This exercise releases muscles that pull your shoulder blades up and down. It can also help to relieve tension in your neck.

It is common to have more tension in one side of the body than the other. If this causes one shoulder to be higher than the other, your whole balance will be affected. For horse riders, the uneven distribution of weight across the horse’s back may cause it to brace, and to find it more difficult to work on one rein than on the other. Releasing the tension, and restoring better balance can help resolve this type of problem.