Sitting crookedly on a side to side plane, back to front plane, or indeed, both at the same time makes true balance impossible. Discomfort and injury to horse and rider, plus slipping saddles, are just some of the resultant problems.
The typical ‘weak right leg’ syndrome is something that I see in nearly all (right hand dominant) clients to a greater or lesser degree. It has taken some years of studying, riding and teaching, and ongoing training with biomechanic coaches like Mary Wanless, to finally decipher what is really happening and to find a way of helping clients (and myself) to overcome it.
I have discovered that riders have a ‘holding side’ and a ‘mobile side’. If they are right handed, and therefore right side dominant, their holding side is actually the left side. Looking at the left side of the rider from behind you will see they sit a little more over to the left and therefore the right seatbone is nearer to the midline of the saddle. The right leg, from the front or back, looks shorter and at a different angle, than the left. From the side view the left side looks to have a good shoulder, hip, heel alignment. However, it is fairly immobile but the back stays in neutral spine and the pelvis is held with seatbones pointing straight down. This does put the rider’s weight much more to the left of the saddle with predictable results.
The left rein hand is often a little ‘blocky’ and can restrict the horse via the rein on that side but doesn’t always pull backwards. Its the right rein that often gets pulled backwards as the torso, which now has a slight twist, cannot stack up/balance above the pelvis on the right and collapses at the waist. I believe that it is the angle of the pelvis relative to the spine and weak muscles here that causes the problem on the right and the rider will often go from hollow backed to round backed on this side and the pelvis cannot be held stable. As a result the right seatbone points forward or back, not straight down, the right thigh cannot remain in contact with the saddle and rotates outwards. However, the right is often the ‘kicking’ leg.
To compensate, the right leg starts to grip, the knee and the heel come up and push the left side further off the side of the horse. This in turn pushes the right side of the pelvis backwards causing a chair seat on the right with the ‘bum’ back and foot forward so the leg and foot are not a stable base of support for the rider. The rider then gets left behind the movement and cannot stay in balance. The horse will often speed up out from under the rider and the rider will then try to fix balance, speed and bend with the inside hand. Legions of traditional riding teachers shouting ‘Give the inside rein!’ waste their breath as the rider simply cannot comply.
It is a complex combination of muscle use that is needed to resolve this problem and it does take some detailed explaining and demonstration to the rider. I have found I need to show riders anatomical diagrams to educate them on their own body and also a gymball to demonstrate balance and asymmetry. To straighten up the rider I teach breathing using the diaphragm, the use of core strength, isometric use of muscles to stabilise, how to notice (kinaesthetic sense or ‘feel’) and use visualisations and feedback techniques rather than shouting instructions! I can now make a dramatic improvement on ingrained biomechanical rider problems in two or three lessons.
I also use video analysis during the lesson, (for ‘before’ and ‘after’ footage shown to the rider whilst on the horse and afterwards) because a major obstacle to overcome is that the rider cannot see herself and often is completely unaware of positional faults.
When the major alignment and muscle tone problems have been addressed, at the core of the asymmetrical rider is the incorrect or lack of use of the iliopsoas muscle, also the muscles under the seatbones and their connections with the adductor muscles in the inner thigh. Bringing these up isometrically and pulling them forward so the bottom of the pelvis goes slightly forward and the top (iliac crest) falls back is often the final and most dramatic piece in the puzzle of an independent, balanced seat.
Next time you ride, try to get a kind person to video you and see if you can diagnose this fault in yourself. How this impacts on your horse is the subject of my next article.
|
|
||||
|
Recent Comments
Recent Articles
Search
RSS Newsfeeds
Main Page RSS
Categories
Google Ads
|
Saturday, November 22
Sitting crookedly - how to spot it.
by
Jane Christian
on Sat 22 Nov 2008 03:04 PM GMT
Tuesday, January 1
Mary Wanless - website and new book
by
Jane Christian
on Tue 01 Jan 2008 08:17 PM GMT
Go to www.mary-wanless.com for info on her courses, books, tapes, demos etc. She is publishing a new book in April that will be a must-buy for any rider who wants to improve themselves and their horses.
