Attention, dressage riders: Mount your exercise balls! Riders with the best performances and the happiest horses aren’t those who can balance themselves perfectly while sitting still on top of an exercise ball. Rather, the riders able to roll their pelvic areas from side to side while sitting on the ball get the best scores in the saddle, while apparently having the least frustrated horses. “If I can move my hips toward my ribs, without moving my upper body or my legs, while sitting on a exercise ball, then that means I can probably load equally on a horse without moving my upper body or changing the position of my legs and have this independent movement of my pelvis that makes me a better rider,” said Mette Uldahl, DVM, Cert. Equine Diseases, of Vejle Hestepraksis, in Denmark, who serves as Fédération Equestre Internationale Denmark’s head veterinarian, veterinary consultant for the Danish Equestrian Federation, and president of the Federation of European Equine Veterinary Associations.