For a long time, I thought strength and suppleness were two separate goals.
Some days I worked on becoming stronger.
Other days I focused on becoming more supple.
It felt like they belonged in different worlds.
But over the years, I’ve realised they are actually part of the same conversation.
Because one without the other rarely creates lasting change.
Suppleness opens the door.
Strength allows you to stay there.
And I think understanding that relationship changes the way we think about training as riders.
Why I Often Start With Suppleness
If someone comes to me feeling stiff, tight, or uncomfortable in the saddle, I rarely begin by talking about strength.
I begin by helping them experience change.
Because when a rider feels their hips move more freely…
when sitting trot suddenly feels a little easier…
when they get off their horse and notice their lower back isn’t as tight…
something important happens.
They begin to trust their body again.
They begin to believe that change is possible.
That first experience matters.
Especially for riders who have spent years believing their body is simply “getting older” or “that’s just how I am.”
Suppleness gives them hope.
It creates possibility.
It opens the door.
But An Open Door Doesn’t Mean You’ve Moved In
This is where I think many people stop.
They stretch.
They feel better.
Then a few days later, the tightness returns.
Not because the stretching didn’t work.
But because the body hasn’t yet learned how to live in that new space.
Imagine opening the door to a beautiful new room.
You can stand in the doorway and admire it.
But unless you step inside, make yourself at home, and begin living there, you’ll probably drift back to where you’ve always been.
The body is much the same.
It needs more than new movement.
It needs the ability to support that movement.
Why The Body Holds On
One of the most fascinating things about the body is that it is always trying to keep us safe.
If it doesn’t feel stable, it creates tension.
If it doesn’t trust a new range of movement, it often lets that range disappear again.
Not because the body is working against us.
Because it’s working for us.
Protection always comes before performance.
This is why stretching needs to work along side strength.
The body needs to believe that it is safe in the new position.
And one of the ways it learns that is through progessive strength training.
Strength Builds Trust
I don’t think of strength as making the body harder.
I think of it as helping the body trust itself.
When we become stronger within a new range of movement, something begins to shift.
The body realises:
“I can control this.”
“I can support this.”
“I don’t need to tighten everything to protect myself.”
That is when the new movement starts to feel natural rather than temporary.
The suppleness doesn’t disappear.
It becomes part of who you are.
This Is Why Riders Need Both
Over the years I’ve seen riders spend months chasing suppleness without enough support.
I’ve also seen riders become incredibly strong while still feeling restricted.
Neither approach is wrong.
They’re simply incomplete.
Suppleness creates opportunity.
Strength creates capacity.
Suppleness gives the body somewhere new to go.
Strength teaches it how to stay there.
Together, they create a rider who feels organised without being rigid.
Stable without gripping.
Soft without collapsing.
And that, to me, is what good riding feels like.
What This Looks Like In The Saddle
You don’t suddenly become a different rider overnight.
The changes are often quieter than that.
Your hips begin to follow the horse instead of resisting the movement.
Your thighs don’t need to grip quite so much.
Your seat feels deeper without trying to push it down.
Your hands become quieter because the rest of your body feels more organised.
Your horse begins to soften sooner.
Not because you’re trying harder.
But because there is less interference.
Less holding.
Less effort.
More conversation.
Where To Begin
If you’re feeling stiff, don’t think you have to become strong before you can begin.
Begin by helping your body rediscover movement.
Experience what it feels like to become more supple.
Feel the difference.
Enjoy the wins.
Then start building strength inside that new freedom.
That’s exactly why Dressage Rider Training approaches rider development this way.
Our Hip Suppleness Program helps riders rediscover movement, ease, and confidence in their own body.
Then our Strength Roadmap helps them build support within that newfound suppleness, so the changes don’t just feel good for a day—they become part of how the body moves every time they ride.
Because I’ve come to believe that lasting change isn’t about choosing between strength and suppleness.
It’s about understanding the relationship between them.
Suppleness opens the door.
Strength helps you live there.