Help me stay in the saddle.

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littlen

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Can anyone offer some advice please?!

I have a lovely purebred arab who I have been reschooling for the past 6 months. He is coming along lovely and is improving. He still finds it difficult to bend and sometimes gets confused but we are getting there.

Now hacking I am fine. I can gallop, fly about, jump et and I feel secure but when I school I cant for the life of my keep my feet in the stirrups. They come right through until the stirrup is almost touching my heel and I dont feel secure. It dosent help that my horse is very very bouncy and he bounches me out of the saddle sometimes, and I cant push my weight into my feet when they are in the wrong place. It sometimes happens when hacking but schooling it happens every time.

Where on earth am I going wrong? I dont feel as though I am coming off, just that my feet dont feel right.

I have tried shortening my stirrups but my instructor said they were far too short and that I was confusing horse by giving him aids so far up, and that I could wrap my legs around him with longer ones which is true.

I darent try riding without stirrups though, he is still learning and is very unpredictable. It only happens on this horse, never on any others so it wouldnt help riding someone elses?

Any ideas?
 
TBH I would shorten the stirrups to a length that puts your feet in a good, stable position and then lengthen them over time.
I'm sorry, but 'confusing a horse with leg aids to high' sound like a bit of bovine excrement to me;)
 
although your stirrups might be too short, at least you would keep your stirrups and probably relax more because of it, and then be able to keep longer stirrups. I would try slightly shorter stirrups for a time and then slowly lengthen them. If you are feeling a little tense with worrying about loosing your stirrups then it will be even harder to hang on to them! Another thing I find that works is just thinking about my position. If I try and think heels down then I find it quite hard. But if I think of heavyness going through my bottom and down into my heels then it seems to work so much better. This helps me keep my stirrups otherwise I tend to get a bit nervous and not relaxed and then loose my stirrups which doesn't help the situation!
 
You're not inadvertantly gripping with your knees are you? Try keeping you stirrups as they are and rotating your ankles so your toe turns out a little bit....you will then turn your upper thigh and knee away from the saddle so you don't 'grip n tip' but you should be able to hug the pony with your calves and in theory your feet should remain secure in your stirrups.


Disclaimer.....I'm no instructor but it works for me:D
 
it sounds to me like you may have tension in your upper leg, thus causing your feet to move from the stirrups, you could try no stirrup work which would help you ride with your heels down and using your lower leg more.
 
Thanks everyone.

I will knock them up a hole for now :) See its strange as when hacking they are the perfect length and any shorter and my legs ache, but I just cant get my feet to stay where they are meant too!

Maybe I didnt put that right. We actually had a 20min session when I first started lessons to help me lengthen my stirrups as I was riding like a jockey. She took my stirrups away and I learnt to wrap myself around him to give clearer aids which definatley worked as I was able topush him from my leg more, I dont know if that makes sense I am not good at explaining lol!

I might be gripping with my knees but I dont really know how to stop, ive tried turning my feel out but then I grip with my thigh instead.
I would love to try no stirrup work but I dont trust horse, he is far too sharp! It dosent help that he is so bouncy without stirrups I feel like im going to bounce off!
 
Benji1 said:
I meant to say no stirrup work on the lunge
Click to expand...

Thanks Benji I will have a go if I feel brave enough.
When on the lunge horse motorbikes very badly and I feel as though I am tipping off the side, so it makes me even more nervous.

I think I am gripping with my legs/knees but dont know how to not do it :(
 
When i had this problem, I was told to pretend I had a £100 note between the inside of my calf and the horse... which ment i purprosefully used my lower leg rather than my thighs
 
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