Struggling to wrap legs round?

[dibbin]

Hi all

Just a musing, inspired by the always horrible experience of seeing photos of myself riding - does anyone else struggle to keep their legs wrapped round the horse? Jazz is about 16.1 and not exactly a wee skinny thing, and I'm 5'7" with 32" legs so I'm not a big daddy long legs type, but I seem to really struggle to keep my legs wrapped to his sides.

In almost all of the photos/video I've got there seems to be a HUGE gap between my feet and ankles and his barrel as if my legs just "hang" straight down from the knee, and I'm concerned it'll affect the stability of my lower leg. I do try to make a conscious effort to wrap round when I'm riding, but it doesn't seem to be terribly effective! I don't think my stirrups are too long, my feet don't flap about and I can rise to the trot happily without feeling like I'm stretching for the irons at all.

Does anyone else have this problem or any tips on how to try and address it? Lessons aren't an option at the moment (up until a few months ago I had one weekly) as we've no arena and the tow car is borked so can't get to one.

Thanks in advance

 

[milliepops]

I think you might need to put some photos on
If your horse has a round barrel, and your legs are long enough to reach below the widest point, then your legs will hang from your knees down, won't they? Are you trying to wrap your whole leg around the curve of his body, as that sound like a bit of a physical impossibility, :lol:

I tend to think more about draping your legs around the horse, so the hip and knee are supple and allowing your leg to hang softly against the horse without gripping or tension, and then the lower leg will be hanging in space depending on your horse's shape, won't it?

extreme example pinched off google images!

 

[JillA]

The answer is possibly you are trying too hard - just relax, let them drape like wet towels

 

[dibbin]

I think this illustrates it best (Jazz being the grey) - although this was taken in 2014 on my first time back on board after he'd been off for 3 months, so he's filled out a fair bit since then!

I think you could be right, milliepops - it does look like it could just be that my lower leg is lower than the widest bit ... and now I feel a bit dim!

 

[Red-1]

Your leg is made of two straight bits with a join in the middle, and the barrel of a fat horse is curved, so I would not expect the bottom of your feet to wrap round underneath.

Love the WFP photo.

Having said that, looking at your photo you do seem to be bracing your leg forward against the stirrup. From the side you would probably see your feet too far forwards.

Often this starts with a tight hip, so your upper leg is at too acute an angle, then a tight knee and tight ankle. Often people brace against their stirrups if their hip/ groin it not loose enough to accommodate the movement of the horse, so if there is not enough movement here the lower leg will want to move, and bracing against the stirrups is a way to control some of that movement.

One way to tell if your hip/groin is too tight is by doing the legs away exercise. If the legs will not move away from the horse (as in pretending the horse is even wider, rather than just raising them) then you will struggle with a supple leg. A few exercises when mounted should soon loosen it up.

 

[dibbin]

Red-1, that's very helpful thank you.

I *think* my lower leg has got better and more "underneath" since that photo was taken, I just didn't have one that illustrated the horse-leg gap better. It was also my first time back on board for 3 months so I probably had my defensive legs on!

I know I have got quite tight hips, so some mounted leg exercises are in order

 

[JanetGeorge]

Concentrate on dropping weight onto the outside of your stirrup - with the outside of your feet obviously. Forget about heels down. That will happen automatically.

 

[buddylove]

You could try strapping stirrups to girth (I use synthetic spur straps)! I never realised how bad my lower leg position was until I did this!