My latest obsession: Trapeze

That's me on the bottom, not.

I'm always looking for increasingly extreme, bizarre ways to get in shape for riding. Most recently, my search led me to Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio, which happens to be in a warehouse about five miles from the barn. I took my first trapeze class last night and I am HOOKED (and bruised and sore). Trapeze is a super upper-body and core workout, and there's lots of hanging upside down involved, which is always cool with me. What is it about hanging upside down that feels so good? It's also all about balance and being aware of body alignment; if you tilt even sligthly forward while sitting on the trapeze with no hands, you fall off. An excellent reminder why it's important to keep your shoulders back on the flat and over jumps--that little bit of weight forward feels amplified to the horse and can mean a botched transition or a dropped rail. Anyway, I'm signed up for a six-week course so I'll keep you posted!