Help me sit on my bum!

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muddypony

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After spending many hours practising with no stirrups my position is more or less sorted in walk and trot (I was an armchair-legged tipper-forwarder), but I just can't sit to canter! It feels fine to me but looks like I'm bouncing all over the place. I've been riding since the beginning of time and I never used to be like this, but long periods without lessons have left me riding like a sack of potatoes. Does anyone have any tips or exercises to help me sit on my bum, or is it a case of practising til I can practise no more?
 
A perhaps little unconventional advise, but you could try watching lots of videos of a rider/riders that sits the way you want to sit to canter. Then imagine in your head that you sit the same way to canter when riding your horse. Do it much enough, and according to science, you may create a body memory that could help you perform the task the way you want to perform it.

I'm not saying that it is a 100% solution on your problem, only that it can actually help.

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Try not to grip with your legs as that make you bounce, really relax and sit up and hopefully your bum will stay in the saddle. Your post could have been written by me!
 
I'm envious ! I wish and wish and wish that I could do a proper sitting trot (last time I tried without stirrups, I fell off and fractured my vertebrae !! Doh! ) whereas my canter is fine! For me, the difference in canter is, I'm more relaxed, I sit back, I breath, I hug my horse with my legs but don't grip as Hobo suggested and my hands are still. I go with the rhythm whereas in sitting trot, I'm all over the place, bouncing, gripping cos I'm bouncing, not breathing cos I'm bouncing, tensing up cos I'm not breathing and all that's with stirrups. So I bow to your sitting trot, I raise a glass to your sitting trot and I go away and practise my sitting trot, again ( but this time, with stirrups ;-) )
 
Can only say what worked for me.. In slow canter I was fine nd could stay with the movement no problem but as soon as horse speeded up a bit I'd start to lose my seat. I tried all the same tactics that I'd used on sitting trot. Loose hips relaxed but no change. Then I discovered that it was this looseness that was causing the problem and if I tensed up my lower tummy ; a bit like bearing down if you've ever given birth, that I stayed in contact with the saddle and could control the canter by using my core muscles. Funny thing was that about a year ago I'd got knocked onto my back by ASBO cob and really hurt my sacrum. I then had a riding lesson and cantered beautifully and same thing the next week. Then my back recovered and my canter went to pot again. Guess I was tensing my back to protect my sacrum and inadvertently discovered the correct canter position. Shame it took me another year to realise why lol.
 
This is really simple:

Sit in you saddle and pull you knees up like a jockey, adjust bum.

Lower legs and consentrate on keeping you seat bones where they are.

This will make you nice and stable.

You will need to keep re checking you position using the above steps untill its ingrained in you muscle memory.
 
My dad used to put a £5 note under my bum! If I did a whole circuit of the arena I got to keep it- the first time I mastered it took about 3 months, I was 11 at the time and £5 was a lot of money!
However once I did it, dad pointed out that now I could what was the point in him paying for something I could do!
Parents are mean- but it worked!
 
dianchi said:
My dad used to put a £5 note under my bum! If I did a whole circuit of the arena I got to keep it- the first time I mastered it took about 3 months, I was 11 at the time and £5 was a lot of money!
However once I did it, dad pointed out that now I could what was the point in him paying for something I could do!
Parents are mean- but it worked!
Click to expand...

Love it!
 
dianchi said:
My dad used to put a £5 note under my bum! If I did a whole circuit of the arena I got to keep it- the first time I mastered it took about 3 months, I was 11 at the time and £5 was a lot of money!
However once I did it, dad pointed out that now I could what was the point in him paying for something I could do!
Parents are mean- but it worked!
Click to expand...

That is an awesome idea!!
 
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