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When riding your horse, it’s important to keep your hands forward in what I call the “work area”.
The work area is just in front of the saddle above the horse’s withers. Put your hands in that position and draw an imaginary box around them. That box is your work area.
No matter what rein aids you’re giving, keep your hands in the work area. If you bring your hands closer to your body, you steal power from the hind legs. If you put your outside hand forward, for example, you lose control of the outside shoulder.
Many riders tend to draw their hands toward their bodies and behind their horse’s withers.
So here’s a simple tip to remind you to keep your hands FORWARD in the work area. Imagine there’s a basketball in front of your stomach. Keep your hands in front of the basketball. You can’t draw your hands closer to your body because the basketball is in the way!
Click here for more tips on position images to improve your equitation on your horse.
Can you tell if your riding position is straight and centered on your horse? Or are you collapsing at your waist and sitting crookedly?
Ask a ground person to stand behind your horse.
1. Is your seat in the center of the dressage saddle so that each seatbone is the same distance from the middle of the saddle?
2. Is the distance between your last rib and your belt equal on both sides?
3. Are your shoulders level (i.e. the same height)?
If your seat isn’t in the middle of the saddle, you’re collapsed at your waist, and your shoulders aren’t level, you’re not balanced correctly.
Here are 3 simple tips to help your riding position to be straight and centered on your horse:
Let’s say you’ve collapsed your left side, your left shoulder is lower, and your seat is off to the right.
1. Bring your right seat bone over and place it on top of an imaginary line that runs down the center of the saddle from the pommel to the cantle.
2. Stretch your left arm straight up so it passes by your ear and your fingers are pointed straight toward the sky.
3. Now to keep your riding position straight, centered, and stretching tall on your horse, pretend you have two sticks of equal length between your last rib and your waistband. If you collapse again, you’ll get jabbed in the ribs by the stick on the left side. And the stick on the right side will end up on the ground.
Go to Program Your Position for more help with your riding position.
Horseback riding is all about balance and staying centered. You always want to keep your horse in good balance for his stage of training no matter what your discipline.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a dressage rider, a western pleasure rider, a trail rider, or an event rider. Correct balance is essential to effective riding because the center of your balance directly affects your horse’s balance.
Your goal should be to have an independent seat so you can effectively influence your horse as positively and as harmoniously as possible.
In order to have this independent seat, you need to sit in the saddle properly. By that I mean that the both the placement and the position of your pelvis must be correct. This position will, in large part, determine your level of success.
So in your quest for good balance, here’s a great image to help you keep your pelvis in the desired “neutral” position.
Imagine your pelvis is a big bucket filled with water. If you ride with an arched, tense back, the top of your pelvis tips forward, and the water spills out the front of the bucket. In this closed or tipped pelvis position, your seat bones are actually aimed toward the back of the horse.
If you ride with a rounded lower back, the top of your pelvis tips back and the water spills out the back of the bucket. In this position, your seat bones are aimed forward and down, and can sometimes drive the horse’s balance and back downward.
When your pelvis is in a neutral position, you can keep all the water in the bucket. When your pelvis is neutral, your seat bones point straight down toward the ground.
In this neutral position, your body is balanced over your horse’s center of gravity. When you’re in balance with your horse, all things are possible,
So, help your horse find his balance by riding with your pelvis in a neutral position so you can keep all the water in the bucket!
Click on balanced seat for more help with your position.
Are you unsure of how to put weight onto individual seat bones while riding your horse?
Try this exercise.
Sit up straight in a chair. Keep your shoulders and hips square while you alternately put more weight on your right seatbone and then your left one. You’ll feel each seatbone press down (heavier, deeper) into the chair. Once you can alternately press each seatbone down into the cushion of the chair without leaning left or right, try that same feeling on your horse.
Click on Program Your Position for more tips on correcting your riding position.
Here’s a fun training tip to improve your horse training and equitation. I call it RIDES WITH FRUIT.
I’m sure you remember Kevin Costner’s movie, Dances with Wolves. Well, I call this horse training tip, Rides with Fruit. I thought it was appropriate since it’s summer in some parts of the world, and many of us start to eat more fruits and vegetables.
So let’s bring some fruity images to your horse training and equitation! When you’re on a circle, your horse’s body should curve like a banana. Feel the weight of a grapefruit in your outside hand and the weight of an orange in your inside hand. Sit deep and relax your gluts by saying, “My butt is a marshmallow.” (Oh? You mean marshmallows aren’t a fruit?)
Click on Program Your Position for more help with Equitation.
Many riders lean to the outside in half pass because they use too much outside leg to push their horses sideways. Use your outside leg mainly to help bend your horse around your inside leg and secondarily to ask him to go sideways.
Keep in mind that the predominant aids in half pass need to be inside leg and outside rein…not outside leg pushing sideways and inside hand pulling the neck around in a fake a bend.
Here are 3 quick tips to help you sit in the direction of movement. Let’s say you’re tracking to the right and want to do a right half pass.
1. Think about actually “stepping down into the right iron” as you start the half pass.
2. Pretend there’s a seam running down the middle of your saddle from pommel to cantle. Then visualize yourself moving your outside seatbone to the right onto that center seam so you don’t get left behind.
