Riding the horse requires
that the rider learns to balance him/herself on the horse’s back. The best way to do this is to ride bareback
for years, but for most of us that that is not an option. This balance is referred to as the rider’s
seat. You either have a good seat or a
bad seat, no in between. A rider’s seat
is in two parts, the heave and the light seat.
The heave seat is also called the deep
seat, and it is when the rider’s butt does not leave the saddle or the horses
back. The best way to learn the deep
seat is by riding bareback, the next best way is to remove your feet from the
stirrups and ride that way. Start by
just putting no weight into the stirrups, and move to taking them out
completely. This takes a lot of practice
but the reward is great.
Example of the heave seat, no stirrups.
As you become more
comfortable riding without your stirrups you can start putting your feet back
into them but only let the weight of your legs rest in them, do not lift your
body out of the saddle with your legs.
Nor do you try to squeeze in with your knees to keep your seat; the rest
of your weight should be on your butt in the saddle. Spend as much time as you can riding like this
at all gaits and you will develop your deep/heavy seat. The heavy seat should be practiced over and
over throughout your riding career and it should become your second nature.
It is a sad fact for
horsemanship that few riding instructors today teach the deep seat and go
straight to what they call the two point and the three point seat. It is not the instructors fault as much as it
is the parents who want their children competing as soon as possible instead of
taking the time that is required to obtain a good seat. The instructors want to make a living, so
they turn out what the customer wants. I
know that they are adults who also take riding lessons but the instructors
have their routine and it is hard for them to break their habits. I will explain the Light Seat after I discuss
what is being taught by many riding instructors today.
The two point seat:
Many of our modern designed
saddles, especially English, automatically position riders in the chair seat. A
rider sitting on his butt near the rear of the saddle with his legs forward and
with the knees bent downward is said to be acquiring a chair seat. This is a bad seat for two reasons, first the
rider’s balance is off because his feet are way in front of his shoulder. Secondly it puts the rider’s weight back on
the horse’s loins throwing its collection off; by the way, collection is just
another word for balance. Collection is the word we give to the need for the
horse to find its new center of balance when a rider gets on its back. Without a rider a horse is always
collected. So in the chair seat both
the rider and the horse are out of balance.
The chair seat is what riding instructors today call the two point seat;
it is not a deep seat.
The Three Point Seat:
Some instructors also teach what they call a
three point seat, which is when the pelvic bones and the crotch are brought
into contact with the saddle. It is
trying to use the three point seat that makes some riders seem to be humping
their horses as they ride. It can look
rather bizarre at times.
Both of these seats will get
you from here to there, and you will see a lot of riders that use them, but
mostly ones who have been taught by English Riding instructors. Almost all of these instructors will place
great emphasis on having the rider push his/her heels down. How many of you understand the reasoning
behind having the heels down? I never
have. It is best to adjust the fenders
such that our feet, when resting in the stirrups, the heels will naturally
point down. This “heels down” stuff is
only at the walk for me for at the trot, canter, and gallop my feet have a
tendency to slip out of the stirrups..
For the horse’s collection and well being the
rider should sit as far forward as they can while riding. Adjust the length of your fenders, or straps, such that
you have a slight bend in your knees, and be able to lift yourself out of the
saddle. If you are going to do a lot of
jumping the fenders should be adjusted a little shorter than if you are just going to be
doing some leisure trail riding.
Now on to the Light Seat:
It was the Mongols that are considered to be the
riders that first utilized the use of the stirrups to their full
potential. The lifting of the body from
the saddle frees the horse’s back and thus enables it more freedom of movement,
especially in fast gallops and jumping.
Now the knees come into play for they are key element in a solid and
well-balanced light seat. But not to squeeze on the horse for balance, but to
work your body up and down to keep your head even with the ground. If the stirrups are too short the knee will
be above the saddle, and your seat becomes very unsecured and unbalanced. In the light seat you do not put your butt on
the saddle; your entire weight is supported by the stirrups.
You use the light seat when running going over
or around obstacles; you do not use it in casual riding. Just like the deep seat the light seat
requires practice to gain confidence.
Example of the Light Seat.
The correct seat issue has
been here about as long as men have been riding. Xenophon, who lived from 430 to 355 BC,
recommend to the Greek riders, that they should not sit on the horse, as they
sit on a chair, but rather as if they would be standing with spread legs. He also recommended that they should not ride
very much in the limited spaces of a riding ring, but train their horses in the
open fields, something most riders fail to grasp yet, especially in dressage.
A good way to start
developing your deep seat is to take a blanket and fold it several times. Like
a bareback pad, and strap it to your horse’s back with an over-girth, then
without a bridle let someone lunge your horse first at the walk, the trot, and
then the canter. Your job will be to
concentrate strictly on your seat and feeling it in your body, as well as
feeling the horse as it moves at the same time.
