Do you have trouble achieving a good seat on a horse? This is a very common problemwith riders of all levels. Sometimes it seems that the harder you try the more unobtainable thosequiet long legs, still upper body and good hands become.

A rider needs an independent seat in order to be able to sit quietly on a horse, to follow andcorrectly influence the movements of the horse and to stay in balance with the horse. For manyriders development of the seat was not a priority when learning to ride and consequently they havedeveloped rider problems that do not go away without some specialist training. Examples of riderproblems are legs that slip forward rather than stay engaged underneath the rider (the chair seat),loss of stirrups either partially (the stirrup slips around on the foot) or fully (especiallythrough gait changes or application of the aids), leaning too far back or too far forward, sittingcrookedly, wobbling midsections and/or head in sitting trot.

The first and foremost important step in gaining a good independent seat is in learning to stabilisethe lower leg. Without a stable lower leg the upper body compensates by moving around in order tobalance the rider. In turn, any movement in the upper body is compensated for by moving the lowerleg. This becomes a vicious circle. A rider who has an independent seat is a rider whose differentbody parts can function independently of one another. So for example the legs can apply the aidswithout causing any loss of balance to the rider.

Gaining this stable lower leg involves more than being told to “get your legs underneath you” aswithout the correct training the legs will simply slip forward again and become disengaged from thebody. Correct rider training involves using specific exercises to train the legs to stay under therider in the classic hip – heel alignment (where the heels of the rider are directly below the hipsand an imaginary vertical line can be drawn between the two points. This hip – heel alignment isvital for good riding. Once this alignment has been achieved the rider can develop the correctdistribution of weight between the seat and the balls of the feet so that they simultaneously sitand stand across the horse (as opposed to just sit on a horse as people tend to think a ridershould).

The next step is to learn how to absorb the movement of the horse in the lower half ofthe body (from the pelvis, down through the joints and into the feet) rather than the upper half ofthe body (which causes a wobbling mid section and head). When the rider has control of the upper andlower body they can develop good hands because the hands must be able to work independently of thebody and this cannot be achieved until the body (of the rider) is under control.

This is the first in a series of articles explaining how to solve these rider problems. Check outnext week’s article on the stabilization of the lower leg – the first step in gaining an independentseat.

Disclaimer: While the author and publisher have taken all appropriate care to ensure theaccuracy of this articles content, no liability is accepted for any loss or damage from or incurredas a result of any reliance on the information provided in this article.

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