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Improve Your Leg Position

Lots of riders have trouble keeping their lower leg in the correct place. They also have difficulties with posting, falling forward, or having the leg swing. Here I’ll give you some exercises to help secure your position in the saddle at each gait.

Leg Position

As you sit on the horse you need a straight line from your ear through your shoulders, hips, to your heels. This position is necessary but flexible, by that I mean that your body should be moving on your horse. You do not want any stiffness in your body while you are riding. Just like you wouldn’t have any rigidity in your body as you were walking, you want the same feeling when you are riding.

Standing in the stirrups is a good way to feel where your leg should be and to tell if you are in the correct position or not. Stand up in your stirrups and try to find your balance point. The balance point is where you start to feel your knees sink down toward the ground and this should be where you feel stable. You shouldn’t fall forward or backward on the horse.  When standing you should have enough clearance between you and the saddle that you can fit a fist in that space. Lots of riders have too much space between themselves and the saddle; this causes them to tip forward and easily lose their balance. Lengthen your stirrups to help you stay closer to the saddle while still maintaining the correct line through your hip and heel.

Correct Posting

Now that you have found the most comfortable and correct position on the horse, you want to strengthen your seat and lower leg while posting. Stand in your stirrups at the trot to find your balanced position. Only post as high as you stood in the stirrups. Many riders will post much too high and this throws off their balance as they are less secure in the saddle. Posting too high also makes it harder to steer your horse as your leg comes off your horse’s side. Being closer to your horse’s back makes you closer to his center of gravity.

Let the horse’s motion push you up out of the saddle and at the same time gently stand in your stirrups until you feel your knee move downward. Next, try pushing your seat forward instead of upward when you post. When you post upward it creates extra space between your seat and the saddle. By posting forward you will feel more secure. Try this for a few days and you will start to feel more balanced in the saddle. It will take practice to completely change your posting motion into a more stable seat.

Half Seat Security

Once you have found a balanced seat at a standstill, you can move on to walking, trotting, and cantering in both a full and half seat. Ask your horse to walk forward around the arena, staying next to the rail as right now you want to focus solely on your riding position. Once you are comfortable stand up into a half seat at a walk. At first you can grab some mane until you can balance only with your legs, but in the beginning it is completely ok. Only come up in the stirrups until you feel your knee come downward then maintain that position. Start by getting in your half seat for one stride then sit for two and repeat.

Once you can easily get into and keep your half seat position at the walk try the same exercise at the trot and canter too. Gradually you will stay in a half seat for two strides then three and so on until you can stay in a secure, balanced half seat for as long as you need.