PART ONE

Improve your riding fitness to be at the top of your game with personal trainer Jo Collins

Photos: Athalens Photography, Jon Stroud

Our expert

Jo Collins is a Surrey-based, qualified personal trainer and fitness coach to the Lucinda Green XC Academy. As a keen amateur event rider, Jo brings together her riding experience and professional fitness knowledge to create tailored workout programmes to help riders stay fit, strong and flexible.

Have you ever crossed the finish line at an event or reached the end of a lesson and felt really breathless, to the point that you’re relieved it’s over? If the answer’s yes, you’re certainly not alone. But as riders we should give ourselves more credit – after all, while in the saddle every single part of our body is working hard to control an animal that weighs more than half a tonne and has a mind of its own.

The importance of rider fitness is often underestimated and it’s not uncommon for our horse’s fitness to be put before our own. But it’s not just your horse who’s the athlete. You are, too, so it’s time to focus on your physical ability. I’ve created the perfect cardio workout for riders, along with a warm-up, that’ll boost your fitness in no time. Let’s get going!

Delving deeper

I decided to carry out research into the physical exertion riders experience when training and competing. I wore a heartrate monitor at a one-day event and, as expected, my heart was working at a high intensity (over 90% of my heart rate max) during the cross-country phase. However, I was incredibly surprised to find similar results in the dressage and showjumping phases. In fact, over the course of the day, I would have burnt the same amount of calories if I’d run a marathon. Yes, adrenaline and nerves played a part, but that’s when I decided to start wearing my monitor while training at home. The results were a little lower than when competing, but my heart was still working very hard.