Jessica Burn Osteopath - Riding Injuries and Performance

02/05/2019

Good morning everyone! I am now offering mobile osteopathy in the Taunton/Somerset area (for a short period only, until the end of May) PM if you need some treatment x

Send a message to learn more

30/08/2018

🙌 ** Next available appointments** 🙌
Friday Sept 14th @ 9.30am, 11.30am, 12.30am, 2.00pm
**Appointments available most Fridays**
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WHAT ARE THE TOP FACTORS TO MAKE A GREAT RIDER?

The base for good riding and clear communication with your horse is down to being well-positioned on the horse and having an effective seat.

Being well-positioned and having an effective seat is an incredible important factor for good riding technique 🏇.

The pelvis has been identified as the most important part of the rider's seat; it is central in the transfer of movement from the horse to other parts of the rider's body (Meyners 2004, Von Dietze 2005).

The riders seat needs to be balanced, elastic, stable, and interactive with the horse. There are several muscles
that are crucial for this:
👉the deep spinal muscles,
👉the gluteals (butt muscles)
👉the thigh muscles,
👉the hip flexors (muscles which allow you to raise you knee to your chest)
👉and the abdominals.

If your strength 💪or flexibility is unbalanced (example: stronger or more flexible in one side than the other) then it could disrupt the communication with your horse".

Things that can cause imbalances to these important muscles:
⚠️History of serious injury with no or inadequate rehab
⚠️Habitual asymmetrical sitting posture or movement e.g. Sitting with your legs crossed! mucking out! Always brushing your horse with your favourite hand! lifting buckets of water with your stronger side!
⚠️History of pregnancy with no or inadequate rehab
⚠️Repetitive prolonged postures e.g. Occupations that involve sitting at a desk for the majority of the day.

These can all create weakness and restriction in areas of the body and If you're not balanced how can your horse be? 🤷‍♀️

Horses are incredibly sensitive; in order to provide clear communications, particularly when training and competing, as the rider its incredibly important to be aware of symmetry in strength and flexibility. Any imbalances in this can result in faulty communication with the horse. It can also create negative long term effects on the horse, such as muscle and joint pain and behavioural changes (Blokhuis et al 2009).

This can also bring about difficulties improving as a rider. If there are areas of restriction and weakness, the rider will find it challenging to properly engage with those areas to achieve the desired movement. For example, if the rider's back tends to hollow, their spinal muscles are too tight, and their gluteals (butt muscles) and abdominals are weak. They might find their seat slightly 'unstable' and tend to use their legs more for support. To try and change their positioning to a more neutral spine and ride with a more 'stable' seat whilst riding, can often be quite challenging and frustrating for the rider. This is because there is already a lot for the brain to think about.

🙌 NOT TO WORRY, I'm here to help. My sessions involve identifying and working on the problem areas off the horse, which lead onto positive changes in riding technique on the horse ✅. Everyone is different and will have their own unique imbalances. I can help by identifying and treating your specific imbalances, to improve you and your horse performance.

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** Next available appointments**
Friday Sept 14th @ 9.30am, 11.30am, 12.30am, 2.00pm -
**Appointments available most Fridays**
Call/text: 07947622293�Email: [email protected] or hit the Facebook message button 👍

06/08/2018

WONKY HORSE? NOT MANY RIDERS CONSIDER THIS AS A FACTOR...

Interesting image I found recently. It shows the difference in pressure points on a horse, after being ridden by a balanced and an unbalanced rider. You can see that even with a well-fitted saddle, problems with the rider can have a unbalancing affect on the horse.

Signs to look out for:
Do you feel wonky in the saddle, or constantly feel the need to keep shifting the saddle to one side, maybe one rein is stiffer than the other, do you find one leg keeps better contact on the horse than the other, do you get back or neck pain? Any of these sound familiar? Chances are you might be a bit wonky!

Everyone is unique so it's important to find exactly where your strength imbalances and restrictions lie.

I offer both on-horse assessments and a manual assessments to find out your imbalances. I then use a combination of muscle and joint release techniques to balance your system, then home exercises to help retrain you. Balanced rider=balanced horse.

So many riders invest in their horse's health and tend to neglect their own. But remember, you're a team and you're only as strong as your weakest link. Investing into both parts will brings out the best in both of you.

Appointments available in Somerset every Friday.

LIMITED AVAILABILITY - To ensure that a high standard of service is maintained, there are only 8 X 1-hour appointments available each Friday, these tend to go quickly.

** Next available appointments** - 17th August
at 10am, 11am, 12pm.

21/07/2018

Hi guys, fully booked until the 17th, only 1 appointment left on 3rd at 11am, PM if you want it 🙌

17/07/2018

'WHY DOES MY HORSE FIND IT DIFFICULT TO ENGAGE THROUGH HIS BACK AND CREATE POWER FROM BEHIND? This might be the missing link...