Friday, September 29
Breathing - this means you!
by
Jane Christian
on Fri 29 Sep 2006 07:00 PM BST
The irony of this subject is that the riders who most want to ride well, to ‘get it’, are the type that breathe the worst! As riders get more focussed, verging on panicky, about making the horse go right, so their breathing becomes the exact opposite of how it needs to be to get the changes they want. Transform your riding - yes, really However, mention ‘breathing correctly’ to many riders and their eyes glass over. The thought goes through their mind “I think I can breathe okay and there are surely more clever things you need to tell me”. Actually, no. Believe me, it is so important, it could completely transform your mental and physical abilities on a horse. Just for a minute consider other athletes. A runner, swimmer, archer, golfer. At top level their coaches ensure their athletes are breathing correctly - that is to say using their diaphragm and abdomen and not the top of their lungs only. Riding is no different.
(If you are not sure where and what the diaphragm is, you may like to look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoracic_diaphragm) Its the basis of the independent seat and hand Breathing correctly is not only to do with having enough ‘puff’ to keep riding. Its more important than that. Unless you are breathing in a way that allows you to release certain muscles and ‘hold’ with others, you cannot have a balanced and independent seat. Breathing incorrectly means you are using only the top part of your lungs and not expanding your ribcage lower down. Top breathing, especially combined with mouth breathing (as opposed to breathing in and out through your nostrils), will limit your ability on a horse more dramatically that you will ever realise. How to do it Correct diaphragmatic and abdominal breathing is not difficult but it does need you to put some of your concentration on it until it is more ingrained. This is best done off the horse to start with. Sit on a chair or lie on the floor - wherever you can relax. Put your palms flat either side of your waist as if you are trying to feel where the bottom of your ribcage is. Now breathe in and feel like you are pushing your hands away from your sides outwards. You may see your tummy move outwards as well. This is because your diaphragm is moving downwards to draw air into your lungs like a pair of bellows being opened. On the exhale the diaphragm rises up again to push all the air out. If you have a friend nearby, they can help you by standing behind you and placing their hands either side of your body at waist level, just under your ribs. They can tell you if you are breathing in the right place (low down) as they will feel their hands move outwards a little. They may also notice initially, until you get it, that your shoulders are lifting when you breathe in and when you have practised a little, that your shoulders stay down. Light bulb moment.....? Now you can start to see how essential this is for riding. A large muscle - the diaphragm - is going downwards towards the saddle to keep you down, your shoulders are not heaving up or tense as you try to gulp air in which makes you top heavy. Your arms are now loose and can operate independently. Plus a larger amount of air (which is fuel to the body) now flows through your blood stream and increases your stamina. Hopefully, by now I don’t need to sell the idea to you anymore and would implore any riders who seriously want to ride better to take this on board. This is not ‘hippy stuff’ - its what top riders/trainers do already and don’t realise that you are not doing it too! Do it for your horse An added spin off benefit is that mentally you become more serene and patient as a horse trainer. Many riders who are desperate to improve or to make their horse learn something new can become quite angry and quick to get after their horse if they think it hasn’t responded instantly to their request. Even assuming the rider was sufficiently trained themselves to try to train the horse, the horse may take a few seconds to work out what is required and comply with a try. Deep, low and rhythmical breathing helps the rider stay calm and gives the horse a chance to react to your instruction. Try it for a week when you are riding (and off horse too if possible) and see if you ever want to go back to the old way! Monday, September 18
How to find, use and control your core riding muscles.
by
Jane Christian
on Mon 18 Sep 2006 08:57 PM BST
I believe ignorance of the use of these core muscles is the cause of most of the frustrations for the rider and a lot of suffering for the horse.
