Hi everyone! I’m Lauren from Equestrian Fitness Scotland, and I’ve been asked to give this blogging thing a go!
I’ll start with a confession: writing a blog is definitely not my strong suit. Give me a workout to plan, a fitness session to teach or a horse to talk about and I’m absolutely fine…but a regular blog? We’ll see how this goes!
For my first one, I thought I’d talk about something I’m going through right now too – finding that autumn/winter routine.
Because autumn has definitely arrived!
The mornings are darker. The evenings are darker. It suddenly feels colder. The horses are starting to get fluffy. And getting out of bed when that alarm goes off at 5.30 or 5.45am suddenly feels considerably less appealing!
September and October are always interesting months for fitness. I often see people who have been doing really well suddenly start to disappear a little.
And I completely understand why.
Our routines change. Horse routines change. Kids’ activities start again. Work seems to get busier. We start worrying about getting the horses ridden before it gets dark, fitting lessons in, sorting stables, organising everyone else…and somewhere along the way, we forget to put ourselves on the list.
I’m exactly the same.
This week has been the start of my own winter routine. Netball season has started again, the horses still need worked, the kids need to be where they need to be, I have work, Equestrian Fitness Scotland and everything else that comes with normal family life.
Suddenly the juggling act gets a little more complicated!
But I actually LOVE winter for training and strangely, I sometimes find it easier to focus on my fitness during winter.
In summer there is always something else I could be doing. I could be outside. I could ride. I could go somewhere. There’s another competition, another event or another job needing done.
In winter, I’m much more likely to think:
“Right, I’m in the house. I’ve got 30 minutes. Let’s get it done.”
I record more workouts, plan more and generally become much more structured. And I think that’s the secret.
You need to pencil yourself into your own diary.
Not when you have spare time. Not if everything else gets finished. Actually schedule the time.
It might only be 30 minutes once or twice a week to begin with. That’s absolutely fine. You don’t suddenly need to become someone who trains six days a week. Just start with something you can realistically maintain.
Benefits of winter
Think of winter like you would with your horse. Most of us use winter to train our horses. We have lessons. We work on weaknesses. We build strength. We improve the basics. We school. We prepare for what we want to do next year.
So why don’t we think about ourselves in exactly the same way?
Winter is training time for riders too.
If you’ve got goals for next spring, whether that’s eventing, hunter trials, dressage, show jumping, Riding Club competitions, championships or simply feeling stronger and more confident riding your horse, don’t wait until April to start thinking about your own fitness.
Because the season comes around VERY quickly and we don’t want to emerge from winter like an unclipped pony!
Fluffy, slightly overweight and not quite as fit as we’d hoped.
I’m not suggesting we need to start clipping ourselves or getting our legs waxed in preparation for spring! But you get the idea.
Getting ahead
Imagine getting to March or April already feeling fitter, stronger and more mobile. Your horse has done their winter training. And so have you.
Getting started is usually the hardest bit and I’m not going to pretend I leap out of bed every morning delighted to exercise. I’ll happily admit that when that alarm goes off and it’s pitch black outside, there’s definitely a voice saying, “Nah…another half hour in bed won’t hurt.”
Sometimes motivation isn’t there, but that’s when a little bit of discipline has to take over.
What I’ve found over the years is that starting the routine is the difficult bit. Keeping it going becomes much easier.
So this week is about getting my own winter routine established again.
Is it perfect? Nope. Am I finding it easy? Not particularly. But I’m getting there. And there are positives… Soup season has officially started in my house! So that’s week one!
Hopefully over the next few months I can use these blogs to help keep you motivated, share some realistic fitness advice and probably tell you about a few of my own successes – and disasters – along the way. Because we’re all trying to juggle horses, families, work and life, and sometimes we just need a reminder that looking after ourselves deserves a place in that routine too.
If there are any particular topics you’d like me to cover, please let me know.
For now, my goal is simple:
Get the winter routine started. Keep showing up. And remember – winter is for training.
See you next week!
Lauren x
