Breathing for Equestrians

I hold my breath, and not just when I ride. I’ve noticed the breath holding while I’m driving my Jeep. I’ve noticed it when I’m at my laptop. In my last lesson, my trainer reminded me to breathe AGAIN. I’m 40 years into riding and I’m still trying to remember to breathe! When Illinois Dressage and Combined Training Association (of which I’m a member) offered a Zoom class on breathing for equestrians, I enthusiastically signed up.

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The online class titled “The Equestrian Breath: Using Breath with Purpose” was led by Allie Baier of EquiPT , a rider herself and physical therapist who specializes in physical therapy for equestrians. The two-hour workshop was so interesting I took SIX pages of handwritten notes. I learned despite the fact we take 20,000 breaths per day, most of us are inefficient breathers. By becoming better breathers, we become more effective riders and our overall health is increased too. Win-win.

Barriers to Optimal Breathing

Horses might not be able to breathe optimally for several reasons:

• if they are stiff (due to age, weather, standing in a stall too long, etc.)
• if their saddles and/or girths don’t fit well (I’m cringing at this as I found out recently my saddle had a broken tree!)
• if we riders are stiff and/or tense when riding.

Riders might not be able to breathe well due to:

• anxiety
• stress
• poor body image (sucking in our bellies to flatten them isn’t doing our horses or selves any favors)
• tech-“inspired” posture (as I sit here typing, rounded over my keyboard).

Why Breathing for Equestrians?

The first idea that leaped out at me why I should breathe better was when Allie stated through our breathing, we can be a role model for our horse’s performance and injury prevention. This never would have occurred to me, yet is so practical.

I have a horse whose biggest challenge is being anxious and anticipating too much when ridden. It’s not a behavior that manifests itself in every ride. I would say 90-95% of the time he is quite happy and chill. But when he gets anxious I get anxious and I’m not being a good role model by holding my breath.

Another reason to learn techniques of better breathing for equestrians is to help improve our mental focus and physical stamina.

I feel as though my in-the-saddle mental focus is pretty good–that is until I’m in any kind of competition. That’s part of the reason I am not a hardcore horse show-er. I tried to memorize a dressage test for a show in 2021 and in the end, I couldn’t remember it and had a reader. Yes, I was/am new to dressage, so I’m not accustomed to that practice, but despite my memorization attempts, when I got near the warm up ring my mind went blank.

The third “why” is through better breathing it improves our core strength for dynamic balance. Allie cited a study on breathing and the elderly. The group in the study was trained on techniques of optimal breathing. The older folks had overall improved balance with their changed way of inhaling and exhaling!

The final reason why we could stand to better our breathing is for improved emotional state and behavioral states.

The Breathing for Equestrians Backstory

The impetus for Allie to dive into this topic breathing occurred as a result of receiving PT herself. She realized it had not even been on her radar to try breathing from the middle of her torso. As she started to think more about breath, she would notice what she was doing while riding. By using her breath strategically she could elicit a certain response from her mount, and that breath consciousness felt like personal growth. As she dove into a PT practice working with mostly equestrians, she realized that improper breathing balances came from a lifetime of riding.

Allie spoke about the difference between nose breathing v. mouth breathing. Nose breathing changes the pH in our blood which makes us less prone to inflammation and infection and it improves our immunity and muscle recovery. That all sounds good to me!

At that point in the talk I remembered a yoga instructor from my gym in California that always used to say, “Breathe through your noses,” and I thought it was kind of ridiculous (Of course we breathe through our nose!). But I guess some of us don’t. (I’m a night time mouth breather–ug!)

At that point in her talk I remembered my nephew, an elite beach volleyball player (he won the national collegiate beach volleyball title two years in a row and trained with Olympians–proud aunt moment here), talking about a book he read on breathing. That title was written from a health and sports performance perspective. So last week I borrowed The Oxygen Advantage from my nephew, and my mind is being blown by the anecdotes of people losing weight, getting better sleep, and increasing fitness all from breathing better.

Back to the online class.

Our group of Zoom workshop attendees were given a human anatomy lesson related to our chest breathing v. belly breathing. We looked at an illustration of a skeleton torso and we could see the diaphragm. I learned when breathing properly, our ribs will have lateral expansion and our chest area will not be engaged.

We were encouraged to place a hand on our sternum and upper abdomen and inhale and exhale in order to note the amount of movement occurring and timing. Three regions of breath: chest breath, lateral expansion and belly breath. She wants us to have 360 degree breathing.