If you don’t use your deep postural ‘control centre’ muscles located within your torso (between your diaphragm and pelvic floor), the outer muscles in the shoulders, arms, hands, hip, thigh, knee, calf, ankle WILL take over the job. You cannot then move your arms and legs independently and freely. Stiffness and tenseness are then the result. (see ‘Want to ride better - read this”) TO RECAP - WHY YOU NEED TO USE THESE CORE MUSCLES Consider for a moment the force that a horse, no matter what size, exerts when moving forward. Add in gravity and the up, down, side to side movement of a horse and you can see the rider’s body needs to use some muscles somewhere to avoid being flung off! What tends to happen is that, when we first learn to ride, we naturally use every other muscle but the correct ones to avoid falling off - its simply an instinct for survival. These habits then tend to stay with us forever unless we are specifically taught how to locate and use core muscles or we discover them by chance. FINDING AND DEVELOPING YOUR CONTROL CENTRE CORE MUSCLES A good image to use for visualising the important core muscles is to think of your torso as a box sitting on end on the saddle. The top of the box is your diaphragm (starts just below your last ribs) and this needs to feel like it is held down whilst still breathing in and out (will cover breathing later!). The sides of the box are from your underarm to your hip both sides and your psoas muscle* needs to push out towards the sides of the box. *(the deep core muscle that runs either side of your spine - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_major) The front of the box is your abdominals that run down the front of your torso and these need to be pressed outwards using the psoas as well. The bottom of the box is the pelvic floor which runs from the front of your ‘seat’ to the back and needs to be in tone or ‘up’. ‘SUCKING’ THE HORSE’S BACK UP Now, here is the good part. Visualise your pelvic floor as a large muscle running from front to back of your seat. Now imagine the middle point and try to lift that up as if you want it to meet your navel. At the same time think of your navel reaching down to meet the muscle that’s coming up to meet it. When on a horse, with legs hanging from the hip joints, this feels like you have made a space underneath your seat for the horse’s back to come up and, also, it now allows you to use your legs correctly. The whole leg - from the hip joint down - can be used freely around the horse to ask for energy. No pushing and shoving and holding reins tight required. And, it is only with freeing the legs in this way that effective lateral leg aids can be given. GET ALL YOUR GUY ROPES WORKING Now, when all these muscles are brought ‘up’ into tone (you may need to be shown how to do this) they work in opposition to each other and hold you stable. However, beware, its very like the guy ropes that hold a tent up - if one part of the system is weaker, the stronger side will pull the weaker side over (more on asymmetry later). IN SUMMARY, WHEN RIDING, THINK.......... KEEP THE LID DOWN PUSH YOUR SIDES, FRONT AND BACK OUT WITH YOUR DEEP PSOAS MUSCLE DRAW UPWARDS WITH MIDDLE OF PELVIC FLOOR DRAW DOWNWARDS FROM NAVEL TO MEET IT and keep breathing deeply! Saturday, September 2
Want to ride better - read this
by
Jane Christian
on Sat 02 Sep 2006 09:35 AM BST
This article explains why riding is so complex, reveals a ‘secret’ you may never have been told and shows you how to start to become the rider you always wanted to be.
