Anyone else have a bad seat day?

[NoodlesHalloween]

So I am loving my lessons right now having had a few eeek ones, but does anyone else that has lessons at a riding school find their seat changes sometimes on different horses? Not sure if I am just sometimes having a bad day and dont focus on my seat enough because I am focussing on everything else and my menopausal brain explodes.

 

[Biscotte]

I find if I start each lesson (I've now done a term so v early days) where we're just walking around and consciously move my hips with the walk and sort of visualise myself bobbing along with the horse and driving it with my hips ( I got this from the excellent Centered Riding book) then when we move up to trotting and cantering I'm really sitting nicely.

If I'm tense then the saddle feels small and hard, if relaxed it feels big and deep.

 

[NoodlesHalloween]

I find if I start each lesson (I've now done a term so v early days) where we're just walking around and consciously move my hips with the walk and sort of visualise myself bobbing along with the horse and driving it with my hips ( I got this from the excellent Centered Riding book) then when we move up to trotting and cantering I'm really sitting nicely.

If I'm tense then the saddle feels small and hard, if relaxed it feels big and deep.

Brilliant I can actually visualise this I think I have spent so long getting my legs long and stretched that I dont then adjust everything else

 

[Biscotte]

I normally don't worry about my seat unless it feels wrong, I mostly worry my stirrups are either too long, too short or not even.

I find the bigger horses are nicer to ride, but the medium sized ones are often more comfortable.

There's always something!

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

Riding with a menopausal brain is a challenge. Well done you. Horse have different strides, body widths, lengths and ways of going. Riding a new horse in a lesson might take a period of adjustment but you will soon get used to them

 

[NoodlesHalloween]

Riding with a menopausal brain is a challenge. Well done you. Horse have different strides, body widths, lengths and ways of going. Riding a new horse in a lesson might take a period of adjustment but you will soon get used to them

Thank you, I think it is the switching from 14hh to over 16hh and one is wide and one is slight and everything else in between on top of my brain fog lol

 

[Lucas26]

I normally don't worry about my seat unless it feels wrong, I mostly worry my stirrups are either too long, too short or not even.

I find the bigger horses are nicer to ride, but the medium sized ones are often more comfortable.

There's always something!

I used to have the seat problem too, but I guess I just got used to it, also I can relate to that strrups thing, but it isn't a bother to me ussualy

 

[Skib]

I have spent so long getting my legs long and stretched

I learned to ride as an adult without anyone ever mentioning the word 'seat'. But I did learn that if you stretch your legs down with your feet in the stirrups, it will lift your seat a little out of the saddle. We did exercises to check that our toes amd ankles were relaxed, as well as our legs.

 

[sbloom]

Different saddles will fit you differently and this is no small thing, much more important than most people realise. Some will argue you just need to get stronger and learn to compensate better but that tension won't help the horse. Here's an article looking at it from the "lens" of leg room, but it illustrates the idea - https://stephaniebloomsaddlefitter.co.uk/blog-and-resources/the-search-for-knee-room. If you're getting really into riding consider some off horse help from someone like https://www.facebook.com/equimech to make sure your body's helping you as much as possible.

 

[Biscotte]

Different saddles will fit you differently and this is no small thing, much more important than most people realise. Some will argue you just need to get stronger and learn to compensate better but that tension won't help the horse. Here's an article looking at it from the "lens" of leg room, but it illustrates the idea - https://stephaniebloomsaddlefitter.co.uk/blog-and-resources/the-search-for-knee-room. If you're getting really into riding consider some off horse help from someone like https://www.facebook.com/equimech to make sure your body's helping you as much as possible.

That's a really interesting article, even as someone who just rides school horses.

Today I had a horrible horse (tries to attack the others all the time so a very tense lesson plus we had two falls in quick succession with me nearly becomingly the third) with a lovely comfy saddle. Last week I had a horse I really like with a horrible slippy saddle which makes my legs uncomfortably wide and gives me sore ankles for some reason.

There's just such a lot of variables especially when you're starting out: you, the horse, the tack, the weather etc etc , that it's hard to know what you can and can't influence.

 

[Bob notacob]

On a riding school horse ,the saddle can only be expected to fit the horse. Different riders require amongst other things ,saddle size and stirrup bar position. Until a new rider has learnt the muscle memory of the correct position at walk and sitting trot they have no chance of coping with a saddle that doesn't match them. Sadly there is a conflict of expectation over ability and a new rider will feel hard done by with the hard plod we have had to do to create a balanced seat.(OMG 50 years and I still work at it) The worst thing I see is a pupil using the cantle to project themselves forward in the rising trot. Every stride hammering hard on the back. The worst part is the "instructors" who let it happen.

 

[Equi]

I find my hormones unseat me. Some days I ride normal, some days I feel super in control and other days for no reason I feel like I can barely control my balance. These days generally coincide with the week before Aunt Flo comes to visit.