Beverly Saadeh demonstrating some of the Barre exercises

Equestrian Barre Exercises

The Equestrian Barre is a fusion of exercise techniques developed for the specific conditioning needs of horse riders.

Holly Sweeney-Hillman has drawn upon her extensive experience with movement arts and educational background in dance, biomechanics, martial arts, horse riding and the Alexander Technique to develop this unique exercise program.

In creating the Equestrian Barre, Holly was motivated by two irrefutable facts of equestrian life:

Working with horses is extremely time intensive, it is difficult for riders to find time away from the barn or the riding ring.

Riding requires predominantly static muscle work. Static muscle work means muscle energy is assigned primarily to maintaining body posture and structural integrity. We can all see the difference between the beginning rider who hasn’t attained the muscle conditioning to prevent her body from flopping around in response to the movement of the horse and the conditioned experienced rider whose body looks still and poised no matter how extreme the movement of the horse. The science of biomechanics has proven that static muscle work is much more difficult for muscles to sustain and requires specific conditioning strategies. Therefore, an effective exercise program for equestrians has to condition riders for vast amounts of static muscle work and help them minimize the wear and tear that muscles endure from long periods of static work.

Why Barre exercises?

As a student of horse riding, Holly was familiar with the idea of “riding and feeling both sides of the horse”. In fact, it reminded her of years of ballet study and the classical ballet barre exercises, where each side of the body was exercised independently. The ability to maintain stillness and poise on one side of the body as the other side of the body engaged in movement was the essence of the ballet barre. Holly realized this concept had tremendous relevance for riders. The other aspect of the barre which made a good fit for the needs of riders was the minimal amount of equipment required. If there was a tailgate, a fence rail, a tack trunk available, there was a barre available!

How does the Equestrian Barre differ from other exercise programs?

Most importantly, the Equestrian Barre is specifically designed for riders. There are many exercise programs that are known to be beneficial to riders such as Yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi. However, they all require time away from the barn and the rider may or may not know which aspects of these exercises are most relevant to their unique conditioning requirements.

The Equestrian Barre is focused. It targets a conditioning strategy specific to horse riding. Riders who practice the barre exercises can expect to feel better on and off the horse. Once a rider has learned how to do the barre, the complete set of exercises takes about 15 minutes.

Practice Principles of the Equestrian Barre

1. BALANCE, don’t hold.
2. DISTRIBUTE the stretch throughout your whole structure, don’t sag or collapse into the stretch, don’t hang in your ligaments, don’t create “hot spots”.
3. USE INTENTION to deepen your stretches rather than force.
4. SEEK MOTION within, STILLNESS without.
5. ACTIVATE your body by QUIETING your mind.
6. Put ORGANIZE before EXERT.