Does this scenario seem familiar? The professional rider glides around the arena, she appears to be very still, hardly moving but going with her horse. (You think: “She must be taking the movement in her back - that’s what I’ve been told to do but I just bounce”). She looks very relaxed and soft and appears not to use any muscles. (You think: “I’ve been told to relax so I do but then get told to ‘sit up’ and not get behind the movement. Then I force myself to keep still and feel stiff and unsafe - its very confusing”). As you watch you notice that her legs stay still, with the toes pointing forward and the heel down but mobile. (You think: “I know I must keep my leg like that. I’m always being told to turn my toes in and get the heel down but they spring out again. I must have been born deformed.”) The rider muscles you cannot see The truth is that what you think the rider is ‘doing’ is merely the outward appearance of a completely different set of actions going on internally. The rider is far from ‘doing nothing’ but is strenuously using core muscles, particularly the postural and psoas muscles, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas-major and http://www.somatics.com/psoas.htm) abdominals and lower back muscles in a way that the amateur rider has never tried. In fact, the novice rider usually has absolutely no idea these muscles exist let alone is able to use them in opposition against each other for every second they are riding whilst still breathing and keeping a soft hip joint! Without this unique muscle use you can never ‘get it’ Not engaging these key muscles will mean that the novice rider will never be able to ‘take the movement in the back, sit still, look relaxed or have a soft hanging leg that can be independently used without disturbing the pelvis and torso - in fact, be balanced”. To add to the problem, the top rider who does all this has no idea what they are doing either! It was so long ago they ‘got it’ they can’t work out why you can’t get it. And what is more, they are too busy being good riders, professionals or competitors to analyse what they are doing deep down and explain it to you. (This has been mine and many others’ experience though there are exceptions of course). Core stability must come first When I teach riders, core stability is the first and most important concept that I ensure the rider understands. I prefer to start on the ground with several exercises and demonstrations so the rider can locate the relevant muscles and realise their relevance. Some people instantly ‘get’ a demonstration or visual image that leads them to the right feeling, others need the same idea presented in several different ways. I like to show them an anatomical drawing of the relevant muscles so they can feed that into their imagination. The muscles can be located by pushing them outwards or ‘bringing them up’ inside you. I then may seat the rider on the very edge of a chair or upturned plastic tank and get them to use these muscles to tip the back of the chair off the floor - the same way you would work a playground swing but WITHOUT using their shoulders or legs. After some practising off horse, the rider can try this in the saddle and I ask them to imagine that now, just for a moment, they have ‘no legs’ and all that exists is their torso. Instantly their legs lengthen, the hip relaxes and they are ‘forced’ to work out how and where to balance the upper body, neck and head. After this, the teaching can really begin. Legs that get in the way My experience is that when most people, especially adults, first sit on a horse it is entirely natural that they use their legs to feel safe by locking or holding them on to the horse. Let’s be honest, many riders initially use the reins to balance with as well and add to the feeling of security. As we learn to ride we give up the necessity of using the reins for balance but surprisingly few give up the leg hold pattern entirely. However, it is only when the rider can be persuaded to give up the legs as the main means of security that true balance can be attained. And it is only possible to convince the rider that they do not need to rely on the legs for balance when they have been given something better to replace the security of ‘holding’ with their legs - hence the core stability work. You have to throw away the trainer wheels! Many riders do not really trust their sense of balance because of nasty experiences on a horse and this can make them nervous which, of course, makes them more likely to tighten muscles and tendons producing a vicious circle. The key to breaking this is convincing riders that they do in fact have a perfectly functioning, inbuilt, entirely trustworthy sense of balance (they can stand up can’t they?) but locking with the leg (hip especially) actually stops their sense of balance working for them. Its a bit like a ballet dancer trying to learn to balance on her points but never actually letting go of the bar. Or learning to ride a bike but never taking off the ‘trainer wheels’. Mastering the use of core muscles opens the door It is only after the core muscles have been engaged and their use mastered that (as if by magic) most other faults can be eliminated, for instance: sitting more to the left or right, leaning forward or back (with the resulting incorrect leg position), incorrect rising trot technique, bit contact problems. These and many other issues often resolve very easily as they are usually symptoms of a lack of core stability. It also becomes very obvious that it is only when the rider is ‘fixed’ that the horse has any chance of complying with the rider’s ‘requests’. If you have read this far, well done. This article may be a little lengthy on one subject but, the fact is, it is the most important subject - in my opinion - when training and improving a rider. If you would like more details of rider training, or have a riding query or problems please contact me: jane@theperfectseat.co.uk. Tuesday, August 8
A typical 'perfect seat' lesson (and what you won't hear)!
