Strides for Success

Tag: seat

Following & Allowing in Your Riding
What this episode is all about & how it can help you:-
- Stop forcing and be ‘led’
- Notice how it feels underneath you
- Notice how you can begin to influence through your seat
- Are you allowing your horse or are you blocking your horse
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I know that you know how important your seat is as a rider. It is one of the biggest ways we communicate with our horses. However many riders I meet are a little confused as to how they can get started with really using their seat in their riding.

In this episode of the Daily Strides Podcast you will learn all about following and allowing with your seat. I believe this is one of the simplest ways you can begin developing your seat next time you ride.

Stop Forcing and Digging with Your Seat

When it comes to your seat as a rider, one of the most important things to understand is that you ‘influence’ with it. Simply put, this means you need to stop forcing with your seat.

Let go of the idea that you need to push and shove your horse around using your seat

If you push and shove with your seat, it very often has the opposite effect you are looking for. Your horse will probably hollow and duck out-of-the-way of your seat. This is because it is uncomfortable for him; imagine someone applying a huge amount of pressure to specific points on your back!

Be wary of digging with your seat. If you find that you are trying to dictate to the horse with this downward and forward motion, you are indeed digging!

This happens a lot in lateral work. Riders tend to shove the horse across the arena and you end up losing the relaxation and the rhythm, because the horse is no longer moving at ease.

Allowing Yourself to Be ‘Led’

The opposite of forcing is rather allowing yourself to be led. This is difficult for many riders to really do well initially. Simply put it means that you are going to allow the horse to move you, rather than you moving the horse.

What feels like ‘doing nothing’ is a difficult thing to do while in the saddle; but is essential to learn in order to really follow your horse

Sit in the saddle and, simply, allow the horses forward energy and movement to move you. This takes a certain amount of relaxation in the rider’s body, but also takes a certain amount of self carriage.

Meaning you are not really ‘doing nothing’, you are responsible for carrying yourself and balancing the tension in your body. Said differently, you are also responsible for maintaining the correct level of relaxation as you ride

Riders often get into the saddle and just sit there collapsing through their body. Rather think of yourself as ‘standing’ in the saddle. You need to carry your upper body as though you were standing.

Carrying your upper body frees up your lower body to be led by the horse

Notice How it Feels Underneath You

I’m going to be honest with you, if you are used to always trying to ‘move’ your horse with your seat, following will take practice. However, once you can do this, I want you to then begin noticing how it feels.

Timing is a big part of the conversation between you and your horse. You need to ask questions at the correct time in order to give the horse enough time to respond to whatever you have asked

Getting to understand timing comes down to getting to know what is happening underneath you. Notice how each leg is moving in each gait, walk, trot and canter. I always suggest starting in walk. It is slower and easier to really ‘feel’ your seat and hips move with your horse.

If you cannot feel which hoof is where at any given time, work with what you can see. Look at the front legs and use them to figure out where the back legs are at that time. In other words, learn the sequence of your horse’s footfalls. The walk will be a certain sequence, the trot another sequence and the canter as well.

Knowing where the front legs are will tell you exactly where the back legs are at any given time

The reason I focus so much on what the back-end is doing is because the horse’s ‘engine’ is at the back. When you are asking a question you want your horse to respond from behind first. Noticing how it feels and what is happening underneath you with the behind section of your horses body, will help you ask at the correct time.

Notice How You Can Begin to Influence Through Your Seat

Once you can follow and correctly identify what is moving when, you can begin looking at influencing your horse through your seat. I believe a lot of influencing is ‘allowing’ when it comes to riding.

By correctly ‘allowing’ you are going to influence how much energy will be flowing at any given time, and where that energy is flowing to

You could decide to shut down or restrict the flow a little. Or you could decide to allow more to flow through. You could ask for a little more bend or flexion with your seat. You can ask for more energy to be created using your seat.

It all comes down to asking and then ‘allowing’ your horse to follow through with what you asked

Begin with Smaller Requests

I suggest really just getting started. Many riders wait until the ‘perfect’ time to start using their seat to influence. There won’t ever be a perfect time, so begin today. Start playing with the seat and how the horse responds to it.

I suggest starting in the walk and trot first. Remember that your seat on it’s own is not a completely isolated aid. There is the whole balance of aids working together all the time to communicate with your horse.