The reason you teach new riders without reins is that way too often it
gives a false sense of security and they often learn to hang onto them for
balance.
The legs are not a part of
your seat, let them dangle naturally.
At the trot you will bounce, ignore your bouncing as it has nothing to
do with your seat, but is a reflection of the unbalance of your horse, the
bouncing on the horse is caused by not knowing how to sit not the other way
around. Do not use your legs to stay on
the horse by squeezing your knees or pulling up your toes. With your legs dropping straight down you
will feel your knees relatively tight against the horse, without doing any
squeezing. You will learn to use the
movement of the horse and the bouncing of your body, to get back into the
center position over the horse’s spine.
Search for the spot that give you the least bounce and you will find
your seat as your spine lines up with the horse’s, and your hips are in the
same parallel with the horse and aligned with the horse’s hips. Then you are sitting straight on the horse, and you should be right behind where the withers meet the back of the horse..
As you ride with your legs dangling you will
feel it in the thigh and hip area, this is to be expected, but as you ride
correctly the muscles will start to strengthen and the pain will go away. As with everything practice makes perfect but
not if you are practicing the wrong thing.
Which brings us to the half
seat or hunt seat:
Before I go on I wish to remind you again that the
reins are not part of your balance. They should never be pulled upon, yanked
upon, and in any way used to keep you on the horse’s back. To do that you shift your weight in the
saddle, use the stirrups to lift or push up or down with one leg or the other, lean to one side
or the other, forward or backwards, but do not use the reins for anything other
than to direct the horse.
The half seat is where a
rider partially sits in the saddle near the pommel and partially stands in the
irons, it is not posting, it is sometime called the light seat.
When you have become adept in both the heavy and
light seat you are ready to move on to posting.
If you skip the first two steps you will never develop a real good
seat. Without the foundations of the
heavy seat and the light seat one cannot possibly develop a correct half seat
like posting or the forward seat.
Remember this; the time that someone spends riding horses does not by
itself determine the quality of the rider, and you will always find a horse
that will remind you of your incompetence if you ride enough horses.
Example of the Half Seat
When posting let the horse's motion push you up
and out of the saddle with support from your thigh and calf muscles, at the
same time, when your horse's outside leg goes forward, you sit up. This is
called being on the correct diagonal. Sit back down in the saddle when your
horse's outside leg comes back. In the arena
the outside leg is the leg away from the rail, and the inside leg is the leg
next to the rail. Obviously “correct
diagonal” is referring to when you are showing and has no relevancy while trail
riding as they are on inside or outside legs on the trail.
The posting trot is all about
the comfort of the rider rather than about the comfort of the horse especially
in the western saddle. The half-seat
differs from the posting trot in the fact that in the half-seat one is
partially off the horses back, as opposed to the posting where one actually
sits down into the back on every other step.
With a heavy riders this become much
harder on the horse, especially if the rider is landing on the cantle and not
as far forward as they should. Having
the saddle is too far back also makes it harder on the horse, as in the case of
western saddle, hence most reasonable western riders do not post very much in
the western saddles. If you have an 18
inch western saddles make sure that you come down right behind the horn if you
do decide to post. You should never sit
down on the horses with your full weight while posting so as not to make your
horse sore to the point of not wanting to be ridden. He may become what we call tenderback lf you
do, and try bucking when you ride him next.
“If the better rider calls me a “good rider” he mocks
me.
If a rider of equal ability calls me a “good rider” he
merely praises himself.
If the lesser rider calls me a “good rider” it is
because he is unable to see my faults.”
Ludvik K Stanek
Example of all three seats.
This charge was made just after the completion of a 38 mile force march the night before. For a first hand account go here.
This is a good time to talk about riding your horse up and down steep hills. Way too many people think that you should lean way forwards going up hill and way backward when going down. If it was only the rider's comfort we were concerned with this would be correct. However, if you are concerned with the horse's comfort and balance and you should be, it is just the opposite. When climbing the rider should either sit strait or leaning slightly backwards, and when going downhill the rider should be leaning way forward. Go to minute 1:15 in the video below and see how the US Calvary trained their troopers to ride, at the gallop, down a very steep bank, steeper than anything you are likely to ride down:
<Click here>
This charge was made just after the completion of a 38 mile force march the night before. For a first hand account go here.
This is a good time to talk about riding your horse up and down steep hills. Way too many people think that you should lean way forwards going up hill and way backward when going down. If it was only the rider's comfort we were concerned with this would be correct. However, if you are concerned with the horse's comfort and balance and you should be, it is just the opposite. When climbing the rider should either sit strait or leaning slightly backwards, and when going downhill the rider should be leaning way forward. Go to minute 1:15 in the video below and see how the US Calvary trained their troopers to ride, at the gallop, down a very steep bank, steeper than anything you are likely to ride down:
<Click here>
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