by
Jane Christian
on Tue 08 Aug 2006 11:06 AM BST
Depending on the rider’s needs, this is how I generally organise a typical lesson:
watch horse and rider and evaluate decide where the rider needs correcting decide where the horse has problems how are they related? using simple language and demonstration explain to rider what they are actually doing now (may use video) explain the dynamics and reasons why they may have a certain pattern of sitting/body use and riding start the process of rebuilding the rider’s body control correctly allowing the rider to practice each modification giving feedback from the ground as to when its right or when its ‘lost’ again allow the rider to ingrain the right ‘feel’ in the lesson so it can be accessed when the rider is alone maybe practice a movement or sequence from an upcoming dressage test recap lesson and give rider three key areas to work on discuss ways of improving off horse (sitting in the car or doing the washing up!) MOST USELESS INSTRUCTIONS HEARD IN RIDING LESSONS and what you won't hear in a 'perfect seat' lesson. Stop pulling back with the inside hand!!! Really push your heels down hard!! Sit up! Keep your legs still!! Keep your hands still!! Stop nodding your @!*&*** head! Don’t bump in the sitting trot - sit softer! Take the movement in your back. Get him on the bit now!! Push with your seat. All of these are SYMPTOMS of positional and postural faults. No rider wants to have uncontrolled hands or legs but are very rarely told how to fix the problem that usually stems from somewhere else in their body. The Perfect Seat training aims to help riders understand the WHY and most importantly, the HOW. These are skills that will stay with the rider on any horse for any discipline.
What is the secret of riding?
by
Jane Christian
on Tue 08 Aug 2006 10:27 AM BST
It had always perplexed me - why do some people have so little trouble with riding but some struggle making frustratingly slow progress or, worse still, never ‘get it’ and resort to gadgets or give up after one too many falls. The ones who ‘get it’ and find it easy are called talented or a natural but what part of the mind or body made the job so easy?
I knew balance, good balance, must play a part but why did some people have ‘it’ and not others. I have spent the last 20 years slowly unravelling the components that make a good rider and finding successful ways to impart this knowledge to others. Its how you sit - doh! It turns out the answer to the secret of riding is...(drum roll)... how you sit on your horse or your ‘position’. The word ‘position’ is often used as a shorthand to describe the complex subtleties involved in how our bodies interact with the horse when we ride. Yet many riders find that following the conventional instructions on position (often repeated by an instructor at an ever increased volume) to lower heels, sit up, keep hands still, look forward, use leg, keep elbows soft, give inside rein, SIT UP FOR PETE’S SAKE doesn’t help them. Yes, the secret to riding is ‘position’ but that doesn’t really begin to describe what is actually going on. Rider’s faults a symptom of trouble elsewhere The trainer, not being blessed with x-ray vision, is unable to see what intricate and very personal mechanical problems you have in your body and can often only try and make adjustments to the superficial overall impression. Usually the obvious fault, let us say heels coming up or toes turning out will be greeted with an instruction to lower heels or turn toes in. This rarely works for long because the problem does not originate in the feet - they are merely a symptom of a fault elsewhere, often in the torso and pelvis. Things get even more difficult because we are all constructed so differently, have had different life experiences and whilst we all have the same muscles, some are longer, shorter, weaker, stronger, mismatched, never used or over used. Any combination of them could be causing a major positional and balance problem. And that’s before we even get in the mind zone and consider fears, tension, unrealistic expectations, lack of knowledge, over trying etc. Even minor positional faults affect your horse Great advances have been made with new methods of teaching such as those by Mary Wanless, Joni Bentley and Sally Swift. All these authors help to give the rider useful insight and the knowledge needed to analyse why their particular combination of body parts doesn’t produce the result they want. But, before you can even make use of their teachings, you have to take on board and wholeheartedly accept a major ‘biggy’. That is that even minor faults in your position and therefore balance matter hugely to your horse. They matter beyond your wildest imaginings and it is something many riders never understand. The Catch 22 situation Some riders are lucky to own perfectly balanced and conformationally correct horses which makes the job of riding so much easier. Expensive warmbloods bred specifically for their rideability or Iberian horses bred generation after generation to be light in front and carry a rider means at least one half of the combination has natural balance. But many of us, for economic or myriad other reasons, own and train horses who are less than the perfect equine athlete. They may be on the forehand, stiff on one side, less supple in hock joints, tight in the shoulder, slack in muscle tone and so on. Each one of these faults will make the horse and rider’s job much harder and often put the rider into a Catch 22 situation - they cannot get the horse to go better because they cannot sit better because the horse is not going correctly. How does the unbalanced rider improve the unbalanced horse particularly when the horse is often adding to the struggle