6 exercises to correct sitting in the saddle
To begin, I want to explain why I decided to write a piece about seat correction exercises.
In my early years of riding, I had issues with my upper body posture.
My instructors constantly reminded me to sit up straight, but doing so was physically challenging for me.
It wasn't until I started working with Cindy Sydnor, an FEI rider and examiner for the United States Dressage Federation coaching certification program, that I realized the root of my problem wasn't my upper body, but rather the angle of my pelvis.
I was tucking my seat under my body and rotating the upper part of my pelvis backward.
This made sitting up straight almost impossible for me.
Cindy helped me find a more balanced position for my pelvis.
As a result, I was not only able to keep my upper body straighter, but I also improved my weight distribution in my legs.
This way, my riding improved in all aspects.
Sara Hern, a second-year student at Mount Holyoke, is practicing one-handed jumping with Astro.
Since then, I have helped many riders experience similar improvements.
Sitting in the middle of the saddle with level pelvises allows you to keep your body and arms relaxed and calm.
Your hands can act independently and with a light contact.
Your legs become firm and stable without any extra gripping, while your control over your horse increases significantly.
What are the ideal angles after the correct angles?
In jumping disciplines, you should always ride in a position from which you can immediately jump to an obstacle.
This means your knees and pelvis should have some angle.
The length of the stirrup plays an important role here.
When you are seated in the saddle, the stirrup length should create an angle of about 110 degrees at the knee for jumping.
I usually recommend that for flatwork, the stirrups be one or two holes longer.
As the obstacles get taller, you sometimes need a greater angle at the knee to better absorb the landing pressure.
When your seat makes contact with the saddle, the weight should be evenly distributed over three points: the pubic bone in front and the two sit bones in the back.
Your legs should remain down and on either side of the horse, with weight maintained in the heels.
This proper foundation of the legs and seat keeps you securely in the saddle.
As a result, the upper body can be elongated and tall while remaining calm; like a puppet being pulled up by strings.
To accompany the horse's movement, allow your pelvis to sway in sync with the rhythm of the movement.
Try to maintain this ideal position in every stride of movement and also in the transitions between strides.
Recently, I have seen many people sitting and rising in the posting position in the canter, which is incorrect.
The canter should either be ridden in a three-point contact or in a two-point/light seat position.
The correct angle of the pelvis allows you to do this properly.
During jumping, the correct angle of the pelvis is critically important.
This ensures that you do not lag behind the horse's movement as you approach obstacles and that your upper body remains balanced over your body’s support at the moment of landing.
As a result, you can maintain the maximum amount of control over your horse without disrupting the horse's effort to jump.
When you cannot rely on the balance from a correct position to stay in the saddle and move with the horse, you may: • pull on the reins to maintain balance.
• Move excessively on the saddle and twist your body forward and backward.
• Contract your glute muscles, which will cause the horse to contract and lower its back.
• Hold the horse firmly with your legs, and as a result, you will no longer be able to keep your knees, ankles, and hips relaxed and flexible.
In this case, your "electric seat" constantly drives the horse forward.
If the horse is fast and energetic, it can become troublesome.
Finding the ideal angle of the hips is more related to body awareness than to strengthening power.
Many riders can achieve a softer and more effective position with just a very slight change in this angle.
In fact, some riders try so hard to correct their seat that they overcompensate.
For this reason, it is important to continuously reassess the angle of the hips.
The best way to determine what adjustment your hip angle needs is to practice with an experienced coach who is recognized and effective in this field.
However, even if you do not have access to the right coach, there are still many ways to analyze and correct your body position.
In this article, I will review some of my favorite methods.
1.
Find a balance ball and a mirror. A balance ball or Swiss ball should be small enough for you to sit on while your feet comfortably touch the ground.
Sit facing a large mirror so you can see your body position from the side.
Imagine you are sitting on your horse and play with your hip angle.
To make this exercise more effective, hold a pair of reins or some kind of strap and band; for example, a lasso string or a resistance band used in physiotherapy and fitness training.
Then ask a friend to hold the other end or tie it to a fixed object at a height that would be approximately level with the horse's mouth if you were riding.
Vary the pressure on the reins to practice maintaining different types of contact, from heavier to lighter, while simultaneously maintaining a position that keeps you properly balanced on the ball.
When the hip angle is not correct, other components of your body position also go out of place.
1a.
Correct angles: Katarina Alvarez, a student at Mount Holyoke College, has managed to stay centered on the ball while keeping her hips in an upright position and maintaining consistent contact with the reins.
