7 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Riding Seat

How do you know when you have a well established, independent seat?

Our riding can feel like a never ending process of self improvement (or struggle to success). I find that for a lot of students we are our own worst critic - and what’s more our peers are often not very positive either. Part of having a good independent, upright seat is understanding what it is, when you have it, how you achieve it, acknowledging you will never be perfect but knowing the key areas that you are working on to improve and rewarding yourself for how far you have come. Hopefully you can also have some cheerleaders that are supportive and encouraging of your development as well and not just trying to pull you down with negative comments.

When riding we want to transfer our balance, core and centre of gravity skills to the saddle. The better we get at maintaining good posture on the ground the better our posture will be in the saddle and more independent our seat will be. Where you are holding your horse from is also very important. It is impossible to get into a good, independent upright seat when you are tensing your inner thigh and rotating your pelvis down. Essentially our independent seat is all about strengthening and stabilising our legs, rotating our pelvis up and increasing the freedom and range of movement of our upper body.

When you manage to get the holy grail that is the synchronicity of your movement integrating and moving as one with your horses movement you will feel things like:

• You sit more upright and feel your horse adjust itself and come into self carriage

• When you get your seat into the right place and all of a sudden that aid that wasn’t working works

• When you put more weight into one stirrup than the other and your horse shifts its balance

• Your can pull your shoulder back and let the other go forward to turn and your horse follows without needing to use the rein

• You can turn through your hips and pelvis and the horse knows where it is joining

• You can shorten or lengthen the stride or ride a different pace just by the flick or adjustment of your pelvis and hip bones.

Most of the time, it doesn’t last. So we are always working towards getting better and holding for longer. You want to ride a positional correction before you ask for each movement to keep reengaging those postural and core muscles.

Here are 7 questions you should ask yourself to understand how your seat is working:

If you were to take the horse out from under you, would you still be standing up balanced?

When riding we don’t learn a whole new centre of gravity and balance. We take our already established posture, core, centre of gravity and balance from the ground and learn how to apply that to the saddle. The longer and taller you can hold your posture and the more freely you can move your upper body and legs in the saddle the more centred you are in your core.

 If you were to take the reins off you and put your arms out to the side, would you still be balanced?

Our balance and stability in the saddle starts with our legs. If your legs aren’t stable under your body you will be using the reins and the horses mouth to balance yourself. If you can hold your arms out to the side and maintain your balance you will be using your legs and core and not the horses mouth.

Can you hold your 2 point seat (without holding the reins or mane) and not collapse into the saddle?

In our rising trot every second step we are standing out of the saddle. If your unable to hold yourself up in your 2 point seat without holding on with your hands there is a good chance your legs aren’t strong enough and balance is not centred enough to be holding your independent upright seat in the rising trot.

Can your ride different horses strides without losing your balance?

Challenge how good your balance is by riding other horses, especially trotters and warmbloods. The bouncier the stride, the more they throw you out of the saddle, the better you need to engage your core to stay with the movement.

Improve your independent seat

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Do you get bounced around a lot?

Getting bounced out of the saddle and sucked into the saddle has a bit to do with your horses level of education. If your horse is behind your leg they won’t help you with your rising trot and will suck you into the saddle. It could also mean your legs are too far forward. If you get thrown up out of the saddle and over the front of the saddle your horse may be moving unpredictably. You also may be hanging on too much with your knee and inner thigh creating a pendulum action with your lower leg.

Do your shoulders sit in front of your hips?

You won’t be able to tell unless you have someone tell you or see photo or video of yourself. Also you may have people always telling you shoulders back. Any degree of shoulders in front of your hips puts your horse on the forehand and results in you locking and bracing your elbows and pressing down on the reins to use them. It also means your hips and pelvis are rotated down and will create resistance from your horse to the bit.

Do your shoulder sit behind your hips?

Shoulders too far back is the result of hollowing your back or using your body weight to try and follow the movement and get your shoulders back rather than following the horses movement actively through your pelvis. This is most common in canter and sit trot and seen more exaggerated in riding the medium/ extended trot in sit trot. This results in a lot of concussion on your horses back and will make them hollow their back away from your seat. We want to invite their back up into our seat.

Improve your independent seat

Click here to join the workshop in SE QLD April 6

5 Ways to Improve Your Independent Seat Out of The Saddle

How can you tell if you have an independent seat when riding?

The independent seat happens when a rider can move one part of their body independently of other parts of their body and independently of the horses’ movements, while maintaining balance. The rider is moving with the horse but still maintaining a level of independence so if the horse stumbles or transitions gait the balance is maintained. There is a level of softness to the contact and aids, with no added pressure.

The independent seat is not legs jammed down into the stirrups with your ankles locked and knees firmly in contact, it is legs that are relaxed that naturally sit lightly in the stirrup and hug but don't grip the horse. The independent seat is not a rigid, inflexible posture, it is upright and balance and fluid in movement while at the same time lacking unnecessary movement. The independent seat is not hanging onto the reigns, but instead soft contact with the mouth that alters slightly in response to the horses actions and desired outcomes.

So how can we improve our seat without actually riding?

Balance

When we lack balance, we rely on our horse to balance us in the saddle. This means we cannot achieve an independent seat at all.