of the rider to keep a balanced and effective position! Learn to develop ‘body feel’ Clearly the rider is the only person in the partnership who can help get them out of this dilemma. To do this the rider needs to develop a sixth sense. Not intuition, although that is always handy, but ‘body feel’. We absolutely have to be able to detect what it is that we are actually doing now to have any chance of changing it to something that works better. The great advantage with riding horses is that they immediately give you feedback if you do make a change to your position for the better (or worse). Again, with heightened body feel attenae you can pick up this improvement in the horse’s carriage and get an instant reward for your efforts. You then know what you need to repeat and what is not working. This body feel is remarkably difficult to develop and may be another aspect of the talented rider - they have it naturally. I have found that once you have developed this ability to observe in a detached way which part of your body is doing what at a certain point (say on a circle in left canter), the correction to a long held fault often pops into your mind as if by magic. You start to have a feel for what is out of alignment but also what is working well. It is as if your subconscious really does know how to make things feel better but our brains block much of it out. Perhaps this is why children often find riding so easy! Lack of tone in postural muscles affect inside hand Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of riding, and being trained, is that the body part that is often identified as a problem, is not the problem at all. How many riders are sent down the wrong track on the issue of the inside rein for instance. I used to be told repeatedly to give the inside rein and I have seen many, many trainers tell different riders to do the same, even at the highest level. The instruction seems doomed to failure because the problem does not originate in the hand, arm, shoulder, wrist, rein or any other of the obvious places. The cause of the inside hand drawing back and causing problems (horse’s outside shoulder falling out, jack-knifing of neck, ribcage on inside disappearing from rider’s seat bone and thigh and lower leg etc) is often lack of tone in the rider’s torso, or postural muscles, and inability to stop the rider’s body twisting in an exact copy of the horse. Merely letting go of the inside rein does not automatically result in the rest of the rider’s body making the subtle alterations to alignment, muscle tone, engaging postural muscle and breathing that all go towards providing the rider with sufficient independent balance that the rider does not need to even consider the rein contact. Quality of sitting is the answer to contact issues On the subject of rein contact, most riders are thrown completely off the scent of correct riding by discussions and instructions on ‘how much contact should you have?” All sorts of mathematical figures are bandied about - 6lbs of pressure in each rein, no loops, a strong contact, a soft contact. This diverts the rider’s attention from the area that actually affects the ‘contact’ and that is the horse’s back. Only when the rider’s precise and deft use of body control allows the horse to bring up his back under the saddle will the contact issues go away. When the horse is able, because of the quality of the rider’s sitting, to round up his back and engage his own postural muscles (a prerequisite of carrying a rider correctly) there is no need to ask about contact for the truth is revealed - the horse dictates the contact, all you have to do is take up enough slack in the rein to be able to make polite and subtle requests through to the bit. If he hasn’t offered up his back, all you are doing is hauling his head in and ultimately restricting engagement. How to sit in such a way that the horse feels able and confident to bring up, round and expand his back muscles, i.e. go correctly when carrying a rider, is the major job of the rider. When that is cracked, everything is so much easier for horse. In fact his potential is then ready to be unleashed. If you would like to improve your riding and make inroads into long held riding faults that might be holding you and your horse back, start today with the first phase of the process: Find out what you are actually doing now. Spend time focussing on feedback from your horse. Spend at least three sessions only in walk or at least 50% of your ride in walk. This can be done on a hack or in the school but circle and ride halt walk transitions. Focus on what the horse feels like as it moves and how it moves you - you are feeding this data into your memory bank for later. Crucially, start to narrow your focus onto your seat bones, pelvis and torso and away from your hands and eyes. Start to notice differences between one side of your own body and the other. (You can do this off the horse when standing at the sink, driving or sitting in the chair watching tv. You are trying to develop a skill that will give you an internal set of eyes that can ‘see’ what no one else can - the internal workings of your riding muscles and tendons. Don’t limit practising to the small amount of time you are on the horse). If you have already noticed that on one rein he doesn’t go as well, try to put into words what it feels like i.e. on the right he flows, on the left he’s clunky then focus on yourself - does your body act one way for left but another for right. The fact is that it almost definitely does but I bet to date you have had no idea what is actually happening within your body. Until you can read the clues from your horse and connect them to the feels from your body, riding competence will be hard to improve.
