Your riding position influences your horse more than you think
There’s always that one horse that nails a lesson home.
Growing up, I was like “Pfft - as if my position affects if my horse is on the forehand! It’s all about the aids”.
I spent time working on my sit trot, on my 2 point seat and looking good, but never really thought how my balance was affecting how my horse worked.
That was until I was working with a very athletic thoroughbred on our show jumping.
She had zero ‘go slow’ thoughts and for the level of training I had at the time, none of my riding tricks slowed her down and I refused to add stronger aids. I was taking my time and being patient with getting the steady button to work and then one night I decided to play around with my posture.
At the time I was working with the exercise physiologist on improving my posture and engaging my core, and it was because of this I decided to apply some of these techniques to the saddle. I was riding down the long side and with no other aids, I used my core to get more upright and balanced and hallelujah - she came up off the forehand and steadied the trot. I was so psyched and surprised at how effective it was!!
After that I practised more with this mare - she made it so obvious when I was doing it right and wrong! I then was able to translate that positional correction across to the other horses I had on training at the time. While the improvement was not so drastically obvious, it significantly improved their ability to come up into self carriage.
Since that day I have found this an invaluable tool especially when breaking and riding green, unbalanced horses.