Ideally, the other end of the reins should be lower to simulate a more typical head carriage position for her horse.
1a.
Correct angles 1b.
Leaning forward: When Katarina rotates the upper part of her hips forward, her lower back becomes overly arched, and her elbows fall behind her body.
This position creates tension in her sitting posture; tension that can be corrected by reducing the arch in her lower back.
If she rotates the upper part of her hips sufficiently forward, the ball slips out from behind her.
1b.
Leaning forward, she continues to shift forward, backward, and side to side to find a position where she can maintain the most comfortable posture without stiffening or collapsing her upper body.
1c.
Leaning backward: Katarina rotates the upper part of her hips backward and rounds her lower back; something that riders sometimes mistakenly do to absorb the motion of the trot or to stay in sync with the counter movement.
When her back curves into a fetal position, she loses control of the core muscles of her body, namely the abdominal and back muscles.
If she were riding, her legs would slide forward and up — and as a result, her secure sitting base would disappear — causing her to fall behind the horse's movement, push back with her seat, and pull on the reins to maintain balance.
Her locked hip joints could not follow the horse's movement, so her back had to move excessively to absorb it.
This condition is common in very bouncy and erratic horses.
1.
When you achieve this optimal position on a balance ball, visualize it in your mind and then compare it with your actual position on the horse.
While riding: • If you have a mirror in your arena, occasionally glance at it to ensure that your hip joint angle is the same comfortable position you found on the ball.
• Stop next to the mirror and play with your position in the saddle; exaggerate incorrect angles to feel the differences, just as you did on the ball.
• Ask a family member or friend to film your riding so you can review and solidify your position.
2.
"Driving reins" Holding the reins in a way that is the opposite of the usual method, sometimes called "driving reins," is another way to test the correctness of your core muscle position.
This method prevents you from locking your elbows and using the reins to maintain balance.
To see how to hold driving reins, look at the photo below.
If you are comfortable, practice riding this way in all three gaits as well as over obstacles.
If your hip joint angle is incorrect, you will notice it very quickly!
To practice using driving reins, pass the reins between your thumb and index finger and then guide them down from inside your fist.
This position is the exact opposite of the usual way of holding the reins; a method in which you pass the reins between your ring finger and pinky and then bring them up between your thumb and index finger.
3.
Sit in the saddle Many trainers use an exercise that I will demonstrate to prove that if you don’t pull the reins from the other side, the horse cannot pull you.
However, this exercise is also very effective in revealing postural flaws.
A rider who is sitting correctly should not be able to be pulled out of the saddle.
Here, Sarah Hern, a student at Mount Holyoke, is sitting in the saddle and holding the reins as she normally would, resisting my attempt to pull her out of the saddle.
The angles of her hips, knees, and ankles are appropriate, but she has made a common mistake: she has straightened her elbows too much and allowed her hands to be pulled forward.
This allows me to pull Sarah out of the saddle.
Note the slight rounding of her back, the slight folding of her hip angle, and the straightness of her arms.
This is the position that riders typically find themselves in when they lose control of horses that move on the forehand.
The only way to stay secure in the saddle is to keep your hips level, maintain your legs under your body, and keep your elbows bent.
When you perform this exercise, make sure your horse is with you and the person on the ground holds the reins in such a way that there is enough release between their hands and the bit so that it is not accidentally pulled into the horse's mouth.
Another common mistake: rolling back onto the seat and trying to counteract the pressure using the arm muscles.
In this position, you cannot use the strength of your core muscles.
4.
Cavaletti on the Circle My students call this exercise "Cavaletti on the Circle" the "Circle of Death."
Perhaps the reason is that sometimes I ask a maximum of three of them to perform this exercise at the same time, and therefore there is a lot of pressure to maintain the path.
Even if you do this exercise alone, if your upper body collapses or your pelvis shifts outward, you cannot stay on the line.
This exercise forces you to position yourself correctly without even thinking about it.
This exercise is suitable for more experienced horses and riders.
Setup: Place four cavaletti set about 6 inches above the ground in a large circle at the positions of 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock.
The 60-foot distance on the curved line between each pair of obstacles allows for 4 or 5 strides.
Establish a proper bend on a circle in the counter outside the cavaletti.
Stay in a three-point position.
With your inside leg in the tight spot, ask the horse to create bend and forward energy in its inside hind leg.
Use the outside hind leg to prevent its hip from sliding outward.