First steps towards 'The Perfect Seat'
by
Jane Christian
on Tue 08 Aug 2006 10:08 AM BST
Problems with your horse could be due to your incorrect muscle use when riding and if conventional teaching has failed to help you, now is the time to embrace new ‘intelligent’ riding methods . By understanding the mechanical forces acting on your musculoskeletel system when you ride, by using visualisation, modelling and NLP (neurolinguistic programming) you can achieve your goals and have a happier horse. Riding tuition has finally moved into the 21st century. Have a look at the following lists and see if any apply to you or your horse.
Is this your horse? Does your horse do any (or all!) of the following : resist your hand/bit, drop his back and trail his hindlegs not go forward with impulsion feel stiff fall out through his shoulder on turns not halt square If you have checked his health and tack it is probably you and how you are sitting and riding. And how do you find out and then fix it? Is this you? Analysing your own riding faults is very difficult but a video of yourself riding can be illuminating if a little crushing. But try to take a detached look at yourself and see if you are doing any (or all!) of the following : sitting more to the left (or right) appearing to have a longer leg one side a toe turned out more on one side riding better on one rein than the other falling behind the movement unsteady legs reins slack then taut looking down to the inside uneven shoulders slumping in the saddle bouncing in sitting trot, rocking in canter? The rider must change first Any one of the above rider faults will cause problems for the horse but it is often hard to work out whether it is you causing the problems or the horse not going well and making you ride badly. To be truthful it is a little of both but without doubt, it is the rider who has to change first and it can transform the way of going of your horse and make good riding easier for you. Changing ingrained patterns in our riding can be very, very difficult and some of the conventional methods (sit up, heels down repeated ever more loudly) are often unsuccessful. Luckily riding tuition is undergoing a slow revolution. Nowadays using analysis of muscle use, visualisation, modelling and NLP (reprogramming the brain to change behaviour) can give the rider the tools to rectify a long standing problem and make a breakthrough in just one lesson. The asymmetrical or crooked rider Take for instance, just one common positional fault - the crooked or asymmetrical rider. The problems this causes the horse are huge and very little advanced riding can take place until it is fixed. It is useless to be told to lower or raise one shoulder, turn a right or left toe inwards, stretch up one side or ‘sit up straight’. Often this will cause further tension and will not be sustainable by the rider. The root of the problem is often a lack of true balance and core strength, (i.e. the internal muscles that hold our torso vertical), plus weak and unstable legs, tight tendons in the thigh/pelvis, locked hips and even breathing patterns. Engaging core muscles for stability All this sounds daunting to rectify but actually is easier to deal with if each component is been identified by a knowledgeable trainer on the ground. For instance, we use our core muscles every time we cough, blow our nose, carry heavy objects, even when we breathe correctly and locating these when doing the above is the first stage to learning how to bring them in to use while we are riding. Placing our hands, one on our stomach on the navel and one on our lower back and pushing out our front and back towards them as if we were trying to push them away will instantly bring a set of important muscles to your attention. You need to have these muscles pushing out while you are riding to give you stability while your own sense of balance is learning where ‘straight’ is. Also, if instead of trying to sit up straight (which could make you rigid) you could imagine a rope attached to the top and back of your head and being pulled gently upwards all the time you are riding. You will feel the back of your neck lengthen and your chin go down. This feeling is subtle but important as it allows you to balance your head, keep it level, look forward and release your shoulders all at once! Releasing the shoulders is vitally important but very difficult if your core strength is weak and cannot keep your torso balanced and therefore give you a secure feeling. Those pesky legs! The next stage is to deal with the legs and increase muscle tone and correct use of opposing muscles groups and tendons to give the rider an effective stabilising tool in the bottom half of the body. Again, telling the rider to stretch the leg down, turn toes in and drop heels will often produce stiffness because, for instance, the opposing muscles on the front and back of the thigh may be working incorrectly. If a rider has a very