Rider Position
There is no one correct riding position! However, there are appropriate positions for the tasks and exercises that you want to accomplish.
For example, let’s talk about four typical types of positions. The trail rider’s position, which is more of a chair seat is safe, stable, and comfortable for many hours in the saddle for both horse and rider. However, it is not effective for riding with contact because it does not encourage your horse to lift his back, collect, maneuver laterally, or elevate.
The English rider’s position is more vertical when it comes to the rider’s alignment from head to heel for gymnastic exercises and collection. It enables a rider to hover slightly and put more weight in the stirrups than the seat and engage, which encourages the horse to lift his back and allow the power to flow through the horse’s top-line from an active hind leg to the bit and into the rider’s hand.
However, it is the most inappropriate position for riding up and down hills or spending long hours in the saddle! The jumper rider’s position involves short stirrups for maximum coil and spring when following the horse’s arc over the jump. This helps the rider stay balanced from take off to landing and helps the rider negotiate canter strides, flying changes, and sharp turns between the jumps.
The western rider’s position, which is somewhere between a chair seat and a hovering seat, varies according to the sport. In Reining, it is closer to vertical but not so much hover, and in cutting and cow work, the stirrups are shorter, similar to a jumper, and the rider balances in what is closer to a chair seat to help him stay balanced as the cutter jumps from side to side.
It’s All About Balance
No matter what style of riding you do, the key is balance. You need to stay steady and balanced on top of a moving horse! Even though some riders have more weight in their seat than feet and vice versa, let’s do a head to toe check on what the most important elements of good balance in the saddle requires. We’ll start from the feet up!
Feet
Heels and balls of feet level with the heels a little bit deeper.
Too much weight on the balls of your feet means that your heels are up, and too much weight in the heels makes them too deep and affects your ability to be light in the saddle. The only time that you want your heels really down is for survival sake since that would be the final element that will help keep you in the saddle if all else failed!
Balls of feet on the stirrup bar. This gives you a good, steady feeling of contact with the stirrup and allows your ankle to flex and act as a shock absorber. If you are not in far enough, then you are on your toes and it’s too flexy. If you are in deeper (all the way home, as they say), then you’re probably a western rider with a wide western stirrup that supports your foot. This is not a good idea with an English stirrup because the stirrup is so narrow.
In the trail rider or western seat, your feet will be more in front of you.
In the English hovering seat, and the more collection and elevation you want, the more your feet will be under you.
Point your toes forwards rather than out. This keeps your heels and spurs out of the horse’s sides and your joints straight. The more you twist your ankle, the more likely you are to have ankle, knee, or hip pain.
Have equal weight on the balls of your feet (the metatarsal joints) from big toe to little pinky toe. Too much weight on the inside makes your feet wing out; too much on the outside makes you bow-legged and takes your knee off the saddle.
Stirrup Length
There is a general stirrup length that works for most types of riding because it puts your knee on the ideal angle for both security and athletic purposes. When you do more athletic maneuvers like jumping or cutting, you will need to have shorter stirrups by three to four holes. On trail rides, you might want to go down a hole so that you can relax your leg more. However, if you lengthen your stirrups too much, it will cause your upper body to become unstable.
Some people think that you need long stirrups for dressage, but that is not ideal. You might find that, as you learn how to stretch your thigh down more, your hip flexors open to a wider angle and that will give you an extra inch or two while still keeping a good angle in your knee.
Finding the best stirrup length:
Before mounting, place your finger tips at the very top of the stirrup leather or fender (on the stirrup bar), and bring the stirrup to your armpit. It should rest in there nicely without any slack in the leather. This will get you very close to the ideal length, but you still need to check once you are on your horse because some people have longer arms than legs and vice versa.
Sit on your balance point, stretch your legs downwards, and then relax. The stirrup bar that you place your foot on should touch you just below the ankle bone.
Make sure that your stirrups are level.
You might want to measure them as leather can stretch. It makes it difficult to ride straight when your stirrups are un-level. Be sure that your saddle is straight and level and not leaning to one side when you check this. If they become crooked when you ride, this is a sure sign that you’re putting more weight in one stirrup than the other.
