Position woes after getting back into riding after a very long break

PinkRoses

PinkRoses

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Happy January everyone :)

Not sure if anyone remembers my previous posts! So I’ll give a quick update. my mare is happily retired now and lives out babysitting yearlings. She could probably come back into work but I’ve had to bite the bullet and accept I will never loose enough weight to ride her comfortably again which has been hard but she owes me nothing.

Summer Last year I was given the opportunity to buy a lovely 5 year old gelding who I’ve known from a foal and know his full history so it was an opportunity I couldn’t really turn down and I ended up buying him without sitting on him 😂 he has been absolutely super, such a puppy dog on the ground and we’ve done a lot of flat work, pole work and popped some small fences on him. He’s just so easy and makes riding a real pleasure and I’m really enjoying getting back into it.

My weight loss and general fitness have been coming along well so I’m really proud of myself. I’ve had some small set backs including a 4 week stay in hospital so my progress riding wise has been slow.

Now onto the conundrum:

My leg position in walk and trot is improving and I honestly feel like I am a much better rider than I was before my break (last rode properly properly in 2016!), I’m so much better at riding from leg to hand and getting the horse to stretch down in the contact so I’m really proud of myself.

But where I’m letting myself down is in canter and I’m starting to feel quite disheartened. My friend let me have a sit on her 8 year old who is schooled beautifully and I’ve really learnt a lot from the couple of times I’ve sat on him. whilst the canter work felt beautiful I’ve just watched the videos she’s sent me and with every canter stride my knees and thigh rotate out/ away from the saddle so I’m not sure if my actual hip is rotating. Because of this I do bounce up out of the saddle a little bit with every stride. I feel a bit disappointed to be honest and a bit embarrassed to show these videos to friends/family.

I’m very hypermobile and have problems with joints hyper extending so I can’t figure out if this is a case of this and I need to go away and speak to my pt and do more lower leg stuff in my gym sessions to strengthen things. Or what I can be doing in the saddle whilst I’m actually riding.

I have weekly lessons but we always focus on how my gelding is going and working on things he finds difficult (straightness and balance) rather than my position.

Has anyone got any tips for improving my position in canter that I can work on on my own?

Sorry this post is so long!
 
How is your core strength? I think canter is far more about holding everything together than trot.

Do you have a mechanical horse near you? I found this really beneficial for trying to find a way to be level guven my very unlevel body, just set him going and the instructor could prod me as needed.
 
Jambarissa said:
How is your core strength? I think canter is far more about holding everything together than trot.

Do you have a mechanical horse near you? I found this really beneficial for trying to find a way to be level guven my very unlevel body, just set him going and the instructor could prod me as needed.
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Honestly when I started riding again in dec last year it was non existent. I’ve done a lot of core strengthening exercises with my pt but it probably isn’t as good as it should be.

I’m not sure! I’ll have to have a google but it does sound like it could be a big help as there are times I do feel unlevel (particularly in canter transitions)
 
Get someone to lunge you, take away stirrups, do some rising trot without stirrups if your fitness allows, canter without if you can, take stirrups back then ride through the paces without reins. Recommend arms outstretched, hands on head, hands on hips etc., then in a rein holding position. Try and do this once a week if you can.

Then when cantering normally off the lunge, make sure you aren't gripping with your thighs and count the canter rhythm out loud (i.e 1,2,3,1,2,3). On each down beat of the canter press down with your ankles. Your ankles are a vital shock absorber and help greatly with leg position. You should try to imagine having a loose leg, it should be your core holding you to the horse rather than your legs. If you are struggling to visualise what this should be like, watch a few tests by ridden by Carl, you can clearly see him taking the weight down in the heels to sit down into the canter.
 
I rode yesterday. I haven't really ridden in years. I snatch the odd hack a few times a year.

I suck. Ive never been particularly good at riding. It doesnt come naturally, but ive done some bonkers stuff like hunting in Ireland without eating the dirt, so im not completely useless 😅

Anyway, I found myself getting left behind on the first trot stride 🤣 like a beginner.

I really wouldn't beat yourself up about it. Riding a horse is absolutely not like riding a bike! Your body takes time to adapt again. You have to get stronger. Fitter. More supple.

It will come.
 
I third a mechanical horse but also highly recommend 'Rider Pilates Club' who runs online pilates courses, she has really helped me strengthen my position.....it's not just about core!

The mechanical horse, along with my rider position focused instructor, really allowed me to play with rights and wrongs without affecting the horse
 
Not just about core strength either, it's flexibility. I can keep my core "engaged" all day long but ask me to allow it to move with the horse? 🤔

I came back to horse riding very "stong" for my size. I'd spent the last 4-5 years weight lifting. Did any of that "strength" do me a bit of good? Course it didn't 😂Lifting weights (for GAINZ) is mostly about straight lines, muscles and joints basically being pulley systems. Sitting on a horse is movement in all 3 primary directions at once and you need the small stabilisation muscles more than the big muscle groups.

I don't have much advice as I'm still basically in the same pickle you are, but I have been dabbling in Activate Your Seat which is helping a bit, when I put the effort in.
 
It's not really core strength in the way so many people think, but working with a rider specialist, even if working from their free online resources if money is an issue (I get that!!) may help, if you can hone in on good exercises. There are a lot of good people out there but many just don't seem to get it and focus so much on fitness and strength instead of the subtle stuff such a neuromechanics and stability, I like Equimech and Tom Waldron especially. Activate Your Seat is certainly good, I like Maeve (I know her personally) and it does help riders, I personally like something a little broader but she knows her stuff.

