Toes pointing out help!

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erwina

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Can anyone give any suggestions on how help me keep my toes in when riding, try my hardest to keep them in but they just revert back out :-)
 
Toes up and in, heels down and out! That's how I was taught and always found it easier to turn my heels down and out than my toes up and in! Lol
 
Just relax your leg. If they're pointing out it sounds like you've tensed your lower leg ? Maybe try longer stirrups or lots of no stirrup work.
 
When you first mount and several times during a ride, place your hand under your mid thigh from the back and pull all the muscle/fat/flab to the back. This will turn your knee forward and your toe.
It will feel strange at first but persist and it will help you a great deal.
 
When I first started riding I though I'd never get it right. It seemed like a very odd position to get my legs into.
I actually think that the correct position starts in the hip. My RI used to try to get me to lift my legs outwards but my hip used go into a spasm. After several lessons without stirrups things started to loosen up and stretch along the inner thigh and hips. Then one day I looked own and toes were pointing forwards. I remember commenting to RI "when did that happen lol :D
 
I have the same problem :mad:

I was self-taught to ride at age 9 or 10 so never had it corrected young. Now I'm in my late 40's (*sigh*), I just don't seem to bend any different.
 
Don't focus on your feet, focus on your inner thigh & knee. Don't grip with them, but putting a whip, piece of paper, blade of straw etc under your thigh, that falls if you turn your knee out helps. And either bareback or no stirrups, turning legs outwards with your leg hanging down is harder than with a stirrup there to balance on.
 
Foxhunter49 said:
When you first mount and several times during a ride, place your hand under your mid thigh from the back and pull all the muscle/fat/flab to the back. This will turn your knee forward and your toe.
It will feel strange at first but persist and it will help you a great deal.
Click to expand...

^^^^ This. It's how I fixed mine :)

That and my boss would scream out DUCK FEET at me whenever I did it and refuse to let me ride his horses unless he saw that I was attempting to fix them. The horses were worth it (Imported Warmbloods by Royal Olymp, Belissimo M and Dancier respectively)... It made me improve quick smart with that sort of motivation :) haha
 
When I learnt to ride about thirty years ago it was very much about rolling your thigh round and heels right down and out. When I came back about five years ago my RI is more focussed about soft knees and not gripping with them. It makes it harder to get heels down and out but she also says not to try too hard as long as they are parallel with heels slightly down. If you aim for this and keep your leg relaxed then it will make it easier.
 
About £50 at the chiropractors should do it! I had toes out but physically couldn't get them in, if I forced them I got cramp. Chiropractors did 2 sessions on my (involving what felt like joining my bum cheek to my ear! ). Over 30 years of riding & walking at 10 to 2 & it's fixed in half snow hour. The worse bit was learning to walk on my feet differently, got quite painful using different parts, but was fine after a week. I didn't tell my RI I had been & she was shocked to see the difference. Riding has improved bounds as has my position.
 
Your feet, knee cap and hip are conformationaly in alignment so if your feet turn out then your hip will be collapsing and you will not be sitting on your seat bones with your weight supported down your thigh. It is also likely that your hip flexors are not 'firing up' your leg should hang like a wet rag around your horse's trunk. Hope this helps but if try to find someone who will work on your core stability and skeletal alignment using a static or mechanical horse. If your are near SE Wales pm me and I will give you a contact name and number.
 
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