Last week, we talked about a balanced seat and why we need it in order to be an effective horseback rider. Once you have a balanced seat, you will be able to stop relying on the reins for security and start relying on the contact you have with your horse via your seat. So, this week, let’s explore ways we can improve our seat.
Feel the Movement with Seat
The first thing you’ll want to do is to get familiar with the way your horse’s body moves through the different gaits. While you’re on the horse, take a moment to focus on each individual leg of the horse and what you can feel each leg doing while you’re sitting in the saddle. Learn to feel the rhythm of each gait. Feel how your horse propels itself forward from its hind-end and feel how the horse balances between transitions.
Move Seat With the Motion
A rider that sits stiffly in the saddle does not allow for their horse to push into their movements as they could with a rider that uses their seat properly. When you sit stiffly in the saddle, the horse’s movements will extend to the minimum, and they will probably not apply any effort in pushing themselves forward as they should. Allowing your seat to move with the motion of the horse will help to push your horse into its gaits, making each gait feel bigger and more flowy.
Give Aids via Seat
Using your seat cues with correct correlation to leg and rein pressure will make for smoother responses from your horse. Stopping your seat will also act as a block to the horse’s movements, which will cue them to halt. Everything you ask your horse has a correlating seat cue, whether it’s stopping, going, or tracking laterally, using your seat correctly will help the horse understand what you’re asking them to do.
Ride Without the Reins
Many riders rely on the pressure between the horse’s mouth and the reins for balance. That results in the horse’s mouth being constantly yanked on. When you learn to use your seat, your hands will get softer since you won’t need to rely on that pressure anymore.
Balance Rather than Grip
If you grip your horse with your thighs or your knees, you take away your ability to move your seat, which will limit your horse’s ability to carry themselves properly. Gripping your horse will result in bad posture and a bad riding position. It can also be communicated to your horse as if you’re tense, which will in return make your horse tense. Your balance shouldn’t rely on the reins or the gripping of the knees. Rather, your balance should rely on your center of gravity over your horse.
Wrap Your Legs Around the Horse
If you don’t wrap your legs around the horse, then your thighs and knees will grip the horse too much. This can cause your lower leg to swing back and forth, which will make you tip forward in the saddle. When you wrap your legs around your horse, your thigh and knee will be loose, and your lower leg will rest on the horse’s side. This will help to keep your bottom in the saddle and your weight in your heels. It will also help you to maintain the correct position of your heel forming a straight line to your shoulder.
Weight Down into Stirrups
You want your weight to be over the back rather than the horse’s withers. When you wrap your legs around your horse and focus your weight down into your heels, it will help you to have a deeper seat and sit properly on the horse’s back. Focusing your weight evenly in both stirrups will give you a center of balance, even if your horse decides to shy or bolt.
Ride Bareback
Riding bareback is a great way to improve your seat. Since there is no saddle, it allows you to feel the horse’s movements much more naturally. It almost forces you to move your seat with the horse’s beats. Bareback riding requires a deep seat as there is no way to properly ride in a more forward seat position unless you’re going to grip with your thighs and knees. When you ride bareback, you’ll sit deep with your back straight and your legs wrapping around the horse.
Rhythm of the Gaits
Finding the rhythm of your horse’s gaits will help you to better use your seat in order to cue them to lengthen or shorten their stride. Finding the rhythm of your horse’s gaits means that you can anticipate the next beat to come and control each beat of the horse. It’s important to remember that you should be controlling the rhythm of the gaits to help your horse stay balanced.
Breathe While Riding
The longer you forget to exhale, the tenser you’ll become. This will cause you to hunch and tip forward instead of staying centered on your horse. If you’re not breathing, your horse can most likely feel you becoming tenser in the saddle. This will result in them becoming tense as well as they feed off of your body language. Breathing deeply and rhythmically will help your body to remain loose and your bottom to remain in the saddle.
The great thing about horseback riding is that you’re always learning. There is always something to do better or to learn more about. Learning how to improve your seat has many benefits. One being that a good seat will actually help your horse to carry themselves better and in result stay healthier and live longer.
