Cr@p lower leg position!

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showjump2003

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This is really bugging me!!!!! Although I have ridden all my life for the last 4 years I have mainly hacked and jumped and not done flat work. My leg position wasn't good before I went to uni 3/4 years ago and now that I have started back up with weekly lessons it's still no better, if not worse!

My horse is now starting to work really well and goes amazing for my instructor. But for me I just can't hold her together. I seem incapable of keeping my heels down and using my legs properly! I end up riding with my heels up which results in my shoulders rounding and me tipping forwards.


To show you what I mean by my leg position.

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I just know that once I sort my position out my mare will work as well for me as my instructor but I can't seem to do it!!!!

Suggestions?
 
lunge lessons minus stirrups!

Then when you take your stirrups back have them a couple of holes longer, or as long as you can go without loosing balance and feeling you are reaching for the stirrup
 
I would try some short period of work without stirrups even just in walk to try and allow your legs to hang down and around your horse. This will help you feel where your legs should go. I would also knock your stirrups down as you look to be riding quite short.

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Definitely lengthen stirrups, this will deepen your sit and stop you tipping forward so much. A lot of this problem is down to personal fitness. Your shoulders and back need to be strong to help you keep a deep seat and then keep your leg in the right position. Also you seem like you are holding the reins quite short and tight, try relaxing a bit!
 
I am working on sitting stot and no stirrups but I end up gripping with my knees and can't keep my hands still enough which upsets my horse. I'm so hopeless!
 
Dont try to force your heel down, that wont help!

Sit more to the front of the saddle, this will instantly make you have to drop your stirrups down a couple of holes. The stirrup leather must lie directly vertical so adjust your leg position accordingly. Turn your toe to the front- it should be the flat of your calf thats against the horse, not the back of the calf. Be warned- this will stretch your muscles and hurt!!

If you get all of this right then the heel will naturally spring down a little- it's not going to be a deep heel and dont put the weight into the heel. The weight should be on the ball of the foot always. If you try to put the weight in the heel that will push the leg forward.

And sit up with your hands carried with daylight between them and the wither. Et voila, now you can walk on!
 
Get someone to lunge you, you can then knot the reins and not need to rely on them.
Start in walk and canter, then progress to trot.
If needed place one hand on the pommel and one on the cantle to help with your balance initially
 
no stirrups for a while and try standing on a step with your heel off the edge at the back and moving up and down on your tip toes. As Ben and Jerrys says, lunge lessons really help
 
It's probably not your leg that's causing the problem - bit difficult to tell in the photo but could be your pelvis? You look like you're sitting a long way back in the saddle to me. Try bringing your legs up in front of the saddle flaps so that you can feel your seat bones clearly, then drag yourself forward a bit so that you're sitting with your pubic bone up on the rise of the pommel and your seat bones in the deepest part of the saddle. Then pull the muscle under your thigh back (use your hands to do it) so that your leg is more rotated inwards from the hip. Think about your knee heading downwards, and then about your heel going BACK and down rather than just down.

You don't look as if you're riding too short to me - I ride quite short too; it's much more secure.
 
You're riding with extremely short stirrups there which probably isnt helping matters, but as you already identified, you can see from where your seat is that you're tipping forwards. Are you convinced its the sneaking lower leg that causes the tipping? Or the tipping seat causing the sneaking lower leg?
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First off, id be losing the stirrups completly. You need to learn to sit back onto your seat bones more. Losing the stirrups will allow your whole leg to swing back, right from the thigh so its going to sit much straighter down the horses sides. Take your legs off the saddle, right from the top of your thigh, swing them out and back and then allow them to settle back onto the saddle. Turn the toes in and rather than thinking of pushing the heel down, lift the toe up.

Id suggest a lot of lunge lessons without the stirrups. Lowering your stirrups alone wont do anything other than unbalance you further. You'll tip forwards more, the lower leg will swing back more and you'll end up balancing on your hands. You need to work on lengthening the leg without the aid of the stirrups primarily and perhaps take them back at a much lengthened level for say, the last 5 - 10 minutes of riding (at that point, id also tie the stirrup to the girth by the way)

Remember to find your correct stirrup length you should let the leg hang free and lift the toe. The point you lift the toe to should be your stirrup length for correct flatwork.
 
do bareback schooling! start off just in walk then gradually build up to doing trot and eventually canter (over several sessions!) - I do it whenever my seat goes horrible - means you really feel your horse's muscles moving beneath you and teaches good leg position as gripping too much makes you slip about! It will give you a really good feel for good balance. sounds mad but it really works!
 
