Leg strengthening exercises????

Stand on the bottom step of any set of stairs, and as if your feet were in the stirrups, stretch your heels downward towards the floor. Hold it there for about five seconds, then stand on your toes - Heels facing upward - for about two seconds and repeat this process. This breaks in tall boots excellently and will also give you a stronger, more secure leg.

Hope I helped.

Thank Picture Perfect. I was doing some of those step exercises, but only up on my toes. I didn't stretch my heels down. I'll give that a try. As far as sprinting and doing suicides, haha, I don't know how well that would work. I have a serious case of the "bounce issue" if you know what I mean, lol. Well, I'm going to try all of these suggestions, and hopefully will have some riding pics/videos to post after my surgery recovery! Thanks for the well wishes!

Cycling is definitely a great way to strengthen legs!! My hubby and I are triathletes (swim/bike/run for those of you not familiar with the sport!) and I definitely noticed that when I started really getting into that sport, the cycling built up my leg muscles (esp. Calf muscles!) which did wonders for my horseback riding as well!

Hey Hoofprints! I saw all your triathlon pics on facebook..Pretty impressive, I must say! Sandie is sooo cute, too! I'm going to try several of these ideas, and see what works best for me. I don't have the "typical equestrian body", which frustrates me even more. I see all these pics of you guys, tall and thin with LONG legs, and I wanna cry, lol. I'm 5'1" on a good day, not exactly skinny, with a SERIOUS "bounce issue". If anyone has any ideas for THAT issue, I'm all ears, lol. I'm tired of wearing 4 shirts to keep things in place!

No problem! Make sure to show us your improvement.

Get a yoga tape with ball exercises and buy a ball, you can find them together at sporting stores for like 20 bucks. Help balance and leg strength! If you can find one that says for legs or lower body even better!

Good luck!

I know another person said they didn't like wall sits but I think they are wonderful, so give them a try. If you don't know how to do them, then here goes: Lean against the wall and go down like you are going to do a squat, and when your legs bend at a 90 degree angle, stop, and wait and see how long you can do this. It's harder then it looks. After riding for about three years, I can only do a few minutes.