody your story because I think it's really important.

A lot of women ride and a lot of women have kids, so this is, I think, a really valuable topic.

Well, thank you for having me.

Happy to share.

Yes, Val.

Bye.

How fabulous is Val?

She's just always so much fun to talk to, and I'm so glad that she was willing to share her story with us on the POD to help inspire other moms who are getting back into the saddle.

Okay, everybody, this month's rider tip and homework is a little different.

I'd like to talk to you guys about time or how slow or fast it passes when we're on our horse at my farm here in Ohio.

I'm lucky.

I have both an indoor arena, an outdoor arena, a lovely back field for riding in, plus some trails and jumps in my wooded acres.

I'm also about a 5 minute trailer drive away from one of the metro parks in my area.

This gives me plenty of different spaces to observe riders in, and I have found that regardless of what type of space we're riding in, riders are bad at estimating how long they've been doing one thing for.

They're bad at estimating how many minutes they've been trotting or standing their walk.

Now why does this matter?

Well, I'm here to tell you it actually matters a great deal for two reasons.

One, if a rider wants to improve a skill or position on their horse, they need to perform that skill or possession for at least 10 minutes per ride.

Now don't panic.

That doesn't have to be a continuous 10 minutes, but a series of small increments that make up 10 minutes total.

And number two, you and your horse need a warm up period, which generally takes, you guessed it, at least 10 minutes.

We gift each other 10 minutes and $10 freely.

We'll call each other and say, hey, I'm running 10 minutes late, my boss called or I hit construction or maybe it's my dog threw up or my spouse forgot to put gas in the car.

We all have large parts of our life in which we have little agency over and sometimes it affects our schedule.

It happens to all of us, so we're generally pretty understanding when it comes to the $10 part.

Oftentimes someone will bring you coffee and a muffin and we'll say, hey, let me pay you back.

And they say don't worry about it, it was 10 bucks.

And boy, don't we all know that $10 is nothing in the land of horse stuff.

So when it comes to warming up your horse, gift them 10 minutes to settle in.

And when you're transitioning from your non riding life of sitting and driving and working and walking around to being in the saddle, don't expect your body to immediately just snap into it.

Gift yourself 10 full minutes to settle in before you start the building part of your ride.

And then gift yourself 10 full minutes of practice in whatever it is you want to progress in before you judge yourself on how well you did.

I chose this rider tip for this episode because we spoke about reconditioning ourselves.

I encourage all my riders to be realistic about where they are in this very moment and what it will take to get them where they want to be.

Often we want our body to do it now, and when it doesn't immediately perform as we hoped, we judge ourselves with negative and critical thoughts, which hinders our progress forward.

So my rider homework is to test your internal clock in the saddle.

Peek at your watch, phone or the clock on the wall and do one simplistic thing with your horse for what you think is 10 minutes.

Arenas, I feel sometimes almost make it even harder as the circular nature of travel bends our perspective of time.

When you feel like 10 minutes has passed, look again.

Don't be shocked if it's only three to six minutes.

That seems to be the average with most of my riders.

Reframing how you process time during your ride will be so helpful.

A full 10 minute warm up will help you and your horse be ready to make progress.

Then imagine how much better you will feel in your own body, in your own skills.

After a full 10 minutes of walking and just practicing your stable position or just keeping your ribs lifted or tracking the saddle with your seat bones or keeping your chin up, you will be pleasantly surprised with the progress you make.

You can find our show notes and links to today's guests and products on the show notes on your podcast player or on my website, Stableriding Us.

We are on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok as Stable Riding.

We're here once a month on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

We have our own RSS feed.

Just search Stable Riding with Solange in your podcast player or you can find us on the main horses in the morning feed.

All riders can be stable riders and a stable rider makes for a happy horse.