When you do this exercise you are working on the muscles that cause you to curl up into a ball. If you are suffering from tension here, when in the saddle you may well find yourself holding your breath; rounding your shoulders and the whole of your spine; tipping your weight forward; pulling your thigh upward and your leg too far forward.

The Arch & Curl exercise will help you to ‘open out’.

If your weight was too far forward it would have had the effect of ‘pinning down’ your horse’s front legs. Therefore, the Arch & Curl exercise can perhaps make it easier for your horse to lighten the forehand and engage the hind legs.

The tension that might have pulled your legs forward might have led to you gripping with your thighs. You may benefit from finding it easier to give independent leg aids.

You may also find yourself sitting deeper in the saddle and feeling more balanced.

Because the Arch & Curl works in the opposite sense to the Back Lift, the two work well together. They balance the two opposite extremes: where the shoulders are either pulled back and the spine arched (Back Lift), or the shoulders and the spine rounded forwards (Arch & Curl).