Tips on keeping heels down

Fjord

Fjord

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I saw some pictures of me riding a friend's horse recently and my feet look terrible. I just can't seem to stop my heels creeping up which is really not helpful. Any tips on anchoring my lower leg and keeping my heels down (or my toes up)?
 
My instructor used to make me ride in a light seat - really good for keeping your lower leg in position and also working your core muscles! I still do it sometimes if i'm feeling wobbly. Much nicer than taking your stirrups away too 😅
 
Trot standing in your stirrups, it's more or less impossible to maintain your balance without putting your heels down. Also as you mentioned, think more about pulling your toes up than pushing your heels down. I have no idea why but it works for me!
 
Are you pulling your stirrups backwards at the same time? If so it can relate to having stirrup bars that are too far forwards. What else you do is often the pointer to why your heels come up plus it also strongly relates to the saddle, how it fits you (pelvis, hip angles) and where your knee hits on a particular shaped ribcage. Do you do it on other horses?
 
I was having terrible trouble trying to stop my heels creeping up until I swopped the stirrups for caged ones with a wide bearing surface. Problem solved overnight! I cannot believe the difference it has made with no effort on my part.
 
I used to do a lot of exercises in trot where you do normal rise then you sit for two stand for 2 then sit for 3 stand for 3 and so on til you can stand for longer and helps stabilise your leg and you automatically drop your heels to stand
 
How is your ankle flexibility? Can you easily flex your ankles when not riding or do you have foot conformation like high insteps that stop you doing it easily or at all?
Check out Cavus foot of you think it's the case.
I spent years being told to keep my heels down or stretch my calf muscles both riding and in martial arts, nobody ever mentioning to me that it was the high insteps stopping me doing it.
I only realized in middle age when I was getting ankle pain that this had always been my problem and trying to put the weight through the ankle and heels down was doing damage.
I now just put my feet home in the stirrups and don't force the joint to flex.
May be nothing like you but a thought for anyone having problems as nobody ever thought to mention it to me and just said heels down.
 
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Don't push your heels down or your toes up, rather allow your weight down into them. Allow your heels to take the weight of your body. I used to stand on the edge of a stair and allow my weight to drop into my heels. It's surprising how stable it feels.
 
Are you gripping with your knees?
Think of sitting on your bum and letting your legs hang down either side of the horse from your hips, with the weight going down the back of your legs.

If you grip with your knees, it pushes your seat off the saddle, brings your heels up and lower leg back. It also tips your upper body forward.
 
Red-1 said:
I don't think about heels down, rather I think of making my thigh bone as vertical as I can. The thigh bone drops, knees drop but the foot can't drop as it is in the stirrups, so the heel does.
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This and also work on your hip flexibility and think about dropping your hip bones.
Heels up usually also means gripping with thighs so have a think of that as well.
 
Make sure you’ve got your foot far enough through the stirrup. I rode for years thinking I had the stirrup positioned on the ball of my foot, and then had a lightbulb moment a few years back when someone or another recommended trying it a little further back (think it was either Activate Your Seat or Ride With Your Mind).
 
Am guessing the horse was needing a lot of leg? Really hard to keep heels down on one that’s not off the leg. If they are travelling forward nicely with minimum effort from the rider, it’s so easy to sit in a nice position with you heels down (or feet horizontal, which is what I prefer)
So maybe work on getting horse off the leg (few diff ways of doing this, I tickle mine with the schooling whip if they ignore my leg) and then you might find you don’t have to worry too much about your heels.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I think it's a problem I've always had, regardless of the horse I'm on, but some saddles seem to make it worse. I probably need to adjust my whole leg position! I'm not riding much at the moment (feel guilty riding my old girl at my current weight and haven't got a new pony yet) so not getting much chance to practise. I've not had a lesson for a long while either and I've definitely developed bad habits. 🙁

I had caged stirrups but I sold them!

I'll practice stretching the back of my legs and try and do some other stretches too. I'm riding on Sunday so will try and remember all your tips!
 
If you saw me ride a normal horse these days you would feel incredibly good about how well you ride! I can't ride for Toffee anymore 😂 I tip forwards, stirrups too short because if I put them to the length they should be it feels way too long and all wrong, I ride one handed more often than not, my pelvis is squint so I am a tad lopsided and can rarely sit a canter 😂😂😂 where my heels are would be the least of my problems 😂
 
You've got tight hamstrings and hip flexors (illiopsoas), do a bit of pilates/yoga/mobility type exercises and you'll be grand.
 
So I have really "stiff" ankles and always struggled with "heels down". However someone said to me to put my weight into the outside of my stirrup. So more towards the little toe. It opens your hip and knee and drops the heel. Works for me x
 

A Yoga Program To Improve Ankle Mobility – Yoga For Mountain Bikers

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Anything you can do to stretch your hips and ankles. Squat to sort clothes, do gardening, whatever you do sitting, do squatting like a child watching ants or something - really good for you, your back and everything.

My physio and chiro tell me humans are supposed to squat but we have somehow forgotten this due to chairs.
 
Are your heels up or are they just not down down? For me, I find it better to think about keeping my weight in my knee and keeping pressure on the balls of my foot.
 
tallyho! said:
You've got tight hamstrings and hip flexors (illiopsoas), do a bit of pilates/yoga/mobility type exercises and you'll be grand.
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Probably, but not necessarily and even so they might be tight because of something going on elsewhere. I'd definitely recommend working with an off horse coach such as one from the Equestrian Fitness Institute. Not enough of us do off horse work. There are good classes around but an individual assessment, and starting with a few one to one sessions can be more productive.

jules9203 said:
So I have really "stiff" ankles and always struggled with "heels down". However someone said to me to put my weight into the outside of my stirrup. So more towards the little toe. It opens your hip and knee and drops the heel. Works for me x
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Many riders roll onto the outsides of their feet in an effort to wrap their legs around the horse and in many people this leaves the ball of the foot unsupported. This actually makes instability of the whole.rider worse so generally I'd caution against it.

So many things can be a fix for one problem but they're addressing symptoms and not the root cause, so the fix causes other problems.

Seeing all of this change in a saddle that truly supports the rider's pelvis and allows the leg to wrap around their horse's ribcage makes you realise how much the rest of it is just fiddling around the edges.
 
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