Initially your other aids may have to be stronger, or louder, while you are training your horse to listen to the more subtle and quiet seat aid

However, as your horse begins to respond to your seat, you can really begin refining your seat. Keep in mind that consistency is essential. Especially as your horse begins to listen for those subtle questions that you are asking. In doing this you will get a better conversation happening between you and your horse.

I suggest starting with your half halt. I have a free audio training you can use for that HERE
. Noticing this as you start working on it with your horse is how you can start to ‘allow’ with your horse.

Are You Allowing Your Horse or Are You Blocking Your Horse

The final thing I want to touch on is that the opposite of allowing is blocking. Often riders tend to block their horse, even though they want to allow. An example of this is the length of the active half halt aid. The split second.

What sometimes happens with riders is that they stop allowing and begin blocking. It is often because the aid becomes a long drawn out constant. The engaging or active use of the aid becomes continuous. They tend to dig down deep and get heavy.

When we ask our horse to do something, what we want is for them to engage their core. In doing this it is almost feels as if they lift their back and lighten

If you are being heavy and using a more blocking motion with your seat, your horse has no space or room to engage and lighten.

Another side effect of blocking is that the energy can no longer move forward. This often occurs just after a transition between gaits. The rider asks for the transition but then ‘blocks’ the horse from moving forward into the newly requested gait.

Forwardness is key to everything in riding. Once you lose forwardness, everything else will fall apart as there is no energy there to maintain the movement

What to Work on Next Time in the Saddle

I suggest you start by allowing yourself to be led. Really feel what is going on underneath you and how one step or foot fall affects the next. Feel where your hips are in relation to your horses hips. From here, begin to take more responsibility for how you are sitting in the saddle. Later, once you can truly ‘follow’ begin working on the ‘allowing’.

It is a continuous work in progress for all riders and something you can experiment and refine on a daily basis in the saddle. Understanding your seat is really the beginning of refining your ‘influence’ over your horse while riding.

Happy Riding

Lorna

Links mentioned in the episode:-
- FREE WEBINAR – What are the Basics in Riding?
- Get your free Half Halt Training HERE
- Your Independent Seat is Everything in Your Riding
- Understanding and Refining Your Half Halt
October 8, 2018
The Evolution of Your Aids in the Saddle
What this episode is all about & how it can help you:-
- Understand why your aids are always a work in progress
- Start on the ground and work up
- Transitioning groundwork to under the saddle
- Application, pressure, timing and sequence
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Have you ever noticed how you feel when you walk away after participating in a good conversation with someone? There was a natural flow to it. Both of you were present and interested. Both open to hearing what the other person said.

Good conversations more often than not result in both participants walking away feeling great. Which brings us to the topic of this episode of the Daily Strides Podcast. The evolution of your aids in the saddle and the impact it has on your conversations with your horse.

Your Aids are Always a Work in Progress

One of your greatest responsibilities, as a rider, is to try and ensure that you are refining your aids. A consistent ‘bettering’ of how you are showing up in the saddle. For many riders, the seeming lack of any ‘quick wins’ can make this process often feel a little tedious.

However, just like becoming a great conversationalist, improving your aids requires practice in order to make perfect.

But the thing is, that when it comes to riding, there never really is such a thing as ‘perfect’. Your aids are a constant work in progress. A constant evolution as you change as a person, as a rider.

It is also worth remembering that the same is true of your horse as well. A conversation is a two way street. Both sides have to be as committed to it in order for it to really work. Your horse must also be constantly learning. Willing. Open to how the conversation will evolve between both of you in the saddle.

Start on the Ground and Working Up

Starting today, become more mindful about what and how you are communicating with your horse before you ever get into the saddle. The mundane, general day to day routine you and your horse go through before, and after, each ride.

One of your more useful, but unfortunately most overlooked, aids is your voice. You can use it anywhere, at any time and it can convey a lot of different things to your horse. It can also be really helpful for you, the rider, as well.

I feel it is important to recognise is the versatility of your voice as an aid. This is especially true in the early days of your relationship with your horse.

Begin by experimenting how your horse listens to you. How he responds to you. Different tones, different words, different rhythms.

Many riders worry about the impact of using the voice aids if they have their sights set on dressage. I honestly don’t believe this will cause any harm. As your aids and the conversation evolves, you can slowly make your voice less and less a part of it.

