After leaving horses behind to pursue her medical career, Dr. Beth Glosten later found time to ride again. She discovered as a middle-aged woman tension, awkwardness and an aching back. Dr. Glosten’s frustration with her riding prompted her to apply her clinical research skills to write “The Riding Doctor”. Her new book will help readers of all riding disciplines figure out how to understand riding anatomy and what our bodies “do” on horseback. The book provides over 50 exercises to improve and become a more balanced rider now and years to come.
How did the idea of this book come about?
My journey was to motivate myself and others to take care of themselves, using our sport to get to know their body.
Your book introduces an understandable system to ride in good health and prevent injury. You introduce 5 rider fundamentals – awareness seems to be the key?
Mindfulness is the buzz word and paying attention to your own health. The 5 fundamentals came from my research, experience and focus on the rider’s body. The book includes straight forward, understandable information and provides accessible anatomy descriptions that make sense. Posture is fundamental!
I was surprised to read in your book that 90 percent of the riders you’ve worked with have postural issues.
Look around your street and you will see very few people with good posture. I’m always delighted to see riders who have thought about posture. Not just posture but how to support that posture. Riders can frequently have tension and gripping so the body goes into protective mode which can create functional problems.
The book covers all riding disciplines – is there different advice for each?
I’ve worked with riders from all riding disciplines and found the 5 rider fundamentals don’t differ. The nature of a horse’s movement is similar.
I loved the visuals in your book – the photographs and diagrams help illustrate your information.
It was a fun challenge to take technical information from my career as a physician and make it accessible for an audience of all backgrounds. The photos of riders and the drawings definitely help demonstrate riding anatomy.
For more information about Dr. Beth Glosten and her book, teaching clinics or DVD www.RidersPilates.com
