Fitness Tip of the Month for Riders: Keep Yourself Hydrated
Most of us think about our horse’s hydration and electrolyte replacement before we think of ourselves. Dehydration and depletion of carbohydrate and electrolyte levels can reduce a rider’s precision in the dressage ring, too. When you think about the cost per minute of a four- to five-minute dressage test, you probably want to be as precise as you can be for every step.
Hydrate
Dehydration isn’t just uncomfortable; it’s counter-productive to good riding. Dressage is an endurance event for your body and brain because of the physical demands required from early morning until late in the afternoon, often in the hot summer sun. Fatiguing muscles and lack of concentration will cause you to lose your self-carriage in the saddle and make costly errors in judgment, as well as delayed neuromuscular reaction, slowing down the precision of your aids.
Symptoms of dehydration include fatigue, lack of coordination or ability to concentrate, constipation, physical weakness, headaches and even irritability. Another indication of dehydration is darker urine.
In hot weather, on long competition days or during days riding out, dehydration can become a real problem. Show days can be especially grueling, with long distances between amenities, food and ringside, making it easy to forget to drink enough or to eat adequately to sustain energy levels.
Since dehydration and electrolyte loss are cumulative, it’s important to plan in advance. Normally, people need eight to 10 glasses of water per day. However, if you are training, you need more. To stay hydrated during training, drink one to two cups of liquid in the hour before you train and then one half to one cup every 15 minutes. You can stretch the time frame out as long as you are drinking regularly. Doing so will maintain your hydration levels at about 80 percent. You can bring yourself back to full hydration by drinking two glasses per pound of weight lost in a training session. On a show day, this would mean starting your day with a glass or two of fluid, such as juice or water, before you get to the show grounds, continually drinking throughout the day and making sure you also replenish water lost at the end of the day.
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Drink before you feel you are thirsty. Thirst indicates that you are already depleted. Staying hydrated during training will help you perform longer.
Balancing Hydration
Avoid or minimize consumption of diuretics, such as alcohol, coffee or cola, prior to or during the show day. If you do have them, drink a couple of glasses of water for each glass of alcohol, coffee or cola. The dehydrating effect of coffee outweighs the slight boost provided by the caffeine, and its diuretic effect is likely to cause you to run for the porta-potty.
It is possible to over-hydrate, diluting the sodium levels in your body. If you know you are drinking lots of water, and you are experiencing headaches or muscle cramping, you may be over-hydrating. Stop drinking if you feel water sloshing in your stomach.
Replace Carbs & Electrolytes
Exercise also depletes your carbohydrate and electrolyte levels, namely sodium and potassium. Riders who are working hard in the saddle for three hours or more have similar requirements to long-distance runners.
Your first priority is to replace fluids. Replacing electrolytes is easier. You can use sport drinks, but you do not have to. Fruit juices and fruits provide all the potassium you need and also provide vitamins and added energy through the day when it is not so convenient to sit down to eat a meal.
Eating salty foods in the days prior to a competition day can help build up sodium in your body. Eating salty snacks throughout the competition day can also help maintain sodium levels, particularly when you will be exercising or competing over a period longer than four hours.
One liter of orange juice contains three times the potassium a long-distance runner would need to replenish. It also replaces carbohydrates needed to fuel muscles. In most cases fruit juices will be adequate.
Finally, you do not want your blood sugar levels to drop or spike through the day. Eating small amounts of high-fiber foods, such as whole grain bread or fruits, will help keep your stomach occupied and minimize butterflies, while keeping you regular and keeping your blood sugar levels constant. It’s difficult to concentrate or perform properly when your blood sugar is on a roller coaster or you have eaten too much at one sitting and slowed your whole metabolism down.
Maintaining hydration, as well as replacing carbohydrates and electrolytes, will help you focus and keep the precision so valued in your test.
Heather Sansom owns Equifitt.com Equestrian Fitness. She specializes in personal training, clinics and workshops and online coaching for riders anywhere. Goals of her clients include getting the self-carriage, symmetry and stamina they expect of their horses. She also writes a monthly fittips newsletter, available through her website, and an online fitness clinic blog on barnmice.com.
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