Saddle. It matters. I fit a saddle in order to stabilise the pelvis and that means a shape of seat that matches the pelvis and supports it in neutral, in comfort. So often we can't place any weight on our pubic arch because it puts us into anterior tilt or it hurts. So often people talk about a narrow twist and/or a monoflap being beneficial but it completely depends on the shape of our own pelvis and how our hips hang...then how they hang on that particular shape of ribcage.

So many trainers, including most focused on biomechanics don't realise at all how much the saddle can hinder. They think that a reasonably open seat, a narrowish twist and the stirrup bar not too forwards (and not too large a block) and we can all learn to sit well. However....how long does that take? A year on the lunge?! And the horse suffers in the meantime.

Ideally working with a fitter who understands this approach and therefore works with brands that have more naturally pelvis shaped saddles would be the way to go, but at least being aware of this, and asking the fitter if you're sitting in neutral, and then if that is comfortable and you don't have to work at it at all, will help. The leg should drape softly underneath us - heel directly under hip for dressage and just a little forwards for jumping or for those combos where it's just not possible. This helps us get more weight on the thigh instead of most of it on the seatbones - this is a vicious circle as if you sit on your seatbones then the horse can't lift as easily at the base of the wither because of the pressure on the complex core/back muscles that go back and control the pelvis. The better the saddle allows you to sit the better the horse moves...

So, if you possibly can, get assessed off horse, get a better saddle or at least look at any changes that can be made to your existing saddle and then if you possibly can work with a biomechanics coach or at least an instructor than understands if you can't be helped to sit well you're not truly helping the horse, you're using aids, instead of sitting "in flow" iykwim, to make things happen, and that is always a compromise to some extent.
 
PinkRoses said:
and with every canter stride my knees and thigh rotate out/ away from the saddle so I’m not sure if my actual hip is rotating. Because of this I do bounce up out of the saddle a little bit with every stride.
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I dont think so. You may have cause and effect the wrong way round. You are bouncing out of the saddle at each stride and that is the cause of your thighs opening and thus also your knees.
My current share has a bouncy trot and bouncy canter too. She is a fit Irish Shire with big muscles. I can sit her canter out hacking but only by slowing her canter right down. I prefer to ride canter trot transitions, 20 strides of each and to keep more of my weight in my stirrups.
The more weight you have in your feet, the less you will have in the saddle, so less bouncing. And to stabilise that, I hack with my stirrups quite long, and when I canter, I canter with my leg on and my seat just slightly lifted from the saddle,
 
Skib said:
I dont think so. You may have cause and effect the wrong way round. You are bouncing out of the saddle at each stride and that is the cause of your thighs opening and thus also your knees.
My current share has a bouncy trot and bouncy canter too. She is a fit Irish Shire with big muscles. I can sit her canter out hacking but only by slowing her canter right down. I prefer to ride canter trot transitions, 20 strides of each and to keep more of my weight in my stirrups.
The more weight you have in your feet, the less you will have in the saddle, so less bouncing. And to stabilise that, I hack with my stirrups quite long, and when I canter, I canter with my leg on and my seat just slightly lifted from the saddle,
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I'm sorry to be a pain and disagree but we shouldn't be carrying weight in the stirrups, we should be trying to avoid it (especially in a treeless saddle), unless of course we're in two point. The weight should be down the inner thigh. Bouncing is from gripping up, in the main, and that isn't just caused by the rider, it's a complex web between horse, saddle and rider.
 
But I explained that I was in two point.
I have flexy stirrups and leathers and I do put weight in them because if there is no weight in your stirrups you will lose one or lose both. I use normal irons and smooth soled boots and I dont lose my stirrups. But when my current share goes off in full force (which she does when spooked) it isnt possible to sit her canter.
 
I did miss the very last comment that alludes to two point, but no-one is going to bounce with their seat slightly lifted from the saddle...there's nothing to bounce against.
 
I'm a returning rider, it's been about 18 months for me. I am also older, so my body is less co-operative than it was. I have found a seat saver has helped me a lot - I used a rubbery one which was great, and also one of the HM style suede ones, both have really helped me to relax more in the saddle, so I'm sitting properly in it. That was a temporary measure and I can now manage quite well without one, but it might be worth a try for you.
 
It probably will come the more cantering you do but if you want to help it along, a rider physio assessment certainly won't do any harm. There are lots of physios these days who treat horses and humans and look at the whole picture and establish what you both need to work on to help each other. I had a trainer who was telling me I was wonky and I needed to get a physio to look at me but when I showed my physio (who is also a horsey physio) the video she said my horse was pushing me to one side. We've done some work on strengthening his left hind and now we're both a lot straighter. I've still had work to do on me as it had created wonkiness in me but he was patient zero!

The same physio noticed my friend really struggles with tight hip adductor muscles which affects her ability to sit the canter. Off the horse (obvs) she really struggles to sit cross legged which is a telltale sign - it's a slow process but she's getting there, she can cross her legs now but can't quite get her knees all the way down.
 
Moving with the horse is usually hindered by trying to do MORE. That tightens the muscles and lifts you out of position. Do less, think of release rather than activating muscles. We all have enough core strength if we can walk upright for a decent amount of time,
The old fashioned way would be to take the stirrups away, or even better ride bareback. Watch young children ride , they dont tighten against the movement [ unless frightened!] and swing along. Adults over think things and think doing more and trying harder will achieve everything - think again!
Most of us have a hazy idea of where their skeleton/bones are - something like Alexander Technique, Feldencrais, Hanna Somatics , will educate you on how you are moving This work starts off the horse and is not a quick fix , but a will make a lasting difference to your posture and body use in all activities as well as riding .
 
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