Do you ride long or short?

Spit That Out

Spit That Out

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I like to ride with long stirrups, maybe because I'm quite long in the leg but I find even putting the leathers a couple of holes up for jumping is uncomfortable.

My instructor thinks I should shorten them at least a couple of holes but I feel like I'm riding like a jockey.

How do you like to ride, long or short?
 
Short, possibly as a result of my crap seat! I've always ridden like that though. It does mean that if I jump my knees are up round my ears!
 
I ride long, very long and I'm very insecure riding short, and find it very uncomfortable. Longs much easier for wrapping my legs around and staying on board! ;)
 
Short, because I have a jumping saddle. If I lengthen the leathers, it moves my knee back and positions it on top of the stirrup leather and I get blisters. The stirrup leathers are positioned more forward than on a gp or dressage saddle so if my knee moves back, it meets the forward leather.

I read somewhere a few years ago that a lot of the eventers ride their dressage at their jumping length.
 
I ride short, spent quite a while working on racing yards when i was younger and it just feels right now.
Did try riding long once when i covered my friends job on a dressage yard while she was ill, but it just felt awkward and horrible was easier just to take the stirrups away altogether rather than have them long.
 
Long. I have long legs and a sharp horse! I find it easier to stay in balance and ride from my core if I am wedged down in my nice deep dressage saddle!
 
Long as possible, I went out the other day in walk and when we started trotting I realised they were so long I HAD to do sitting trot, but they feel less comfy now I've put them up a hole!

I am prob a bit tall for my horse too so my legs dangle a bit but I kind of like it that way.
 
short... i have quite long legs (34" inside) and my feet tend to drop past the horse dispite riding a 15.2hh and a 17.2hh. if im in my gp/jump saddle i ride in what would be most peoples normal length and what would be my jumping and if im in the dressage i ride what would be most peoples long but is my normal :)
 
Very, very, long. Mainly rode bareback as a kid, or no stirrups, so it probably comes from that. I do jump short though, I practically half the stirrup length. That comes from being tall & having to hitch my legs out of the way of a ponies. By default though, even riding short to jump, if anything untoward happens my first reaction is to kick my feet free so I can sit up & balance better. Especially on small, short necked naughty ponies. Learnt from a shettiex Welsh as a child, who's favourite transistion was gallop to graze.
 
Long. I have a very large horse and I'm not very big, so if I rode short, I'd look a bit ridiculous, I think :D I also ride bareback a fair bit, so I like not to have to think too much, swapping between saddle and bareback pad. I can post bareback (and do, when he gets his bouncy trot on :D).

He was also pretty boingy when he was a baby, and I'm not the world's best rider, so legs wrapped as far round horse as they'll go and a dressage saddle were my mainstay ;)

It does mean that if I ride friend's horses with stirrups at "normal" or "jumping" length I feel incredibly perched!
 
Long - I feel safer if more leg is wrapped round my pony when she shies instead of being perched on th saddle.

Also my knee hurts if I ride short.
 
long, it's more comfortable for my hip, knee and ankle. i also like to be able to wrap my legs around the horse if they mess about.
a friend i hacked with used to ride short, she came off a few times when her horse spun round as she was always just perched on top, my horse spun round once when out with her and i didn't move away from my horse at all, she was shocked so started to ride longer and found it better.
 
Prefer long so I can keep my legs down and around. I struggle with short stirrups too as it seems to make it hard to balance correctly.
 
Short until very recently, I have now started riding longer and it took some getting used to but I find it helps me use my seat and lower leg better.
 
I always rode quite long to help give me a deeper and more effective seat (which was very much encouraged by my then instructor) and which worked very well with my last 17.3hh TB.
I tried it on my current giant of a horse but as he has such a mahoosive canter stride when out hacking I found it near impossible to sit to as I found I was getting bounced forward and completely out of the saddle by what felt like a good foot (picture a limp rag doll tied to the saddle, then you get the picture). As much as I tried to keep my legs on and my seat firm I was thrown up and forward and hence my little legs were having no end of trouble trying to keep my feet in the stirrups.
Having put my stirrups up about 3 or so holes I found I could then at least brace myself with my feet against his stride and hence better sit his elephant type gait.
Having said that I tend to still keep my leathers long when schooling in the arena as he is much easier to ride and sit to in a confined space unless we are jumping in which case I go up a good 4 holes or more as otherwise I'd be spectacularly catapulted up and out of the saddle and eating dirt without a seconds thought!
 
I have gone from one extreme to the other, I used to ride very short, now I ride western - 'nuff said ;)
 
Brontie said:
I ride long, very long and I'm very insecure riding short, and find it very uncomfortable. Longs much easier for wrapping my legs around and staying on board! ;)
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/\/\/\ this exactly. I ended up buying a dressage saddle for everyday riding. I even did some cross country jumping in it, I couldn't feel safe in my GP saddle, especially for jumping!:rolleyes:
 
I ride quite long, I don't like 'jumping length' at all, I think of it as 'going to fall off a lot easier length' :p I use the rule that when my legs are hanging freely- I adjust the stirrups to hang at my ankle joint- then I ride with them at this length and it is perfect . I still do pop them up a hole for jumping or so I don't look too silly on the smallest horse :o but yeah, generally long- find it much easier to sit up tall and put weight central
 
Long, can barely put my stirrups up for jumping now as I end up in even more pain than normal from my knees. Used to be able to but they've got worse the past couple of years since a car crash when I broke one. Did have dodgy knees before that but not as bad.

After a days hunting as I have to put them up or feel very insecure, I get off and physically can't walk is awful, same with if been for a good canter/gallop out hacking though not as . Is becoming more of a problem now as doing more jumping with new pony and higher. So beginning to feel like they need to go up. Pus I'm tall and on a pony so probably look stupid!
 
this is really interesting as i've always ridden short but am trying to find a way of making my legs more effective ,so tried jumping at a longer lengh- but what is long? is normal a 90 degree agle? or would that be sj and xc up a hole?
 
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