#2
“Does that make sense?”
“Do you have any questions?”
“Talk me through what’s going on?”
During my lessons I will often be heard asking my riders the above questions, and some take the opportunity to really delve into my brain - Sam was one of those riders last week.
Sam is very quick to identify a problem whilst she’s riding, but like most of us, she struggles to know how to fix it. We have spoken at length about various ways to encourage her giant of a horse, Harry, to be more uphill, forward and adjustable in his stride. One of his main setbacks is that he tends to chip in when going towards a fence, meaning he has to haul himself over - not ideal for such a large animal!
We have spent a lot of time discussing rider position and how we influence the horse whilst we are in the saddle, making various tweaks to how we position ourselves in the saddle can make a big difference.
Sam’s question last week was ‘How come when I take Harry across country he gets so close to the fences, even when we have a big, forward canter?’
I replied, ‘Talk me through what you do as you approach your fence'.
She told me how she would establish a good, forward canter, plan her line into and away from the fence, ensure she maintained connection through the rein - yet he was still chipping in.
My next question was ‘What is your position doing? Where are you in the saddle as you canter between your fences, and then into your jump?’
Sam said she would take a half seat between the fences, allowing Harry to open his canter and cover some ground, and then going into the fence she would sit and drive with her seat from around 5 strides out…
Ah. I think we’re getting to the problem.
‘Explain to me what you mean by a driving seat?’
‘Well, I think I sit, push my seat bones into the saddle, then allow them to go forward in a repetitive ‘C’ motion’
Aha. Yes, we’ve found it.
I found myself a little jumping block and sat on it like I was sat on the horse. And we went through how a ‘driving seat’ was, in actual fact, a seat that was shutting down the forward momentum and creating a disconnect from the hindquarters through to the front of the horse. We also discussed that a ‘driving seat’ creates tension, not only through the saddle, but through our lower backs, legs, knees and pelvis. This in turn is likely to cause a slumped position that ends up being in front of the movement, and an unstable lower leg that isn’t able to send the horse forward as we’d like.
Sam then asked if that was why her lower leg position over fences wasn’t as secure as she’d like - the answer is, most probably, yes!
I then positioned myself a few horse strides away from the fence I had built in her arena, and walked her through, step by step, common rider misconceptions when it came to riding across country and the impact it had as we approached, went over, and rode away from the fence. Sam sat nodding along, knowing that I had hit the nail on the head. As you can see from the photo above, Harry isn’t quite level behind through his take off, and Sam is a little in front of the movement - it isn’t quite the athletic picture of a horse going cross country that we conjure in our minds!
Then came the fun part - putting it into action! I built a make shift ‘ditch’ fence, giving Harry a really good ground line to work with. I encouraged Sam to stay out of the saddle as much as possible but without tipping forward - this is a feat in itself! But without her suddenly increasing the pressure on his back by using a driving seat and interfering with his natural canter, he produced a very promising jump - and he even stood off the fence on a couple of attempts!
Harry showed more confidence and ability over the fence once Sam was lighter and more consistent through her seat and position
After the lesson I asked Sam for some feedback, and here is what she had to say;
“So I thought a big, scary or wide fence you had to sit on your bum and drive. Front to back. The bigger/scarier the fence the more you push. So seat bones out to the back, to the middle, then to the front.
What I now realise is that motion actually distracts my horse, encourages him to stop or bunny hop a fence, shuts the hind end down by forcing my seat bones down and also alters my position, hollows my back equaling a sore back, become tight through the front of my hips, allows me to grip through the knee in turn allowing the foot to come up and the leg to go back making my leg pretty much useless!
What I know now - the Tor magic cure!
Tor has taught me the light seat! Ride as if there was a balloon under your bottom, pivot through the knee, shock absorbing, feet pressing into my stirrups without gripping at the knee, heels neutral, weight over balls of my feet and my knee. Hips facing upright and to the front. Turning through the waist. This allows my horse to move more freely through his back, keeping the rhythm and me to stay more balanced. And if I need more power, hug with my leg!
This was explained very clearly by Tor, firstly she gave a fab example by demonstrating on foot, to a fence set up in my arena, exaggerating my moves and asking how it effected my horse and how it would effect other horses. Tor walked through the approach, take off, in air, landing and even how it would effect my next fence. All in which I could relate to and have happen to me in the past.
Then Tor gave another demonstration of how it effected my balance and how it changes your position. The good the bad and even the ugly, to see these two things visually really made the bigger picture clear what I should and shouldn’t be doing!
Can’t wait for the next lesson :)”
So, the next time you are out jumping, just make sure that what you’re doing the saddle isn’t hindering what you think is supposed to happen - it’s all a matter of physics and biomechanics, and a few minor tweaks could make all the difference to your horse’s way of going, ability and confidence!