Jan Still Riding, Still Strong, Strength Training for Life After a Career in the Saddle

Jan has spent a lifetime around horses.

As a former jockey who rode in the Welsh Grand National, her background is defined by resilience, risk and an exceptional level of physical and mental toughness. Horse racing at that level demands more than just skill; it requires the ability to tolerate impact, manage repeated strain and continue performing under conditions most people would actively avoid.

That comes at a cost.

Over the years, Jan has broken what she describes as “most things.” Like many former jockeys, the accumulation of injuries is not a single event, but a history — a series of impacts, recoveries and adaptations that gradually shape the body over time.

What is notable is not the injuries themselves, but what has followed.

Now in her 70s, Jan still rides.

Not occasionally. Not cautiously. She remains active, engaged and fully involved in the lifestyle that has defined her for decades. Alongside this, she is a grandmother, balancing family life with the physical demands of staying active and capable.

At 5’1–5’2, she does not look imposing.

But that is misleading.

She is, in every sense, a powerhouse.

Training for Capability, Not Recovery

When Jan began training at Poseidon Performance, the objective was not rehabilitation in the traditional sense. While her injury history is significant, the focus was not on what had happened in the past, but on what she needed to maintain going forward.

The goal was simple: remain strong enough to continue living the life she values.

That includes riding, managing horses, staying active with family, and maintaining independence without hesitation or limitation.

Training twice per week provides the structure to support this.

Building Strength Around a Lifetime of Load

Years in the saddle create a very specific physical profile. There is strength, but it is often uneven. There is resilience, but it is built around repetition rather than structured progression. There is tolerance to load, but not necessarily control under it.

Strength training fills that gap.

Jan’s programme focuses on building full-body strength, reinforcing stability, and improving control under load. Movements are progressed carefully, taking into account her history while still applying enough stimulus to drive adaptation.

This is not about avoiding challenge.

It is about applying it intelligently.

Confidence Through Strength

One of the most important outcomes of training is not just physical improvement, but confidence.

For individuals with a long injury history, there is often an underlying caution — a sense of what might go wrong. Structured strength training replaces that uncertainty with something measurable. It provides a clear understanding of what the body can tolerate, how it responds to load, and where its limits actually are.

For Jan, this has reinforced what her background already suggested: she is capable.

Not in theory.

In practice.

Strength That Transfers

The impact of training is not confined to the gym.

It carries directly into her daily life.

Handling horses requires strength, balance and control. Riding demands stability, coordination and the ability to absorb and respond to unpredictable movement. Time with grandchildren requires energy, mobility and resilience.

These are not separate from training.

They are the reason for it.

Strength training supports each of these areas, ensuring that Jan is not simply maintaining activity, but sustaining it at a high level.

Redefining Age

There is a tendency to associate ageing with inevitable decline. Reduced strength, reduced activity, reduced independence.

Jan does not fit that model.

She continues to ride. She continues to train. She continues to operate at a level that many people assume is no longer available later in life.

This is not exceptional because of genetics or luck.

It is the result of continued exposure to physical demand.

The body responds to what it is asked to do.

Jan continues to ask more of it than most.

The Outcome

There is no single moment of transformation here.

No dramatic change.

Instead, there is something far more valuable: continuity.

Jan is able to continue living the life she has always lived, supported by a level of strength that allows her to do so confidently.

She trains twice per week. She rides. She stays active with her family.

She remains capable.

That is the goal.

And it is being achieved.

For anyone who assumes that strength training in later life is about slowing down or being careful, Jan offers a different perspective.

It is about maintaining the ability to keep going.

Strength. Rehab. Longevity.