Most of us believe we have good balance- after all, we can stand and walk without falling. Unfortunately this doesn’t always translate to good balance in the saddle.

To test your balance, try standing on a balance ball. Once you can securely balance on the ball, start adding extra tasks and build up. My favourite is to play a game of catch on the balance ball, then kick it up to a game of catch while naming objects in a category, like fruit (thank my Physio for that one!)

Good Posture

Good posture is critical for your aids and your movements to be fluid and with the horse, yet also helps maintain independence.

This video has a great way of demonstrating good posture - click here to watch.

Core Strength

Our core is the ultimate area that tends to be neglected, but is critical for our balance, posture and coordination. A strong core will help your develop a stronger seat and allow independent movement.

One test you can do to access your core strength is the Plank Test - click here to watch.

Improve your seat in 3 weeks

Exercise program that stregthens your core, posture and balance and helps you apply it in the saddle Click here to start working on your seat

Coordination

Good coordination in the saddle can be somewhat difficult to organise out of the saddle. However, it does rely on your fitness, posture, core strength and balance to be strong.

You can try juggling, rub tummy/pat head routine, essentially any exercise that stretches your brains by making your hands, fingers, legs or thighs work independently of each other.

Positive Mindset

None of this can come together if you lack a ‘can-do’ attitude. We are what we think, and if we believe we cannot do something, our bodies will actively sabotage our attempts.

Keep positive thoughts, break down the challenge into small but achievable wins, and you will be well on your way to success.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR INDEPENDENT SEAT WITH EXERCISES IN THE SADDLE?

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The secret formula to riding a square halt

Do you know the real secret behind riding a square halt on your horse?

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Katie explains the underlying principles of a square halt. Listen to the video or read the transcript below.

One of the things we get critiqued on in a dressage test is how to ride a square halt.

There’s a good chance that before you did your first dressage test your didn’t even know what a square halt was – you were just stoked that your horse stopped! (hopefully).

How do I make my halt square?

When I was first trying to figure this out, early in my dressage career, I would practice by going down the centre line and taking a peak over the shoulder. Darn, halt not square!

This resulted in me being at the halt and tapping on that leg, giving the horse a little niggle to move it into the square position – then the horse would walk off again. ARGH!

Here the standing base is narrow as he starts coming back into work before the shoulders and chest start developing

I’ve been doing a lot of research to see what other instructors advise, and it has a lot to do with the seat and riding the seat through, cuddling with your calves etc.

But that isn’t what I believe.

If you think about why we want a square halt in the first place it’s because we’ve correctly applied the training scale. It’s the founding basis of dressage, after all!

In doing this:

This mare is starting to square out and transfer weight onto her haunches from conditioning work

• The horse is moving the weight onto the hind while distributing the weight across all four legs evenly

• Engaging the stomach muscles

• Showing relaxation

• Showing swing

• And still breathing

So my standard for a square halt is not because you are holding the horse there, but because the horse has engaged it’s postural muscles and is holding its’ own posture.

You want to see your horse standing square when you untack them. You want them to be standing square when you tack them. You want them to be standing square when you mount them, when you handle them, when you move them around. That’s an indication that when you are training them, you are getting them to use their posture correctly and distribute their weight across all four legs.

A proper square halt applied in a dressage test

If they are not standing square, if they are standing with one leg in front of the other, it’s a good indication of where you are going wrong (and need to improve) in your training, which is currently allowing them to work crooked.

If they are worked crooked, they are not going to stand square.

This expectation of your horse being able to distribute its’ weight across all 4 limbs evenly is the foundation of our training in Preliminary Dressage. Because it teaches our horse how to transfer its’ weight onto the back and hold the weight evenly on all four legs, and then how to pick its’ own body up into self carriage before we start asking it to collect.

One of the things that is often missed in Prelim is that we make the horses frame by holding the horses head down and using the whip to drive horse into our hands.

What we want to do is to be using our training exercises that develop the horses musculoskeletal system so it is balanced and even throughout its body, which result in it being able to hold its own posture and drive into our hands.

I don’t care if your horse can stand square because you put it there. I care if your horse can stand square because it put itself there.

That is the result of your conditioning, training and using your exercises to get your horse to engage its’ hind quarters, start transferring the weight onto its’ hindquarters, use its’ stomach muscles, start engaging in flexing its muscles along its back so that it is travelling forward with relaxation and swing and developing even thoroughness through each shoulder.

Obviously, using your seat, legs and hands correctly all play a role in this, but you learn about that when you learn how to ride your horse into contact anyway. If you are learning how to use your seat to ride your horse into your hands, you are learning how to use your seat to ride a halt. If you are learning to use your legs to ride your horse into your hands and learning to use your hands to ride into contact, you know how to ride a square halt because you are working the horse squarely into your hands.

3 Weeks to Improve Your Riding

$49.00

Your posture is extremely important here, and there are some tips and tricks to help you in our 3 weeks to improving your riding course (click on the image to find out more), to help you use your seat properly.

We are also working on our Foundations of Equine Development: Green to Self Carriage, which is all the exercises I use to get your horse working correctly into contact, into your hands, teaching the horse how to put its weight into its haunches and how to distribute its weight across all four legs, whilst being in contact and self carriage. Make sure you are on our email list to get information on this courses release.