Working with Rein Aids on the Ground

Rein aids work on the ‘pressure and release’ principle. You can begin refining this today, on the ground, with your horse whether green or more experienced. You can use either a head collar and lead rope and use the lead rope to apply the pressure and the release.

You can also use an actual bridle and lead the horse using your reins. Again, pressure and release. This is also a great way of seeing how the bit actually ‘works’ in and around your horses mouth.

When coupled with your voice, such as ‘woah’ with applied pressure to slow down, steady or stop, it now becomes easier to see how it can transfer over into the saddle.

In fact, the more ‘subtle’ aids in the saddle, such as your seat, can then be refined by adding them to the reins and voice which were learned from the ground.

Your Seat and Your Legs

Your rein and voice aids, when worked on from the ground, also help open the conversation using your legs in the saddle. Unfortunately many riders make the mistake of starting with the seat, rather than the legs when it comes to this.

While starting with your seat is not ‘wrong’… Very often riders are a little too ‘busy’ with their seat without realising it. It leads to a lot of confusion between horse and rider. Hence my suggestion of starting with your legs first.

Work on refining the conversation you are having with your horse with your legs first. Where your legs are positioned. How you are applying the aids. The passive and active leg aids. Becoming quiet through your legs when you want to…

When you become more mindful about your legs and how you are communicating with them, the seat will naturally join the conversation.

Focusing on your seat before it is truly independent will only cause the lines of communication between you and your horse to become, well, twisted. Rather pay attention to your hands and your legs and allowing them to then influence your seat position.

If your hands are level, chances are your shoulders are level. If your legs are where they should be, chances are your seat bones will be where you want them to be. This is the beginning of building that all important feel.

Focus on first refining the more obvious aids and then later, shift across to the more subtle aids.

Sometimes ‘Exaggerated’ Communication is Necessary…

Think of a time when you spoke with someone you didn’t understand. A person who spoke a different language. Once you both, quickly, figured out that language was not going to help either of you communicate, you would have begun looking for alternative ways. Those alternative ways were probably not very subtle! Hand gestures, grunts, exaggerated facial expressions…

Your conversation with your horse may be, or have been, a little like this initially. Obvious. ‘Loud’. There may have been a lot of back tracking due to miscommunication. It was not fluent.

However, over time and by consistently committing to improving the conversation with your horse, things improved, or will improve.

Application, Pressure, Timing and Sequence

There are four different ‘filters’ you can view the use of your aids through. When they are all put together, you will get the overall feel of the ride for both you and your horse.

The application of your aids is all about the ‘how’ and they ‘why’. If you can get clear on those, you will be able to apply your aids in a more clear way for your horse to understand.

The varying degrees of pressure create different outcomes with your horse. It works like the tone in your voice when speaking to a person. Soft. Hard. Gentle. Urgent.

Timing is important in any good conversation. It allows things to flow. It means not butting in, or speaking over the other person. It also means warming the conversation up before asking more probing or difficult questions.

The sequence is simply how you put it all together. For example, perhaps the more ‘expressive’ or ‘obvious’ aids are necessary at the beginning. They lead the more subtle aids.

You have to start with the end in mind; but you cannot start at the end!

The piece in the middle is the ongoing evolution of your aids in the saddle so that both you and your horse can have better conversations together.

Happy Riding

Lorna

Links mentioned in the episode:-
June 19, 2018
Straightness in the Canter
What this episode is all about & how it can help you:-
- Rule out possible causes for your canter being crooked
- How to ensure you are straight
- The benefits of initially working in walk and trot
- What to look for in your canter and how you will know if you are truly straight
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Has this ever happened to you? You’re cantering, along enjoying every stride, when suddenly it dawns on you that things are not quite as straight as they could be. In fact, if you give a quick glance over your shoulder, you wonder if it is indeed possible for your horses’ back end to pass you out! Hmmm, straightness in the canter.

This episode is focused on how you can keep your horse straight through the canter. Deviations away from this ‘straightness’ can often be subtle, but it is often there…

Rule Out Possible Causes

Before we go any further, obviously I am assuming you have ruled out the possibility of a physical ailment causing any crookedness in your canter.

Making sure that there isn’t something physically wrong with your horse is first and foremost. Physical ailments may be preventing him from carrying the same amount of weight on both hind legs for example. If you are worried about that, have your horse checked by a vet. Also I suggest have both teeth and tack checked as well.