Thank you for all your advice. Really appreciate you taking the time to write out the replies. Wil definatly drop my stirrups and try changing my seat position a little next time I ride.
 
I too have a poor lower leg postion and tip forwards, my instructer seems to think that the problem stems from my right hip and she makes me do alot and I mean a lot of work with out stirrups and at the beginning my right leg is still higher than my left with out stirrups, but by the end of the lesson both legs are in the correct position and when back in the stirrups they seem far shorter than when I started my lesson, my leg muscles have lengthened.She also makes me sit in the saddle like a jockey so I can feel my seat bones, then in this position I have to take my legs away from the saddle, then try and move them slightly backwards and some how my legs are in the correct position to start with. Tis a pity they don't stop there!!.
Relax , don't forget to breathe (i do ), and ride without stirrups and it will happen.
 
Ditto all of the above and don't grip with your knees...your whole leg should hang naturally with no tensing of the muscles or gripping and this will allow your lower leg to gently wrap around your horses sides.
 
I agree with Tierra about not dropping your stirrups *too* fast. It can make you lose balance and tip forwards.

No stirrups is def. the way to go. Just keep at it and it'll fall into place eventually, I had the same problem too
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Ever noticed that the most natural riders are also very athletic, soft and supple in their bodies? I find the best remedy for this kind of problem, before you do work without stirrups etc you need to work on your fitness off the horse- once your body is fit and supple with strong core stability you'll find that you wont even have to think about what the leg is doing it will just naturally be in the right position and you'll feel balanced and secure.

So some running/cycling/swimming combined with lots of stretching and Pilates for core stability and then hey presto...
wish I had the energy to do this though but I know that if I did I would ride sooo much better!
 
I think you're tensing your lower leg and gripping upwards - I do the same and I find it worse with a jumping saddle! With a dressage saddle it obviously puts you in a much better position to begin with and its easier to have more 'grip' with the upper leg and let the lower hang loose. I had a lesson with Jane Bartle-Wilson recently and she said to me that I wasn't to think about pushing my heel down, more about just relaxing my lower leg, a very subtle movement. It helps if your horse is forward and off the leg so you're not having to squeeze all the time to keep him going forwards as this won't help matters (I should know, ashamed to admit mine stops when I take my leg off!)
 
I have an awful lower leg position made a thousand times worse by a weak damaged left knee which causes me to throw my weight through my stirrups weirdly. I've been doing loads and loads and load of work on the lunge with no stirrups which i hate- but it works! My instructor has also got me doing something she calls "leg aways" which hurt after several seconds but she can hold for ages. My problem has come down to poor hip action and tight abductors so i don't open my hip enough.
I also now have a gym ball and do lots of stretching work on my hips to make them"open" more.
 
I've had similar problem. I started taking my stirrups away in "safe" areas out hacking for 5mins then I've built it up to 40 min schooling sessions without stirrups and position is much better. Failing that the dreaded lunge lessons. Sorry to say, no pain, no gain. ENJOY she said wickedly laughing!!!!
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Ditto all of the advice. Loads and loads and loads of no stirrup work and bareback riding will seriously improve your position. It really does work. I'm so jealous of my best friend's riding position, it is so perfect, and the reason she got that way......her instructor made her do hours and hours of riding with no stirrups, riding barback and also riding lots of horses.
 
I don't think my advice really adds anything to the above, and probably isn't nearly as qualified, but I do want to post as I think I had a *eureka* moment with my identical-sounding lower leg problem this week. My instructor thinks that my problem comes from me turning out my toes to use the back of my calves rather than the sides. I discovered that if I concentrate really hard (cue tongue hanging out, etc.) on keeping my toes in my lower leg just naturally settles in the right position. Probably sounds daft, but I'd really recommend giving it a go.

Btw, your horse (Bean?) looks really lovely atm.
 
i sympathise!!!! I've been riding all my life and still have similar problems, however recently i've been improving and its definitely because i've been doing far more consistant dressage. My advice would just be to work in on the flat lengthening the stirrups slowly (I've gone down about 4 holes in the last 3 weeks!!)
Flatwork without stirrups (although agonising) is a godsend for helping with a seat problem. Most of this has already been said but hopefully this is concise :P
 
No advice sorry just to say that I know exactly what you are going through as I suffer the same. The only way I can find enough strength to use my legs on my mare is by tensing my leg to sqeeze my lower leg on which brings the heels up.
 
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