It can be down to a number of things; for example pain and restriction in the horse or an ill-fitting saddle. But have you thought about how your back can affect your horses back?

We've all heard of the 'the core', but what exactly is it and why is it so important for you as a rider?

The core consists of muscles of the abdomen (abdominals), the diaphragm, spinal muscles, and the pelvic floor. They all need to function and work together to provide good core stability (see image 2)

Engaging your core when you ride, encourages the horse to engage their core, helping them to create power from behind. They should feel light in the hands and not fall forwards feeling the need to hold them. The first image (credit to happyhorsetraining.com) shows a clear and simple diagram of how a hollow back/disengaged seat versus an engaged seat can affect the horse performance in a negative and positive way. If you're struggling with encouraging your horse to lift through his back, work through his core and create power from behind, you might need to look at your riding. Here are some other clues which indicate your not engaging your core as well as you could be when riding:
- Current or previous history of low back pain?
- No rehab post pregnancy?
- Hollow/arched back?
- Does your butt stick out?
- Do your hips feel tight?

(Bare in mind, you don't need to be in pain for there to be a problem with your core).

If you're nodding to 1 or more of these, you core function could be slightly off, which will make it difficult to get the performance you're looking for from your horse. You may also experience low back pain when you ride.

How can we fix it?
First, we release off the areas that are creating the tight/hollow back. Typically this involves working on the back, hip flexors, quads, and hamstrings. Sometimes the shoulders, neck, and feet also need treating. A restricted spine and pelvis makes it harder for your core to engage. By balancing this out and correcting the pelvic tilt, it allows you to engage your core more easily.
Second, we wake up that core. Using cues, body position adjustments, and specific activation exercises.
Lastly, you're given a program of home exercises, where you can continue to strengthen your core.

Improving your core can have such a positive impact on your riding, you pain, and your connection with the horse.

Need help with low back pain/core function? Get in touch! I run a clinic every Friday just outside of Taunton.

**Please note: Due to high demand, the next available appointments are on the 3rd of August **

03/07/2018

Update: Friday 6th is now fully booked. Next availability is the 20th July

02/07/2018

**One appointment has just come available this Friday 6th July**

PM if you’d like it

02/07/2018

Good afternoon everyone, I have now moved into a gorgeous new clinic space just outside of Bishops Lydeard in Crowcombe Heathfield. I have started transitioning from mobile to in-clinic appointments. I am still offering mobile appointments but they will be less frequent.



**IN-CLINIC APPOINTMENTS** The next available appointments are on Friday 20th July, with only a couple of AM and PM sessions left. Email me if you would like to book in.

**MOBILE APOINTMENTS** The next available sessions are on the 10th August.

01/07/2018

CASE EXAMPLE:

This is something I see and treat very frequently. Posture imbalances can have a real impact on riding performance. I treated this lovely lady recently, who had some back pain and consistently found working on the left rein harder. You can see in the images on the left where her imbalances are.

After one session working out those imbalances, it made a huge difference to her posture. She's a lot straighter. This mean her weight distribution through her body is now more even. We all know horses respond to shift in weight when we ride. This means for riders its quite important to be as symmetrical as possible in terms of posture, strength, and flexibility, to help get the best from our riding and the horse.

With a little bit of treatment, advice, and home exercises to strengthen the weak areas, and loosen the restricted areas, the improvements that come from treatment will be maintained.

If you're having some trouble with pain, or have some difficulty with certain aspects in riding, pop me message and we can have a chat.

22/06/2018

SCANS: SOMETIMES NOT THAT HELPFUL..

Scans can be really useful to help diagnose someone's pain. However, the findings from a scan shouldn't be used in isolation when it comes to diagnosing. Yes a scan can show changes or injury to structures within/around the joint but it doesn't necessarily correlate to someone's symptoms.

Research shows that people who have no pain or symptoms, when scanned, can still have injury or degenerative changes to a structure within/around a joint. This means that if someone is in pain, the findings on a scan may still not be the source of the pain/problem.

That's not to say that scans are not helpful with diagnosing, the definitely are. But the pattern of symptoms should be considered and should fit the findings on the scan, in order to reach a diagnosis that will be more beneficial to the patient in terms of prognosis and treatment strategy.

So for people who are in pain, who have been told it's due to an chronic injury or degeneration. This might not be the case at all. Pain doesn't have to come from a single source. It can come from one or a combination of muscles, tendons, nerves, ligaments, cartilage, etc. So even if there is an chronic injury or degenerative changes, in many cases people respond well to manual therapy.

This is quite an important factor to consider, if you have been told your pain is due to chronic injury or degeneration.

20/06/2018

I second that 🙌

Exercises is so important!

https://www.facebook.com/TED/videos/10160545401360652/

16/06/2018

Ah this was a few years back now, miss riding my gorgeous grey. Also a complete idiot for not wearing a hat! Not very sensible.