Once your horse has been given a clean bill of health, I want you to turn your attention to yourself – and what you are doing in the canter.

Make Sure You Are Straight

Very often riders get hung up on the fact that their horse is being a little bit crooked, but meanwhile it is the rider that is being a little crooked. Your horse is often merely reflecting or mirroring back what you, the rider, is doing in the saddle. Rider crookedness can often be quite obvious, as with the shoulders. Is one shoulder dipped slightly lower than the other? Or, is one shoulder travelling slightly ahead of the other?

Something that is a little more difficult to feel and more difficult to remedy, is when your seat bones that are not straight. Often, I see that a horse will go disunited behind in the canter due to the rider ‘forcing’ the horse, with their seat, to travel this way.

Make sure that you straight in your riding, and especially in your canter. If you are unsure about how straight you are, check out this free training HERE that will get you well on your way to straightening things out in your body.

So, let’s now assume that you are indeed straight, your horse is perfectly healthy, the tack fits… Where can you start if your horse is a still a little bit crooked in the canter?

Work in Walk and Trot Initially

Firstly, I suggest that you and your horse go back to the basics. Start in trot or walk. Focus on riding a lot of straight, balanced transitions. Crookedness can be quite obvious in the canter, leading riders to only work and focus on the canter. But this often only works to reinforce the crookedness!

Remember all the time that you are working your horse, you are strengthening and building muscles. You are both developing and you can do this the right way, or the wrong way. When you repeatedly ride the crooked canter, be careful you are not ingraining that fault in your horse’s basic body structure.

Rather take it back down to where you can really and truly control things. Of course in the walk and trot all things are generally equal, meaning that while the canter can sometimes feel a little ‘one sided’ (not equal), due to the nature of how your horse travels in the canter, the walk and trot are very equal and symmetrical.

So, it makes sense that when you are working, you are conditioning and strengthening your horse to move in that symmetrical way. By him continuously moving straight and symmetrical, it is going to strengthen and develop this way.

However, sometimes that alone will not be enough. If this is the case I am going to suggest that you try to take any crookedness, or any desire to go crooked, out of the equation. One of the simplest ways to do this is to work on hills. Gentle, gradual hills or inclines. When you work your horse up and down the hill, and you horse will find it very difficult to travel ‘crookedly’. This is due to him needing to have both sides thrusting him forward equally. In this way you can develop both sides.

Unfortunately, a lot of riders won’t invest the necessary time and energy to do this, usually because it is boring in the walk! If you are struggling with this (and yes, the struggle is often real) try focus on other things. Perhaps include some lateral work into your schooling. The focus is on consistently building and developing. Trying get that equal thrust from both hind legs, which will help to straighten out your canter.

How You will Know if Your Canter Needs Work

So, you are at this point probably wondering if your horse is truly straight – or if there is a little crookedness happening in your canter. How will you know if your horse is crooked or not?

Obviously, if you have mirrors in your arena, it is as simple as paying attention to what is happening. However, this is not the case for most riders. If you don’t have mirrors you can check whether your horse is straight in the canter by using a video. You can set your phone up and, simply, ride straight at it. If you don’t have a video, you could ask somebody to watch and tell you.

What should you look for? Simply that your horse is on two tracks. This means that both legs on the left side of his body are on one track (meaning the back leg is behind the front leg), and both legs on the right side of his body are on the other track. So, you have two straight parallel tracks, a little like train tracks.

You can also check that he is straight throughout the rest of his body. Sometimes you will notice a little bit of a curve or a kink. Checking for your horse’s tail between his back legs can often help you see this one.

Of course, don’t focus all your attention on your horse, but also pay attention to you, the rider, and what you are doing in the saddle. By focusing on yourself as well, you are making sure that you are both developing together in moving forward with this.

Finally, balance is an important element when it comes to straightness. Pay attention that you are producing balanced transitions. If your horse is using his whole body, as opposed to using one side and then compensating for the lack of using the other side, your transitions will feel more balanced. Aim for straight transitions, all the way through.

Only when balanced in the walk and trot, attempt cantering again

When you genuinely feel that you are both straight throughout your walk and trot, then you can begin asking for the canter again. Don’t keep hammering on the canter if it is not right, because all you are doing is reinforcing the ‘unwanted’ outcome.