Pre-Ride Breathing Awareness

Another smart and fascinating practice Allie employs that I would have never thought of starts before she even gets to the barn. She said when she is about to turn into the farm driveway she will turn off the radio and check in with her breath. Is she holding it, breathing from the chest, breathing from the belly?

Next she takes note of the surroundings:

Is it a windy day?

Has the temperature outside just dropped?

Are there a bunch of barn dogs running up to say hi?

Are horse playing or grazing peacefully?

I thought, “Are there tree trimmers on property or a corn picker going through the neighbor’s farm?”

Does the environment change how she is breathing?

Before mounting she will take note of how she is breathing. She had us press down into a desk or dresser, mimicking mounting a horse. As we push down and our abs contract and our shoulders lower, we short circuit neck tension. All the down movements mentioned will not allow us hold in our breath, which is a good thing.

Breathing as a Riding Aide

This is the point at which the workshop got really interesting. Allie invited attendees to get down on our hands and knees as though we were horses. I’m glad our participant cameras were all off.

She encouraged us to think about ourselves as a horse tracking right, in which case our bodies would have a curve mimicking the shape of what our horses’ bend looks like. She told us to think about expanding our left lung as we breathed–filling it up. Conversely, as we tracked left, we should think about expanding our right lung. The same breathing into the left and right lungs would apply whilst leg yielding.

If our horse is lazy or needs encouragement to go forward, she said to take a breath in and push it out more forcibly–that the breath was important to use prior to the seat aide. If our horse is rarin’ to go, she said to take a backward breath, trying to keep it in along the back side of the spine. The ideas seemed both esoteric but also exciting and practical.

Tangent on a Book I Just Read about Breath

Next she mentioned the book Breath by James Nestor (which I since have listened to on Audible–highly recommend.), which I shall tell you about in a tangent.

Breath is fascinating. The author, not a scientist, nor doctor, was compelled to learn more about breathing and spent a decade reading everything he could (including ancient texts on the subject), interviewing doctors, dentists, yoga practitioners and free divers, to name a few. He even underwent a test having his nostrils taped shut for a few weeks to see the impact on his bodily systems. Long story short, breathing poorly can lead to anxiety, depression, weight struggles and a whole host of other health issues. Making our lungs stronger can boost health in remarkable ways. Breathing through our mouths can be detrimental to our health.

When Nestor mentioned using mouth tape when sleeping to force nose breathing. My interest was piqued when he said mouth breathing can lead to having to get up to pee in the middle of the night (guilty). This is something I wish I didn’t know about from personal experience. Lest I really digress I’ll just say I bought these mouth tape strips and used them twice this week for the first time. I only woke up once in the middle of the night (to pee), I didn’t feel parched/didn’t need to drink water in the middle of the night AND when I woke up on my own without an alarm, I felt awake, rested, clear-headed and ready for my day (not foggy, sluggish and wanting to crawl back under the covers.)

Use Excited Voice & Low Slow Voice

Back to the Zoom training with Allie. One of the things that Allie said about downregulating and upregulating struck me as my trainer had recently explained this to me (not in those terms) and I had never heard it before.

Allie said our voice pitch, pace and power have the ability to elicit two difference responses in our horses. By speaking in a high pitched, quick or excited sing songy voice, it will set an energetic tone for the horse.

In contrast, a low-pitched voice, with a slower pace. Those lower tones drop air into our abdomens which will work to help us lower and slow our horse’s energy. As my trainer told me once, “Talk to him in your man voice. Be slow and low,” when Knight was over-enthusiastic one day in a lesson. I learned my encouraging, up-talky “good boys” were not helping. My singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in an upbeat voice was not ideal.

Another tip shared was if your horse is spooky or too amped, to breath in for five seconds, and then try to exhale longer–like 6-8 seconds. Do this with a relaxed jaw.

Final Thoughts on Breathing for Equestrians

Just as Allie said we should be better breathers to serve as role models for our horses, our horses can coach us to be better breathers. She encouraged us to stand next to our horse while they’re untacked and place our hand on their side so we can feel their breathing and try to match it.

Knight is my inspiration for better inhalation (and exhalation). I haven’t tried that exercise with him yet, but today seems like a great day to give it a try. In small moments reminding myself to breath better, I will eventually make it an ingrained part of my horsewomanship and it will benefit my TB and me.

Leave a Comment: How’s your breathing practice? Do you consciously use your breath as a riding aide?

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