This is something I did for over 20 years, and of those 20 years, I competed for about 9 years.
Horseback riding, at least for me, involved sitting extremely straight, looking very proper, and having very strong legs to grip the horse to reduce bouncing.
I rode equitation and hunt-seat. Equitation in particular appears to involve the very straight, firm back with a strong gripped leg.
Ideally, horseback riding should require extremely loose and flexible hips and back – to absorb the bulk of the impact. Regardless, even if the rider is able to have loose, mobile hips and back, there is still a lot of impact that one undertakes.
Even so… there are many people who horseback ride for their entire lifetime – and do not endure severe back pain.
I think that years of horseback riding contributed to my back pain. However, I really think that it was poor posture while horseback riding (although I appeared to have excellent posture!), which required that the disks in my vertebrae absorb the bulk of the impact, instead of absorbing this impact naturally through movement within my hips and elsewhere.
Horseback riding, at least for me, involved sitting extremely straight, looking very proper, and having very strong legs to grip the horse to reduce bouncing.
I rode equitation and hunt-seat. Equitation in particular appears to involve the very straight, firm back with a strong gripped leg.
Ideally, horseback riding should require extremely loose and flexible hips and back – to absorb the bulk of the impact. Regardless, even if the rider is able to have loose, mobile hips and back, there is still a lot of impact that one undertakes.
Even so… there are many people who horseback ride for their entire lifetime – and do not endure severe back pain.
I think that years of horseback riding contributed to my back pain. However, I really think that it was poor posture while horseback riding (although I appeared to have excellent posture!), which required that the disks in my vertebrae absorb the bulk of the impact, instead of absorbing this impact naturally through movement within my hips and elsewhere.
When I write about poor posture, with the appearance of good posture, I am writing spefically about a tucked pelvis, and the rest of the back is very straight.
Look around at people, you will notice that many, if not most people tuck their pelvis, while doing normal activities.
An example of bad posture while riding is in the picture I posted. The pelvis is tucked under, putting a lot of stress in the L5-S1 region of the back.
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