It helps you have better positioning for adjustments, better connection with your horse, better feel and timing and better posture.
When we sit flat on our horse’s backs...like sitting on our pockets...we interrupt the flow of energy through the horse’s spine from the back to the front. It’s like we are sitting dead in the water. When this happens, we are just a passenger and not an active participant in the ride. This can cause lack of forward movement in our horses.
Also sitting on our horses like we sit in a chair causes us to be behind our horses movement. This position causes us to not use our legs properly during the ride as they are too far out in front of us. As well as causes lack of balance on the riders part as we are not engaged with our seat.
We want to make sure we are sitting tall in the saddle. Lifting from our sternum. Not pulling our shoulders back but sitting straight. We want to make sure our feet are underneath our seat and we are sitting up on our pelvis and not our pockets. We should ride with active tension in our core and butt.
Making sure to look forward and up to where you are going and not looking down gives your horse a sense of better direction. Our mind subconsciously tells our body where to go when we are looking so when we are looking down and tipping forward, it makes our horse heavier on the forehand and cause lack of forward motion.
Sitting in the center of the saddle is imperative to proper balance and safety. We want to make sure we have even weight in our stirrups and are sitting in the center of our horse’s back. We want to maintain riding in the center of our horse are all times. Sitting off to one side can cause back soreness for your horse, cause issues with leads during cantering, issues with lateral movements and much much more. Sitting centered also allows the rider to be more secure in the saddle and be ready for any sudden movements that the horse might give.
Let’s be honest, riding is a workout. Our bodies need to begin to develop the proper muscles to ride more balanced.
Developing a workout or stretching plan can help us learn to better engage our core and have better flexibility during our rides. Also finding a good instructor to help you begin to build proper muscle memory with better positioning is imperative to developing better balance in the saddle.
We should want to make our horse’s job easier and be there to help and support our horses during a ride. Also better balance helps us be stronger and safer riders.
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