Keeping lower leg back? help!

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Emsibuddy

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In the last few lessons I've had I've noticed that my instructors keep telling me to push my lower leg back under my hip more, and its too far forward.
Now when I ride past the mirrors I can tell it looks a lot more correct, but it feels very strange and feels as though i have nothing to support myself with! My heels seem to creep upwards as well and it was quite a job for me to rise in trot while keep my leg back and heel down.
Does anyone have any tips for me? They would be greatly appreciated.(bearing in mind i ride at a RS and hack out a pony for a forum member.)

I also noticed another thing in my lesson. At first I was on a very good smooth mare(R) who was a doddle to ride, shes very well behaved, but then me and my friend swapped horses. I then rode another mare who was a lot faster and tense than R. In the canter I found it quite hard to sit deep on my bottom and it was as though i was standing in my stirrups, I just couldn't sit down nicely. I've had this problem for a while and really want to fix it!

Any help is great appreciated and thank you in advance.
 
i'm not really sure what to say except keep going practice makes perfect i always found it hard when i first started trying but after a while it just becomes natural like everything else when your riding. only other thing i could suggest is lengthen your stirrups to help weigh u down or try with no stirrups?? sorry that was probably no help atall lol
 
try riding in a 2-point seat intermittently, i.e. with your bum floating out of the saddle, but not keeping your balance by using the reins.
you should be able to do floating trot above the saddle and stay in perfect balance, with practise! same position as if you stand on your 2 feet and close the angles of knees, hips and ankles, basically.
re: cantering, if the horse was very tense, it could have locked its back up and made it very hard for you to sit to. many horses do this in trot too, it isn't always a case of the rider not being able to sit to the trot, for e.g., it may be that the horse isn't letting them yet...
hope that all makes sense!
 
Yes, as kerilli describes, the 'standing' trot exercise is the best one ever for stabilising your lower leg.
Your stirrup leather should be at 90o to the ground and you literally just find your balance over your irons. Your upper body will need to incline forwards and your hips, knees and ankles all should open and close to absorb the bounce.

Good Luck
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Shorten your stirrups a bit and bend your knee more, that will tend to give you a better hip-ankle line and allow you to spring the heel down more.
 
I had (have) this problem and putting the knee rolls back in my saddle helped a lot, along with shortening my stirrup leathers one hole each side (as already suggested).
 
Off the horse there are some good gym ball exercises to help open your hips and pelvis - try googling or any decent gym ball book should have them
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On the horse, maybe see if your RS will do you a private lunge lesson so you can just concentrate on your leg position?? There are plenty of exercises you can do there too
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I've always had problems opening my hips and keeping my leg securely underneath me, particularly on one side (my right) and ended up going to an osteopath and finding out my pelvis was actually very slightly twisted to the left which made my right leg a lot harder to control (if I wasn't a rider I don't think it would have ever bothered me!), so I've been doing a lot of stretching exercises to try and strengthen my right side to try and level my body out.
I'm not suggesting this is true of your case, definitely try the other suggestions first, but if you find it a lot more difficult on one side than the other then maybe get it checked out, just in case.
 
I find that lunge lessons once in a while are very useful for correcting your position particularly, if you work without stirrups. Is your saddle slipping forward cos if it is your leg will also be forward.
 
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