Your stirrups are too long if you have to reach down with your toes and your heels are up, your lower leg is unsteady, and/or your upper body is unsteady. Your stirrups are too short if you rise way too high out of the saddle in your rising trot (even while keeping your knee and heel down!), and/or when riding English and more collected, you can’t get your knee down and back and your thigh more vertical.
Leg
Your legs need to drape down around and cuddle your horse, not squeezing and not gaping. They provide a nice, comfortable contact and natural boundary that keep your horse centered under you.
1. If you squeeze or grip with your knees, it will make your seat unstable because it pops you off the saddle.
2. If you point your knees outwards, you’ll have more trouble with your horse going forward and straight. Think about pointing your knees and your toes where you want to go. This also stops your horse from swinging his barrel side to side and gives you a better walk with a longer stride.
Seat & Pelvis
Your balance point is the most powerful part of your seat. Make sure that you know how to find this and keep it. It will help you stay balanced and secure in any situation.
To find your balance point, sit upright in your saddle and roll all the way forward onto your crotch. Now, slowly roll all the way to the back edge of your seat bones without slouching or leaning back. You will find a sweet spot that feels just great. Your lower back will be soft rather than tight, and it will feel nicely secure because it’s the perfect balance point for your upper body.
Many English riders are not on their balance point; they tend to be more on the front of their seat bones whereas many trail riders and western riders are too far back and on their pockets.
Check that you are on your balance point by resting your hand on your horse’s rump. If you cannot touch it with the palm of your hand, then you are not there yet. And if you can lean on your elbow, then you’ve gone too far! This is a great way to regularly check your balance point position, and I recommend doing it frequently for the first 21 days to familiarize that new feeling. After that, just do it every now and then at halt, walk, and trot.
When riding in a more vertical position for collection, you will still be on your balance point, but you will pull your legs back and your seat forward so that you can obtain more of a standing feeling. However, this does not mean that you arch your back and sit on the front of your seat bones.
Your pelvis needs to be upright rather than tipped forwards (back arched) or backwards (slumped). This way, it is in a perfectly balanced position.
Tailbone
Your tailbone position not only helps your pelvis stay upright, but it also communicates to your horse’s hindquarters.
To go forwards, point your tailbone forwards. This helps you tuck your seat a little bit and open or widen your hips to send your horse in front of you.
To stop, point your tailbone towards the ground just a little you don’t want to arch your back.
To back up, you point your tailbone forward and up to create an even more engaged position. Your belly button then draws backwards and your reins prevent forward movement. This helps your horse to sit or crouch a little in his pelvis for a more engaged back up.
To collect and engage more, do the same as in the back up with a forward intention.
Upper Body & Core
Your upper body needs be contracted at the front from sternum to pelvis, and your spine needs to be long and lightly stretched because you want your horse to do the same, lift his belly and stretch his back. Remember: your horse will do in his body what you do in yours, so it is important to learn how to control your posture and make sure that you are offering him the right feeling. The way your horse carries himself will tell you a lot. Is he hollow backed with prolapsed abdomen? Or is he lifting the abdomen and stretching the top-line?
Pretend that you have a dot on the top of your pubic bone, your belly button, and your sternum.
Pull these dots together, lower dot up, top dot down, middle dot in, and take them all back toward your spine. The secret is to do this without too much strain, or else you will become rigid.
Don't worry if you feel like a hunchback at first; this is usually because most people have their dots wide apart, their back arched, shoulders pinched backwards, and are leaning back
So when you pull your dots together to tighten your abdominal region, it will feel very odd at first. Your shoulders and head position will be the key to sitting upright while still keeping a full back and tight belly.
With a firm belly and supple spine, you can float with your horse and encourage healthy movement in both of you.
Important note: Your core muscles are not your trunk muscles; they are much deeper and smaller. You’ll barely realize that you are engaging them. However, if you start with the hints above, then you will start to use your core more correctly, and among other things, these are the little muscles that fire to keep your spine erect.
Shoulders
Instead of thinking about shoulders back, which tends to hollow your upper back, think armpits and elbows down. This will lengthen your neck and sit your shoulders nicely on top of your ribcage so that you are sitting upright without tension in the scapula (shoulder blades) or any hollowness between them.
