#eqcrushtrian

Today I rode two. The big lump for my lesson, he was a slug today so much work. And then the mare tried to kill me a little. She was fucking WOUND today. But our trot work was going pretty well so I asked her for a little canter and she wouldn’t pick up the correct lead so I changed direction to maybe get SOMETHING out of her but when I asked she bucked and crow hopped. So we walked regrouped and tried again and I almost got launched. So I hopped off threw her in the round pen and free lunged her. She threw two MASSIVE bucks and she almost ate dirt herself. So glad I wasn’t on her for those. Got back on after she was working nicely again and we did some lovely trot and canter work. Popped her over a low jump nice and easy perfect. Changed direction to hop the fence again and she wouldn’t trot. Only canter. No brakes. No brain. Just roaring and cantering. So we regrouped and I worked her back to a nice calm and easy trot and called it quits.

Hi! I would love to talk to you about being a eqCRUSHtrian. I started lifting when I was riding WAY less, maybe once a week and mostly just hacking out and hunter pacing so lifting was the first form of physical activity I fell in love with outside of horseback riding. I started lifting more seriously when I wasn’t riding at all as a way to keep myself moving and being active when horses weren’t an option. I started Crush right as I can back into regular riding lessons and exercise riding/training for the barn I lesson at.

I think lifting can be incredibly beneficial to your riding if you are careful and balance things accordingly. You have to remember that you are an athlete and training off the horse is just as important as on the horse. Incorporating Crush for some unmounted workouts would definitely benefit your strength and stamina. I do Crush 60 which is more geared toward lifting whereas crush at home is a little more geared toward cardio/HIIT but both programs are great depending on what you are looking to get out of a program.

Building any kind of additional muscle will definitely help your riding. There is no question. You just have to watch your form especially hard in the gym or you could pick up some unfortunate equitation bad habits. But as long as you check yourself, and occasionally get someone else’s eyes on your riding, you will build good overall muscle and help weak muscle groups that riding alone can’t target as well. 

There are days that I do both (ride and Crush) and those days can be exhausting but in the best way possible. As long as you are eating enough (I might suggest custom macros to make sure your riding AND the program itself are taken into account properly, if you don’t want to deal with Crush nutrition just know that you will need to increase your intake quite a bit to cover this increase in activity), hydrating yourself and taking at least 1 complete (no riding or Crush) rest day a week I don’t think it will burn you out. What I would probably suggest though is only crushing on days where you can separate your ride time from your gym time i.e. ride in the morning gym at night. It would make it a very similar setup as people who do two-a-days (cardio at a different time from their lifting in the same day). Also I know on days I ride and crush I will sometimes modify the workouts so I don’t go too hard in the gym and end up ruining my ride. 

Had a really fabulous and important lesson today after a not so great couple rides yesterday. I've been a little frustrated with my riding recently, it hasn't been to the caliber that it used to be and I’m struggling with weird problems I’ve never had before. 

This is Ralph. My trainer’s ex-grand prix jumper. Doesn’t look much like one, I know but he is. He’s 22 now and doesn’t really jump much and my trainer has never let anyone else jump him pretty much ever but two weeks in a row now I’ve gotten to jump! It’s awesome. But he was the perfect vehicle to help us identify and start to rectify these strange issues that have cropped up.