After doing some reading, and some trial and error, I learned it is erroneous to "press your seatbone down." I'm trying to think more about placing my seatbone very deliberately along the horizontal axis, and more specifically at a certain place on the saddle (e.g., toward the center). I have had success using my inside seatbone to push and hold the horse in a bend, as if I'm lunging . But wait, there's more! To make it work, you can't "abandon" the outside seatbone, it's gotta have a role too. Curses to the instructors who tell their clients to "drop the inside seatbone," it is entirely the wrong image. As far as I can tell, both seatbones should be in light contact with the saddle, moving freely in concert with the thighs and hips to create a flexible scaffolding that shapes the horse. Meanwhile above my hips, I'm stretching up with the spine, shoulders back and down and moving parallell to the horse's shoulders.
It's all so easy in my theoretical world. Are there errors in what I've written? I'd love to hear how my understanding could be improved.
I keep relearning that you can't force things in dressage. After overusing my leg and hands for so long, without much thought to my seat, which was tense anyway. When I relax my leg and move a seatbone forward and toward the center of the saddle, allowing the thigh to follow by "hugging" the inside of my horse, it is so cool to feel him readily bend his body. It never works to force things. Someone keep reminding me.
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Now that you and Riley are working on your own I bet we readers will be seeing more posts about the nuts and bolts of dressage, and I for one am all for it!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting - my inside seat bone is one of my two biggest issues with canter transitions. I think to put it forward, but that naturally makes it press down instead of lifting and allowing the inside shoulder to lift - and my horse will get the wrong lead. Instead, I think about lifting up his inside shoulder with my inside leg but without really applying pressure, and my seat bone comes up and forward and he jumps right into the canter.
ReplyDelete(The other issue is my outside leg. I have always done outside leg just behind the girth, slight squeeze to get the canter. My horse does a haunches in if I do that. So now I have to do the windshield wiper movement with my outside leg. Just using the inside leg as mentioned above would get him to leg yield to the outside.)
As noted yesterday, work on one or two things at a time. Hooking the fingers of one hand in the pommel of the saddle and thinking "hip towards your hand" will help a little here.
ReplyDelete"Drop your knee" is another way of describing how to sit more into one seatbone than the other without losing contact on the other side. It makes your leg long which also allows your thigh to come into play as well.
You can also figure out a lot about the effect of your seat by dropping the rein completely and trying to ride and steer your horse from your seat and legs alone. It's kind of a cool an challenging way to see how your aids actually work...or don't.
Just do it in a fenced in area or indoor, so Riley doesn't wander off while you are experimenting. *G*
I started a colt a few years back (sold him, wish I hadn't) and we went out to gather cattle on a friend's ranch, our 3rd ride out. He was pokey (his general attitude) and continued to fall behind the other horses. Boss told me to use my seat to push him along, just urging along with my seat. I tell you, the next day I thought I'd never be the same. It worked, but boy, those are muscles I apparently never used. It's HARD to do that!
ReplyDeleteI am an 'at home and alone' rider and have been working on becoming more aware of what my seat bones are doing and trying to use them independently. I would love to know of any good readings on this topic.
ReplyDeleteI've been instructed to "press the saddle forward onto the withers"...
ReplyDeleteGreat post, and good visuals.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this just applies to Dressage, either. I'm working on it as Bar and I learn all this "normal" riding stuff together. My one trainer is constantly reminding me about my center and keeping it in the, um, center of the horse. I'm learning how to keep both seat bones working in harmony--as an extension of my needs-to-be-more-supple spine.
My other trainer tells me to just relax and it will all fall into place.
We shall see.
I totally agree about not pressing the inside seatbone down. I try to place it forward and up, if anything.
ReplyDeleteIn canter, I have found that I can often keep my horse cantering by sweeping my seat forward with more emphasis on the "up" than the forward. My seat actually leaves the saddle at the top of each stride, but my horse likes this and will meet me up there and become very light on his feet. In contrast, if I forcefully push my seat into the saddle, his shoulders drop and he falls into trot unless I drive with my legs with also means that I have to hold more with my hands and push more with my seat. He may overflex and definitely shortens his neck, becoming heavy on his feet.
This is, I believe, why riding is so rewarding. You cannot force the horse, so when he does carry you in balance and beauty, it is a gift. Every time.
Something that I feel needs to be touched on is which seat one uses. Often times, I notice that those having more trouble with their seat and their ability to follow the horse's motion are sitting only on the back two points of their hips with the entire pelvis tipped backward. Rather, the seat should be stabilized with three points, the pubic bone and the two hip bones, with the hip tilted forward. This allows the to hips to drop and flex with the pubic bone as a fulcrum along with allowing the core to flex and follow the horse.
ReplyDeletea very nice blog. And i thought id say hello. Richard from the Amish settlement of Lebanon,Pa
ReplyDeleteLove the post. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHey, Marnie K! I'm a Marnie J. I am also an "at home and alone" rider.
I get told to use my seat more too...joining up the theory and the practise is so hard to do sometimes. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteMy instructor always tells me to counter rotate my body so that if there was a straight line coming out if my chest, it would be tangent to the circle. This places my inside seat bone forward, and my outside seat bone down and back. It also puts my inside leg at the girth to encourage bend and my outside leg far back enough to hold the haunches on the circle. This technique has been really useful fr me to figure out the whole seat bone thing.
ReplyDeleteI had this "ah-ha" moment a few months ago. After always using a driving seat, the instructor showed me the error of my ways. But hey, what's 20+ years of doing it wrong? Ha ha...yeah....
ReplyDeleteMy instructor teaches the same as Biz's...rotate "slightly" to the outside to engage the seatbones in the correct alignment. Not dropping down, but rather moving them forward and backward. Great points Stacy bringing this up.
ReplyDelete