3. Use the following exercise to help you develop some good muscle memory for using the inside leg and outside rein as the predominant aids in half pass:
- Turn down the quarterline and leg yield over to the left with a bend (from nose to tail!) toward the wall for a couple of steps.
- Then start the half pass to the right by stepping down into the inside iron and bringing the outside rein to the right as if you’re going to push your left fist into your horse’s left shoulder.
- Only do the half pass for a couple of steps and then return to the leg yield with bend to the left. (So you end up doing more leg yield with bend steps than half pass steps)
- The leg yield to the left with a bend helps you put your inside leg on and also you get to feel the horse stepping from inside leg to outside rein.
Click here for more info on dressage lateral movements.
Horseback riding is all about balance for both you and your dressage horse. To ride in good balance, be sure to keep a good plumb line with your shoulders directly over your hips and over your heels.
In this article, I’ll give you two quick tips to help you sit up straight and in balance.
1. Many riders lean behind the vertical (especially in trot extensions!) because they think they’re driving their dressage horses more forward.
The problem with leaning back, however, is that you end up pushing your horse’s back down, and he becomes hollow and disconnected.
So if you tend to lean back, here’s a quick tip to give you some muscle memory for keeping your upper body straight.
While you’re standing on the ground, lean back and ask a friend to put the palm of her hand between your shoulder blades. Ask her to gently push your upper body forward until your shoulders are above your hips.
Repeat this several times. Close your eyes as you’re being pushed forward so you can really memorize the feeling of bringing your upper body over your hips.
Then when you’re riding your horse, visualize your friend is gently pushing your upper body forward so you can sit up straight.
2. Now let’s look at the opposite scenario—leaning too far forward. For this exercise, focus on your hip angles. If you’re leaning in front of the vertical, your hip angles are too closed.
So while you’re sitting on your horse in the halt or walk, lean about 10 inches behind the vertical, then sit upright so your shoulders are over your hips.
Do this several times. As you lean back, focus on how your hip angles open. You can even close your eyes to really concentrate on how it feels to open your hips.
Then when you’re riding, if you start to tip too far forward, visualize leaning back. The exercise you’ve done at the halt and walk will give you the muscle memory to find the happy medium and sit up straight.
Click here for more dressage position tips.
Many riders don’t realize that the reason they have trouble sitting the trot, is because they haven’t put their dressage horses on the bit. No matter how good a rider you are, it’s nearly impossible to sit on a back that is stiff and hollow.
The key to making both you and your horse more comfortable in sitting trot, is to connect him so his back is round. You do that with what I call “the “connecting aids”.
Before you try to give connecting aids, check that your dressage horse “thinks forward”. That is, When you close both calves, does he surge forward? If he doesn’t, give him a couple of taps with the whip or a couple of bumps with your legs to chase him forward. Then, ask him to surge forward again when you close your calves lightly. If he gives you a good answer this time, praise him.
Next, ask him to surge forward again, and after his first two strides, close your outside hand in a fist, and vibrate the inside rein. Keep all of these aids on for about 3 seconds. You’re asking for the surge FIRST so you can be sure you’re riding from back to front.
Later on, you’ll give the connecting aids almost simultaneously, but you’ll still think of them in this order: Close both legs, close your outside hand in a fist, squeeze and release on the inside rein. Maintain for 3 seconds and then soften.
When you marry those three sets of aids correctly, you’ll be able to put your dressage horse on the bit, and, as a result, it’ll be easier for you to sit the trot.
Click here for more tips on sitting the trot.
To ride in good balance when riding your horse be sure to keep a good plumb line with your shoulders directly over your hips and over your heels.
Many riders lean behind the vertical (especially in trot extensions!) because they think they’re driving their horses more forward.
The problem with leaning back, however, is that you’ll end up pushing your horse’s back down.
So if you tend to lean back, here’s a quick tip to give you some muscle memory for keeping your upper body straight.
While you’re standing on the ground, lean back and ask a friend to put the palm of her hand between your shoulder blades. Ask her to gently push your upper body forward until your shoulders are above your hips. Repeat this several times. Close your eyes as you’re being pushed forward so you can really memorize the feeling of bringing your upper body over your hips.
Then when you’re riding your horse, pretend your friend is gently pushing your upper body forward so you can sit up straight.
Click here for more info on dressage rider equitation.
When riding your dressage horse, it’s important to keep your hands forward in what I call the “work area”.
The work area is just in front of the saddle above the horse’s withers. Put your hands in that position and draw an imaginary box around them. That box is your work area.
No matter what rein aids you’re giving, keep your hands in the work area. If you bring your hands closer to your body, you steal power from the hind legs. If you put your outside hand forward, for example, you lose control of the outside shoulder.
Most dressage riders tend to draw their hands toward their bodies and behind their horse’s withers. So here’s a simple tip to remind you to keep your hands FORWARD in the work area. Imagine there’s a basketball in front of your stomach. Keep your hands in front of the basketball. You can’t draw your hands closer to your body because the basketball is in the way!
Click here for more on dressage rider equitation.
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