Organize your dots
Pull your armpits and elbows down
Elbows
Your elbows will determine whether your horse’s weight is on the forehand or the hindquarters! The more in front of your body your arms are, the more the weight is placed over your horse’s forehand, and the less stable you will be in your body. You need to keep your arms close to your body without being tight.
Relax your arms. Let them hang down out of your shoulders.
Pull your elbows back and down towards the hocks.
Even if you are riding with one hand stretched forward on the reins in a casual position, the other arm and elbow will be back as a counterbalance.
The more your arms go forward, the further back your body needs to be because it acts as a counterbalance to make sure there’s not too much weight on your horse’s forehand. You can see this perfectly when you watch jockeys riding a galloping horse. They don’t let their working arms displace their overall balance.
Hands
Soft hands are a horse’s dream, but this does not mean flimsy hands! Many riders have tight fingers and forearms, and soft thumbs and elbows. You need to have the reverse: Soft fingers, strong thumb, soft arms, and strong elbows.
Allow your arms to hang and bring your elbows back to your hips. This way, your hands can be passive, and your elbows will connect the bit with your seat. The more you use your hands and the less they work with your seat, the more disturbing it is for the horse. You want the bit to sit as quietly as possible in your horse’s mouth.
Have soft fingers and strong thumbs. Hold the reins with your thumbs so that your fingers can be softly curled around them. This way, your forearm stays soft and elastic, too.
Have your thumbs uppermost and palms a little upward rather than facing down.
Hands close together rather than far apart, this softly encloses the neck and offers a more elastic feel.
Elbows back and down if riding with contact.
If you are riding with one hand on a casual rein, your palm will face downward and your other elbow will be back.
If you are riding with a western curb and one hand, your thumb will be uppermost.
Note: When teaching your horse to yield from your reins and the bit, lateral flexion, direct, indirect rein? you will be using these in isolation, but once you start riding around, then you need to use your reins as little as possible in both casual and concentrated riding. It’s your body that needs to communicate rather than your legs and hands. These are now for reinforcement if your horse doesn’t respond. It will help your horse become more responsive and sensitive instead of dull and resistant.
Neck & Head
Here is where it all comes together! A lot of riders either look down or have their chin too high and pointing forwards, which creates a hollow neck. Neither of these positions is beneficial to your horse! You want your horse to stretch and arch his neck from the withers to the poll, so you have to do the same.
Look straight ahead.
Stretch the back of your ears up towards the sky and pull your chin backwards a little at the same time without looking down. You will feel a little pull on the muscles around C7, the vertebrae at the base of your neck, which is similar to where your horse’s withers are, too.
When you stretch upwards like this as if you are dangling from the sky, your entire spine lengthens and you experience self carriage instead of sitting heavily on the horse.
How to Improve Your Legs, Seat, & Posture
It’s easy to improve your balance, position, and posture with these exercises. Do them for a good five to 10 minutes every day for at least two weeks, and then once or twice a week to maintain it.
For steadier legs:
Stand in your stirrups.
Keep your feet level and back under you (if they are not, that’s why you’re having trouble standing!). For some people accustomed to a trail rider seat, this may mean a difference of 12 to 15 inches!
Don’t let your lower legs move. Keep them firmly stretched down and lightly in contact with your horse’s sides.
Hold your saddle horn or pommel to keep your body steady, and it’s better to round your back than to arch it.
Get to where you can do this at walk, trot, canter, and through transitions.
For a more upright, balanced body and equally weighted seat bones:
Do windmills.
One arm at a time, slowly circle your arms forward and then backward.
Keep your torso facing straight ahead; don’t let it twist and turn to one side. Your arm rotations don’t need to rotate perfectly, but your torso must stay straight.
Additionally:
Of course, there are plenty of exercises that you can do. Core and trunk exercises like Pilates are amazing for improving riders while weight-lifting tends to strengthen the wrong muscles like biceps and legs. It’s not that you shouldn’t do them, but just make sure that you do more of the core exercises.
In addition, better body awareness, equilibrium, and posture through concepts like Feldenkrais, Alexander technique, and Hannah Somatics are very helpful.
Most importantly, don’t force your body. Riding is more about balance than strength.
