Breathe, Stay Standing, And Try Not To Fall Over

Whilst the delay to my work trip is irksome, it has meant I have been home for my physio's new pilates classes, which started this evening.

I started doing a bit of pilates way back at the start of the year, but have only really had two 1-to-1 sessions with Anna. The rest has been from books and just practicing the core exercises to work on. It was nice to be in class environment :)

We went over the fundamentals of pilates and into some warm up and warm down exercises. It was like learning something new on a horse. For example, the aids for new lateral work. I found it difficult to co-ordinate my body and breath as instructed. When working on some balance exercises, I almost fell over and felt rather silly, suffering a fit of giggles as I did so! This was mainly due to my gammy right ankle, which is still not 100% after a champagne-fuelled sprain in the Spring. As we progressed it all became a little easier, to my relief. What I struggled with the most was relaxing and trying to breath fluidly, I have a habit of holding my breath when I'm concentrating. I'm usually pop-eyed and blue-faced by the end of a showjumping round!

I'm pleased that the exercises Anna had given me a few weeks ago are becoming easier at this level (Level 1), and some of the new ones were very effective, especially in indicating just how stiff some bits of me are! There is one exercise called The Clam, we were taught this one tonight. There were several groans around the room after a few repetitions! I don't know if you've ever been tortured with a mounted exercise where you have to open your hip and lift your legs off the horse from the hip? If you have and you're not quite as pliable as a Cirque du Soleil performer, you'll know how brutal this feels, and how I felt in class tonight! I can barely lift my legs of the saddle like this at a halt, I believe if you're a superfreak it's possible to maintain this pose at a canter!

Some of the upper body exercises I had to really tone down my range of movement in order that I wasn't becoming sore quickly. More work required here too!

I'm hoping, but not holding my breath, that I'll be away before the end of the week, so will miss the next couple of classes. But I've asked nicely that I can be emailed further instructions each week. I dare say even if that doesn't happen The Clam is going to keep me very busy indeed! It's brilliant I've found a way of training for horse riding offshore.

No real pony news. Quadi's bedding had swirled into funny patterns yesterday, thanks to some hefty gales, and he deemed his stable floor much too dangerous to step on because of this unauthorised change to his surroundings(!)