As I have already mentioned, sometimes it can be as simple as straightening yourself up so that you are carrying yourself. In doing this, you then allow your horse to carry himself in way that is also straight.

Remember, any excess tension on either side of your body or your horses body, will reflect through into the canter.

Happy Riding

Lorna

Links mentioned in the episode:-
May 1, 2018
Recognising and Reschooling a Horse who Hollows His Back
What this episode is all about & how it can help you:-
- Knowing what a hollow back looks and feels like
- Realising you may be playing a big part in what is happening
- Understanding the role your own self carriage plays in your horses self carriage
- Beginning to build on a correct way of going in your rides
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There you are, happily riding along. Feeling all those good feelings we feel as riders; until you ask for something different. Suddenly, it feels like everything has just ‘deflated’ and, to be honest, it has a little because your horse just went hollow through his back.

You see, it is not just you the rider who should ‘carry themselves’ and work at having a strong and connected back. Your horse also needs to work on carrying himself in order to avoid becoming hollow through is back as well.

Knowing What a Hollow Back Looks and Feels Like

Being able to pinpoint and feel when your horse begins to hollow his back, and then later take steps to avoid it happening, is key to reschooling through this problem. When your horse begins to hollow his back, it really feels as though his back is not supporting you any more.

Think about this, when his hind legs (hind quarters) are engaged and working underneath him, they support you on his back. When they get ‘left behind’ that support goes away…

Couple this with the fact that most horses will also raise their head and neck and become resistant to the rein aids as well. The result is your horse literally hollowing his back from underneath you and you experiencing that ‘sinking feeling’.

Because the head and neck will usually ‘come up’, the rider can literally feel the horses shoulders brace against the contact and seat.

This resistance is one of the most obvious signs that your horse has begun to become hollow thorough his back; and should send a few warning bells off in your head regarding what you can do to get things back on track.

Realising That You May be Playing a Big Part in What is Happening

Riders the world over tend to get into the saddle with the sole intention of making the horse ‘do’ something. A good example of this is the all important ‘on the bit’ goal so many riders have, but either way, when we become so concerned with just one ‘goal’, it can be a little like putting blinkers on!

Riders end up focusing on what they can see in front of them; the horse’s head and neck. They also ‘see’ their hands and arms… You must switch your focus from what you can see – to what you can feel, both in your horse and in your aids.

Just focusing on one part of the whole picture often results in your position suffering. It is all the gripping, the squeezing, the twisting the shoving that you are doing to get things ‘looking’ like you think they should look.

But remember, from where you are sitting, you are only seeing a third of the picture. This third should be the ‘result’ rather than the cause part of the overall picture! When we start to make the front end the ’cause’, the result is never good!

So, I mentioned that very often when riders get into this mindset and way of riding, they are moving – a lot! All of this movement only serves to move your position further and further from where it should be.

The further you move away from where you should be, the less clear your communication becomes. The less effective your aids are. And the less you can balance yourself.

Understanding The Role of Your Self Carriage in Your Horses Self Carriage

It is this lack of balance that causes you to become heavy in the saddle, which in turn can lead to your horse becoming hollow through his back. He is literally trying to get out from under your unbalanced, ineffective position! Harsh, but true!

Instead of carrying yourself, you have become a ‘dead weight’ in the saddle. Rather than thinking ‘light’ and ‘refined’, you are scrubbing and having to over do the communication through your seat.

Many riders at this point become frustrated because their horse is not really listening or being responsive to their ‘seat aids’. So rather than taking things back to basics and allowing their other aids to apply any extra pressure if necessary, they try to knuckle down even more on the already ineffective seat aid.

It is a vicious cycle that usually leads to all parties becoming frustrated by the lack of understanding and progress! An overly excited (heavy) seat will also effect the rest of your body and the rest of your aids.

As the team leader for you and your horse, you need to lead by example when it comes to self carriage. Learn to first carry yourself in order to feel what is going on underneath you. It is only by carrying yourself that you can create the space your horse needs to carry himself.

Beginning to Build on a Correct Way of Going in Your Rides

Start with the basics, the walk to halt transition. Work on setting it up correctly and allowing your horse to ‘close’ the halt. Simply put, allow his space to ‘park’ his back-end underneath his body.