With the inside rein, ask it to look in the direction you are moving, but be careful not to pull its nose inward.
Control the speed and size of the circle with the outside rein as well.
When the circle and bend are appropriate, guide it towards the center of one of the cavaletti.
On the cavaletti, maintain your three-point position; that is, while still being connected with the saddle, follow the horse's movement with your pelvis.
This is a flat exercise, not a jumping exercise with the horse.
The goal is for your horse to simply step over the cavaletti, so there is never a need to enter a jumping position.
In the meantime, continue to look forward along the circle and apply the aids related to the bend.
Sara is guiding Astro, owned by Kari Fossum, over the first cavaletti in the counter and asking him to maintain the bend to the right.
Although Astro is stepping over it instead of jumping as she requested, if Sara brought her seat further into the saddle, she would have better control.
When your horse lands after the first cavaletti, direct your gaze to the center of the next cavaletti and continue the curved line to it.
Keep your seat in the saddle and maintain your legs on either side of the horse's body, and if necessary, collect its counter using your lower back muscles—think of telling it "wait, wait" with each stride—without pulling on the reins.
Astro brings his hind legs well under his body on the second cavaletti; a factor that helps his counter balance as he passes over the pole.
Here, Sara's hands are softer and follow the horse's mouth well, although I still prefer her to sit more in the saddle in the flat three-point position.
Continue the exercise in the same manner over the third and fourth cavaletti.
If your horse lands incorrectly on the lead, try to return him to a canter as soon as possible and take the correct lead in time for the next cavaletti.
If things really get out of control, remove one of the cavaletti.
Then reorganize the situation and when you are ready, resume the exercise.
If your horse becomes too strong and fast during this exercise, make a much smaller circle on one cavaletti; about 10 meters in diameter.
Increasing the bend will cause him to step more under his body with the inside hind leg; this will improve his balance and make him easier to control.
When you can successfully navigate all four cavaletti in succession with the correct bend, give him a little break and then perform the exercise in the opposite direction.
5.
Sitting trot with one hand If you have trouble with sitting trot, first check that you are not clinging to the horse with your knees or thighs.
Then to improve your balance and independence of your hands, do this exercise: while you are sitting trot, hold both reins in one hand and extend the other hand straight up.
Then sit deeply in the saddle, keeping your pelvis level and lifting your upper body; focus on increasing the distance between the top of your pelvis and your last rib.
This allows your hip joints to follow your horse’s movement better.
It also softens your contact with the reins and helps you not to hang on the reins to maintain your balance.
5.
Sitting trot with one hand 6.
Jumping with one hand Approach a vertical or oxer obstacle with a rising trot.
A few steps before the obstacle, hold both reins in one hand and extend the other hand straight forward; at shoulder height, with your palm facing down and fingers pointing towards the middle of the horse’s ears.
Try to focus on your balance instead of the distance to the obstacle and keep your legs in contact with the horse’s sides.
Throughout the jump, from the moment of take-off to landing, keep your arm straight and parallel to the horse’s neck.
This prevents you from bending too much at the waist or leaning too far back in the saddle.
Although in the photo on the left, Sara's leg has slipped slightly back and her arm is not perfectly aligned, her very good body angles have allowed her to stay in sync with Astro's unexpected and large jump.
6a: Jumping with one hand While practicing these exercises, keep in mind that completely eliminating old habits takes time.
Especially in stressful situations, like competitions, it is very easy to revert to a gathered and defensive position.
But with plenty of repetition and consistent reinforcement, you will learn to find the correct angles; angles that form the foundation of a strong position and help maintain it.
For another position-strengthening exercise off the saddle that you can do on a full-size trampoline, click here.
About C.J. La Carole “C.J.” La has, in 38 years of coaching the Mount Holyoke College equestrian team, led the team to 3 national championships of the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association and 6 tournament champion titles.
She is now serving as the Intercollegiate Coaching Director of the team and coach of the university's sport hunt seat team.
In 1998, she received the IHSA Lifetime Achievement Award and is the founder of the IHSA upperclassman academic achievement awards and the national horse show sportsmanship award.
He has been a member of the IHSA board of directors since 1986.
He has organized the IHSA National Championship Horse Show three times and has held the IHSA Zone 1 Championship every year since 1989.
He is also a member of the Zone 1 committee of the United States Hunter Jumper Association.
In the summer, he works as the riding director at Camp Forest Acres in Freiburg, Maine.
Source: Practical Horseman – Training