Ride English To Improve Your Western Seat
Equi-Partner & AQHA Judge & Trainer
Mark Sheridan~Cave Creek, AZ
Here is an exercise that you can do at home to improve your rides at the shows.
I feel that leg strength and lower body control is one of the key ingredients for a solid base when riding. It all starts at the bottom and works its way up, in able to have steady upper body control, as well as having total overall body position and control. I feel that riding in an English saddle from time to time is the best way to achieve this. Many horsemanship exhibitors also show in the equitation classes as well. They know how much more difficult it is to ride in an English saddle and maintain proper lower leg control. For those that do this, they seem to master the Western saddle with greater ease. I would suggest owning or borrowing an English saddle to ride in at least once a week to create stronger lower body control and improve your overall riding, even if you never plan on showing in English events. I know of roping horse trainers that occasionally put their clients in an English saddle so they actually learn how to ride.
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Amelia~Standing in Irons Balanced
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An exercise that I recommend is to practice standing in your stirrups while at an extended trot. I suggest my riders to start at the jog. It is very important to keep your upper body vertical and not bend over to cheat when doing this drill. Keep in mind that the three main points be lined up while doing this exercise: the point of your shoulder, your hip, and your ankle should be a straight line. If you have not done this before, you will want to start slow and work your way up I have my students do this until it hurts, go past it for 30 seconds and then sit back down, and break to the walk and rest. Three or four sessions of this everyday will improve your lower leg control and increase your overall balance to a much higher degree. Some of my clients jokingly call it torture, but I remind them "no pain no gain". If you can then sit straight down slowly back into the saddle and still maintain the proper amount of weight in your stirrups, without sitting on the back of the cantle, then this exercise is working to your advantage!  Do your homework and keep practicing good habits. ♞Until next time, Mark
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Better Posture in Any Saddle
Cindy Schleuss
Horse Savvy Ranch~Petaluma, CA
Building the Bridge to a Better Place of Balance
The more I teach, the more I learn. How one sits on a horse directly affects the posture of the horse. "Ole sway back" is a saying we all know as horse people. I use to believe that a horse's back dropped because of old age. I have learned that if we ride our horses with good posture then the horse's posture will stay good longer.
Riding with good posture means that you are carrying your own body weight over your feet. The stirrup should feel no different than the ground. To understand this, stand on the ground.
 | | Amelia in Balanced Posture |
Feel your body weight over your feet. Check to see if you are standing with even weight in both feet and that your whole foot is touching the ground. This means each toe to the heel. Now try pushing your feet into the ground. Impossible to do. That is the feel you should have in the stirrup. Your foot should shift weight (or rock) from the toe to the heel as the horse carries you along.
The pictures below~relaxed seat chest up and down~show that Kasey's body weight is balanced over the foot and seat. These are the three points of balance that Mark mentioned. The horse's movement will swing her hips, and her core can maintain her balance.
The lines drawn on the pictures are to better understand how the riders weight affects the horse. The black line is a perpendicular line to the ground. This is the center of the body balance. T he red arrow shows where the weight of rider is being distributed to. The
blue arc line shows how the back of the horse carries the weight of the rider. Good posture is very important to ride balanced for you and your horse.
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Kasey~Relaxed Seat Chest Down
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Kasey~Relaxed Seat Chest Up
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Our Philosophy is that there are infinite modalities to assist us in finding the key for our horse's happiness and soundness. ♘Cindy
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