For well-endowed women riders only!

Are you a woman with too much bounce up top? Do you find excessive breast movement painful or distracting? Do you feel uncomfortable while riding? Is it difficult to sit the trot? Have you tried all the different kinds of support bras without success? Or are you tired of the uni-boob look? Here's a quick tip to reduce the pain, discomfort and excessive movement for a more comfortable ride.

When I was teaching on horseback safari in 1998 one of my clients was very well endowed. She had tried all the usual solutions to stabilizing her breasts and found them unsatisfactory. She came up with her own solution, which we both agreed was a better idea. In other words stop the movement before it begins.

Basically the concept behind sports bras is to flatten your breasts to your chest (creating that uni-boob look). And while bra construction has improved over the years it seems the makers never consider the cause of the problem - gravity.

What goes up must come down. In this case it isn't painful when things move up although it does create a bit of a confusing picture when sitting the trot. The pain is caused when things hit the bottom of the bounce. What stops the drop is similar to someone bungee jumping - your tissues that connect your breasts to your chest are like the bungee cord. Everything inside gets jarred like the person on the end cord- ouch!

Smashing your breasts to your chest minimizes the movement but doesn't stop it. You still have the problem of "what goes up must come down". The solution lies in stopping everything from going up therefore it can't go down. The solution my client came up with was to take an elastic belt (any wide elastic material will do). Strap the elastic around your chest above the breasts. If you make this yourself I am sure Velcro would work nicely to fasten the belt. Make sure it presses down on the top so that they are snuggly pressed down and not too tight so that you can breathe comfortably. Now take it out for a test ride.

In the wintertime or under a jacket this solution is invisible. In summer with t-shirts you might find people wondering what you are doing. If you aren't shy you can tell them. But if you find it a bit embarrassing then you can resort to the next level.

After showing this idea to another student of mine she went one step further. She bought wide elastic and sewed it onto her bra so that it became part of her bra instead of a separate strap. This worked very well and was not visible even under a T-shirt.

Use the Murdoch Minute to reduce the bounce and make your ride more comfortable. Remember that the wider the elastic material the more secure things will be. You can slip your elastic belt on before you ride and take it off when you are done. No more uni-boob look at the grocery store. And always remember to enjoy the ride!

Wendy Murdoch resides in Washington, VA and is an international riding instructor/clinician. She travels worldwide teaching riders of all levels and disciplines how to improve the horse's performance by improving their body position. Her book, Simplify Your Riding and DVDs Simplify Your Riding - Ride Like A Natural Part 1 -3 are available at www.murdochmethod.com.