Want to ride better - read this

Jane Christian — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 09:35:10 +0100

This article explains why I think 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”).

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

Core stability is the first and most important concept that a rider needs to understand. You can start on the ground with several exercises (see below) designed to locate the relevant muscles and see/feel 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. You may need to see an anatomical drawing of the relevant muscles so you can feed that into your imagination. The muscles can be located by pushing them outwards or ‘bringing them up’ inside you. Try sitting on the very edge of a chair or upturned plastic water tank and use these muscles to tip the back of the chair/tank off the floor - the same way you would work a playground swing but WITHOUT using your shoulders or legs. Sit on the edge of the seat, legs slightly apart and arms in the riding position. Slowly raise one leg off the floor and hold it in the air without moving the pelvis or putting extra weight one side or the other on your seatbones. After some practising off horse, the rider can try this in the saddle and imagine that now, just for a moment, you have ‘no legs’ and all that exists is your torso. Instantly the legs lengthen, the hip relaxes and you are ‘forced’ to work out how and where to balance the upper body, neck and head.

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’.

The Perfect Seat - by Jane Christian

Want to ride better - read this