An important factor that my horses appreciate is when I am calm and emotionally centered. This is a good video demonstrating how to center your body and mind before beginning yoga exercises. It helps calm down the mind and to help become more aware and balanced within the body, as well as grounding yourself over the hips. All these are good things to help prepare for riding. This simple exercise takes less than 5 minutes.
Esther Eckart’s Youtube channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/yogatic