short contracted top thigh muscle and a long over stretched under thigh muscle, they will find it very hard to get the correct angle at the pelvis/thigh, knee and ankle. Directing the rider’s attention to this and getting them to imagine lengthening the top thigh muscle and shortening the underneath muscle will keep the knee down and back and the lower leg more stable. This then allows the Achilles tendon at the back of the heel to be free to do an opposing stretch down producing a longer, more toned and strong leg. Making the whole body more toned and stronger usually means the dominant side of the rider’s body that is trying to take over riding the horse can let go and one -sidedness can be conquered! Develop your sixth sense Just using the techniques above (there are many more) can make huge inroads into several riding problems and improve other long held faults, like being behind the movement. The added spin off from this analytical approach is that the rider also starts to take responsibility for the horse’s problems and develops a vital sixth sense - awareness of their own body as it is now and exactly what muscles and tendons need to be used to make the change towards being a more effective and competent rider. Summing up, if you or your horse are not progressing or are having difficulties being the partnership you would like to be, help is now much more available using new, intelligent riding techniques. For more information or to book a lesson, contact Jane by email at jane@theperfectseat.co.uk or telephone 01986 788579.
All about "The Perfect Seat"
by
Jane Christian
on Tue 08 Aug 2006 09:52 AM BST
Jane Christian, based in Norfolk, specialises in helping riders unlock their potential by correcting the (often invisible) rider position faults that block a horse’s movement and balance. Below are just some of the problems that Jane encounters in her students and their horses. Can you identify with any of them?
Have you ever struggled with: keeping your leg in the correct position stopping pulling back with the inside hand keeping a correct contact sitting straight collapsing in the saddle toes turning out too much heels up gripping with calves feeling insecure in the saddle back ache and feeling stiff can’t use leg aids for lateral movements Or does your horse have trouble with any of the following: forwardness and impulsion submission to bit working over the back transitions straightness and bending lateral work resistance flat paces unsteady head carriage acceptance of the bit Would you like to always be in perfect balance on every horse you sit on? Have years of training still left you feeling ‘something is not right’ with your riding and technique? Jane, who has ridden and trained dressage and Western horses, judged dressage and spent many years learning how to help herself and now others, says “I had some top trainers throughout the years but I still knew they were not really helping me to actually ride better - just perform the movements and ride dressage tests! I realised I had to do my own research and find out how the rider’s body works related to the horse’s body. Using body mechanics, visualisation and NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and testing techniques and theories on myself and volunteers I slowly solved the mystery of why things go wrong and crucially, how to put them right. “It took years of study, watching other riders and horses, training courses and hard work but, not only do I now ride better and more confidently, I can now help any other rider nail those irritating and limiting faults and save them years of frustration. Typical comments from clients are: “I thought it was the horse or the saddle pushing me to one side, not me pushing the horse!” “Dressage judges commented I was not ‘connected to the horse’ but I didn’t realise it was because I was always fractionally behind the movement”. “Horses always get strong with me in the canter and I end up pulling. I was completely unaware I was gripping and tight in my hip” “I have never understood inside leg to outside rein. Now I’ve learned to be in true balance it all makes sense and the horse is improving every time I ride”. “Why did no trainer ever tell me I was crooked in the saddle? Endless shoulder-in exercises to supposedly engage the horse were a waste of time if I was so unbalanced”. “I seem to be riding better, but doing less”. Part of Jane’s lesson often contains work that the rider can do off the horse. After all, most of us only ride and hour or so a day. Back on the ground, at home or the office, we usually never use the same muscles as we do for riding. Very often we go right back to committing the same ‘sins’ off the horse as we do when riding (collapsing one side, slack postural muscles, favouring one leg, rounded back etc). Being made aware of our own particular carriage and what to do to improve it for all time is a key component in obtaining the perfect seat. |
|||