Have you ever heard of this before?

Yes I have. I used to teach this in my day as it distracted the rider from their apprehension, caused them to breathe better, they relaxed and so consequently did the horse. I would use this technique over jumps and on the flat. I used to use humour alot when teaching, especially with nervous riders.

I also did silly things while instructing in order to get my riders laughing and looking around to see what I was up to and I also encouraged visualising something dead boring while riding an exciteable horse and of course singing and this tended to relax both horse and rider. One of the things they would visualise was trying to push spaghetti through the holes of a colander. Really boring.

Usually, my instructor makes us talk to her. It seems like a good idea though. It will help the rider concentrate on breathing and relaxing. If you get nervous the horse gets nervous etc. The breathing part is really good because a lot of riders hold their breath and thats never good! I hold my breath when i am cantering which is really not good because if i am going to show i cant hold my breath for long periods of time and it sounds like it would just end in disaster!

All in all that sounds like a really good technique!

Good luck with Xcountry! :)

Yes. I ride dressage and seen trainers tell their students to sing a song aloud. Singing out loud helps you breathe, because a lot of people forget to breathe (hold their breath). This helps the rider relax more and improve their riding.

Nothing new in that, I have used it for many years when teaching though I usually tell the riders to sing - nursery rhymes will probably be less painful!

The idea is that the rider is thinking about the rhyme and has to breathe to keep reciting. Many riders stop breathing when they are doing something new.

I've heard of it and do it and it works really well for most of my horses. The only exception is an off track thoroughbred who takes it as a cue to go faster and hates it. Otherwise it relaxes both horse and rider.

Yes, I sing to my horses. Especially on the initial rides and early work. Seem to help them relax and it helps me to keep my breathing nice and regular. Holding your breathe causes your body to tense up and it natuaral when you are concentrating or a bit stressed when working/riding.

It also helps to calm nervouse horses as well as calms horses that are getting into a new situation that might cause stress.

Yes, we used to pick a different song each lesson. Like karaoke on horseback. We did it in my jumping lessons because I kept forgetting to breathe. That's the usual reason, a lot of people concentrate so hard on keeping their stride ect that they forget to breathe.

When I went to an eventing clinic with David O'Connor, he had us count strides out loud. It wasn't nursery rhymes, but it's the same concept. So, yes, I've heard of it and it works.

Yup :) Not only does it help you relax, but it forces you to breathe. A lot of people hold their breath over jumps. If you hold your breath, you'll tense up your shoulders which will cause you to tense your back which causes tension in your hips which causes tension in your knees and ankles... If you're tense, you can't hold your balance and position properly or easily. If you're talking or singing, you have to breathe :-P

It stops you holding your breath.

Sounds weird I know but it's fairly common for people to forget to breathe when they are jumping ( I do it too !) so singing out loud or holding a conversation make you breathe without actually thinking about it.