Think of creating a space that he can easily close the lid of the box that all four of his legs should create when he is in a square halt.

Notice any tension through your lower back. Notice if you are leaning, or becoming heavy. Start to ‘feel’ if you are indeed creating that space for your horse; and then inviting him to step into it.

Make a point of thinking light through the transition. Go over it again and again, making small adjustments each time until you begin to ‘feel’ a difference underneath you.

From here, start to look for this feeling throughout the other movements in your ride.

Happy Riding

Lorna

Links mentioned in the episode:-
March 12, 2018
Using Your Body to Effectively Influence the Canter
What this episode is all about & how it can help you:-
- Understand the difference between being influenced and doing the influencing
- Being able to ‘roll’ with the canter first
- How feeling the reach of your seat is the start of understanding your influence
- The part your legs and hands play
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What happens when you get into canter with your horse? Do you find that you are more of a passenger than a rider? Simply put, are you influencing the canter, or are you allowing the canter to influence you?

Today we will start figuring out what is going on in your canter, so you can begin to have more of an influencing effect on it.

The Difference between Influencing the Canter and Being Influenced by the Canter

The canter is a gait which can potentially have a lot of energy inside of it. For many riders, being influenced by the canter feels like this energy is causing them to ‘bounce’ or ‘bump’ in the saddle each stride.

Unfortunately, many try to correct this problem by gripping on or holding down into the saddle. This only makes things more uncomfortable for both horse and rider.

In order for the rider to begin influencing the canter through their aids and actions, they must first understand the canter. Understanding what is happening underneath them. This all begins with learning to first follow the horse. Allowing the horse to influence. Only then can they begin to focus on influencing the canter by what they are doing in the saddle.

Being Able to ‘Roll’ with the Canter First

A lot of what happens in the canter happens through the riders seat. The seat is important to both transition into the canter, but also then to ‘roll’ with the canter.

However, many riders, rather than ‘rolling’, they try to hold themselves in the canter. I think that this often comes from some anxiety being present around canter. Regardless of the reason behind this anxiety, the result is often that by the time they get into canter, they have a lot of excess tension in their body.

This excess tension can often be seen by riders gripping with their thighs. In doing so they shut down any and all movement in their hips. Simply put, there cannot be any roll. It can also show up as a stiffness though their lower back.

Whichever one is happening, the experience is generally not going to be as smooth as the rider would like. Every stride of the canter as it continues tends to result in the rider becoming a little more ‘bumped’ out of the saddle.

However, if the rider could just relax and allow their body to move with, rather than gripping against, the result is them achieving the rolling motion.

The good news is that once you can really move with the canter, you have overcome the first barrier to entry to a good canter. Meaning you are on your way to effectively influencing the canter.

If you are at the stage that you have not mastered this rolling motion the following is going to seem a little counter intuitive. But trust me, it works! The less you grip and the less stiffness in your lower back, the more you will stay with the horse. Remember, when you try to dictate the roll before you truly understand how to move with it, it is very difficult to get into the same momentum and movement as the horse.

Feeling the Reach of Your Seat Within Each Roll

Assuming you have mastered the rolling motion, I then recommend that you bring your attention back to what your seat bones are doing. Remember the rolling motion comes from your pelvis and hips. In fact, the whole lower torso and upper thighs are moving with the horse.

Identifying your seat bones and where they are at any given point in the canter is the beginning of being able to ‘feel’ in the saddle. What I want you to feel is the reach. The arc your seat bones travel or move ever single stride.

Think of this ‘roll’ for a moment. It will always result in your seat coming back to a ‘starting point’ and then setting off on the next ‘roll’ each stride. It feels like a circular or oval motion.

What I want you to focus on here is the reach, meaning the ‘starting point’ and then the ‘furthest point’ your seat travels as it continues on its roll.

Once you can feel that, you can start playing with it. You can start allowing the seat bone to perhaps reach a little bit further. Or you can bring it back, so that the seat bone is not reaching as far. It is really important that you maintain your posture and position throughout this; otherwise you will block or shut down the free movement in your seat.

The Part Your Legs and Hands Play

One of the helpful aspects of plugging your seat in correctly in the saddle, is that a lot of other things just fall into place naturally afterwards. Your legs are one of these things!

