Relax the Upper Body—They Said. It’ll Be Easy—They Lied.

Ask any instructor for the most important riding habit, and you’ll hear it:

“Relax your upper body.”
Easy in theory.
In practice? A scientific impossibility—or at least it feels like it.

Because the moment a horse transitions to trot, every beginner rider’s spine becomes a vibrating instrument of chaos, and the upper body invents 17 new ways to panic.

But here’s the professional truth behind the comedy:

✅ Why relaxation actually matters

When a rider tenses up—shoulders clenched, arms stiff, elbows locked—three things happen:

1. You bounce more.
   (The horse moves up, you move up more. Basic physics. Bad for dignity.)
2. Your hands get rigid.
   Which means the bit suddenly feels like a microphone detecting earthquakes.
3. The horse thinks something is wrong.
   Because in horse language, tight rider = danger.

Relaxation isn’t just “looking nice.”
It’s communication, balance, and biomechanics working together.

✅ What “relaxed” actually means in a professional sense

• Soft elbows that act like shock absorbers
• Loose shoulders that allow the arms to follow the motion
• Breathing normally (instead of holding your breath like you’re defusing a bomb)
• Core engaged, muscles elastic, not floppy, not rigid

In other words:
Your body should move with the horse, not against it, not independently of it, and definitely not like a terrified tree trunk.

✅ Why the body refuses to cooperate

Because the human brain says:
“Balance!”
And the human muscles say:
“Tighten everything!”

Meanwhile, professional riding instructors worldwide spend half their careers repeating:

• “Shoulders down.”
• “Don’t grip with your hands.”
• “Breathe.”
• “No, actually breathe.”

And riders reply,
“I AM RELAXED!”
while looking like a marble statue during an earthquake.

✅ How to actually get there

• Exhale deeply when the horse changes gait
• Keep elbows close, not stiff
• Imagine holding baby birds—firm enough not to drop, soft enough not to crush
• Let the horse’s motion move through your hips, not your shoulders
• Laugh at your mistakes—it’s impossible to stay tense while laughing

Professional trainers will tell you: relaxation is a skill, not luck.
Your body learns it slowly… and then suddenly all at once.

One day you’re bouncing like a shopping cart with a broken wheel,
and the next day your instructor says,
“That’s it. Don’t change a thing.”

✅ The punchline?

The more relaxed you are,
the smoother the horse becomes.
The smoother the horse becomes,
the more relaxed you are.

It’s a feedback loop of joy.

So yes—“Relax the upper body” sounds easy.
But when you finally master it,
you’re not just sitting on a horse anymore—

you’re riding.