When you have any excess tension in the saddle, particularly around your seat or your thighs, your leg position becomes affected. When in the saddle, you want your legs to simply fall down your horse’s sides. Of course, when your horse begins moving there is a little work required in order to keep them still while your horse is moving.

Once your legs are draping the horse, they are in the correct position to most effectively influence and communicate with the horse.

However, when there is tightness through our pelvis, our legs are generally too far forward. Or if we are gripping with our knees our lower legs tend to go too far back. A lot of ‘leg problems’ can be remedied by simply ensuring that the seat and pelvis is allowing the movement to happen when in the saddle.

Maintaining Consistent Connection through Your Arms and Hands

The final piece of influencing the canter is your hands and your arms. Your hands and arms must follow the horse. I like to think about your hands and arms being connected to your seat.

It is important to understand that when the horse canters, there is a lot of natural movement happening. You must be able to discern that movement and then begin following the horse. This will ensure there is no resistance on your part through your hand or through the bit & rein.

It is through this quietness that you can begin to influence the canter. The hands and arms are engaged in the communication, but they are not overpowering the communication.

You will often see riders ‘pump’ with the top half of their body. Rather try to ‘still’ through your shoulders, while allowing the movement through your elbows, and of course your wrists and hands.

Your job is to try to keep your shoulders nicely balanced so that they are carrying you. You almost want to think of your shoulders as a clothes hanger with a long garment hanging from them. The garment is the rest of you. But the clothes hanger is there providing the support. Now imagine the wind moving the garment. The wind is the horses movement or energy, the clothes hanger is your shoulder.

Once again, once you can move with the horse and then understand that movement, then you can begin influencing the canter.

Happy Riding

Lorna

Links mentioned in the episode:-
February 5, 2018
Position Faults that are Potentially Holding You Back in Your Riding
What this episode is all about & how it can help you:-
- Understanding the importance of a good position
- Your seat and where it should be
- Your legs and heels and how they affect your stability
- Your head, shoulders and arms and how they affect your position
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If you were to mark your position in the saddle out of 10, how would you score? Would you make the perfect 10? Or would a few simple position faults undo everything for you?  These basic position faults have the potential to put a halt to your progress as a rider. Yes, they can have that much impact on your overall riding performance.

The reality of the situation is that without a correct position in the saddle, you tend not to make a whole lot of sense to your horse.

Your position in the saddle is something that riding instructors the world over focus on daily during lessons. A lot of riders sadly don’t realise how important their position is to their overall riding, because if they did more effort would go into correcting it.

Why is Your Position so Important?

Simply put, a good position puts you in the right place to be able to communicate most effectively with your horse.

Another advantage of a good position is the dramatic decrease in your risk of unexpected dismounts (falls) because you are more secure in the saddle. So, if you are working towards an independent seat, it makes sense to devote some time to perfecting your position.

I want to visit a few areas where your position might be letting you down, and give you a few ideas on how to improve your overall position – and in doing so, improve your riding.

Your seat and where it should be

Are you guilty of sometimes treating the saddle as a place to sit, rather than a place to communicate from? Your seat is probably your most important tool when it comes to communicating with your horse.

If your seat is not correctly positioned in the saddle, the result is you talking gibberish to your horse!

It sounds a little harsh, but it is true. The right position where your seat is concerned is essential from the first ride. As you develop as a rider, your seat becomes more and more important to your communication with your horse.

If your seat position is incorrect, or if you have been allowed to ride one way (which is the wrong way), your seat will be ineffective from the beginning. These position faults will become amplified further down the line.

What is ‘Good’?

That being said, what is a good position when it comes to your seat? Basically, you should be sitting on your seat bones. They should not be sticking out behind you, nor should you be leaning back on your tailbone.

If you could imagine your seat bones being two flashlights. A good position will see those beams of lights pointing straight now to the ground below where you are sitting in the saddle. They would not point backwards towards your horse’s hind hooves, and they would do if you were sitting a little forward, or perched in the saddle with your bum sticking out behind you. Nor would they point towards your horse’s front hooves, which would happen if you were rolled back on your tailbone.

Your seat affects the rest of your body. When your seat is plugged in correctly it has an almost domino like effect. Everything else will have a greater success rate of maintaining its position as well.

How a Faulty Seat Position Affects Your Legs in the Saddle

Many riders immediately notice how, once they have corrected their seat position, the their legs feel different. Your legs cannot function to the best of their ability while riding if your seat is faulty. The biggest cause for concern is gripping with your thighs and knees due to being perched in the saddle (your bum will be sticking out behind you and your back arched).

When you are sitting correctly on your seat bones and carrying your body using your core, it allows your pelvis to open. This, in turn, allows your legs to drape down around your horse’s sides. This is important, regardless of what discipline you are doing.

A closed pelvis creates a clothes-peg effect on your horse using your legs. They become similar to a vice-grip; clamped closed in a bid to keep you in the saddle. Rather think of actual drapes, material. Your legs should be in contact with your horses sides, but not gripping or clamping.

Your Ideal Leg Position

One of the markers of a good position is the visible line from your head, through your shoulders, through your hip to your heel. When that line is present in your position you are balanced.

If you are struggling to imagine this line, try this:- The next time you are in the saddle imagine you can click your fingers and, like magic, make your horse vanish. If the line is present, you will land on your feet. It it is not, you will either land on your face or on your bum.

The head, shoulder, hip, heel line is the start of learning to become a balanced rider. It puts you in the best position to use your own body for balance, rather than relying on your horse.

The Ever Important “Heels Down”

Oh, it may just be the most uttered phrase in arenas the world over. But it really is an essential part of developing a good position which will lead to your independent seat.

How much weight you are going to have in your heels will vary depending on your discipline. Jumping generally requires a little more than dressage. What is important here is to recognize that by dropping the weight into your heel, you elongate your leg.

How a Relaxed Knee Improves the Overall Use of Your Leg

The final position fault to do with riders legs is squeezing with the knee. Next time you are in the saddle, I want you to try something. Slip your hand between your knee and the knee roll of the saddle. You should be able to swing your knee away from the saddle with very little resistance.

Notice how, when you do this, your leg remains in contact with your horse. It remains ‘on’ while your knee can stay relaxed.

Why do you not want your knees on? Two reasons. Firstly, you certainly don’t want to pivot on them because you would be a little top-heavy, increasing your chances of toppling off! Secondly, your knees act, along with and ankles, as your shock absorbers. If they are fixed in any way, this will result in bouncing, loss of position and ineffectiveness in the saddle.

Your head, shoulders and arms and how they affect your position

One of the most common position faults in this area is failure to carry the head. It sounds strange, but a simple way of ensuring this is not the case in your riding is by focusing on creating and maintaining the space between your chin and your chest.

However, your head can also influence your overall position through the direction it is facing. Look where you are going and you will find that your head positively influences the position of your shoulders. This of course will have a domino effect on your arms as well.

Opening Your Chest and Shoulders

I personally do not like the term ‘shoulders back’. I find that it encourages riders to needlessly arch their back, which causes excess tension in both horse and rider.

Rather start with a correct seat position. Then imagine opening or stretching the distance across your chest from point of shoulder to point of shoulder. This will naturally encourage you to sit a little taller, focus on where you are going and, open your chest up.

The Elbow, Wrist, Hand, Rein, Mouth Line

The final part of your position I want to touch on today are your arms. There is a second line that, when applied, makes all the difference in smoothing out the communication between horse and rider.

That second line is from the elbow, down through your hand, through the rein to the horse’s mouth. It should be straight at all times. No Vs or kinks in it. Neither the rein or the hand should deviate off that line between the elbow and the bit.

Riders who work on mastering all of these potential position faults find that their communication with their horse improves dramatically. It is truly amazing how effective a few small changes can be.

Your Physical Fitness and its Impact on Your Position

Riding is a Team Sport – you and your horse. Just like your horse, the stronger and more developed you become physically; the more fluid your movements and “self carriage” become in the saddle.

Creating a detailed exercise program for your horse, while failing to take your own fitness into account will result in, at best, mediocre results in your riding.

Establishing and then maintaining an effective position in the saddle requires strength, suppleness and discipline.  Taking responsibility for your fitness is just as important as assuming responsibility for your horses fitness.

We are starting a new round of the free 30 Day Rider Fitness Challenge on 1st of February. This will be different to anything that has gone before; you choose what you want to do based on your unique circumstances. You can sign up HERE

Happy Riding

Lorna

Links mentioned in the episode:-
- https://stridesforsuccess.com/halt/
- https://30dayriderfitnesschallenge.com
January 8, 2018