Hello everyone!
You people offered me so much to think about and to learn from through this forum. I’ve only been a member for a short time an already received so many useful tips. So I really wanted to contribute something that might be helpful for some of you. So that’s why I made this video about body posture.
In this video I’m not going to tell you something new. It is not an instructional video. We were probably all told to sit up straight when we started riding. Ears, hip and heal one line and thumps on top etc. Ad least I was but it took a lot of lessons, clinics, books etc before I figured out why we are supposed to sit this way. And I noticed a lot of people I know didn’t new why either. So in this video I’m trying to show you why we should sit on a horse the way instructors tell us to. I won’t be telling you how to ride your horse but just want to show you what will happen if you do and if you don’t have a good body posture. Nothing new but maybe for some of you an eye-opener.
http://youtu.be/5YyfonzodhUhttp://youtu.be/YKlrVYMFaTYI just noticed I forgot to mention pulling the heels up in this video. Pulling the heels up is one of the most dangerous thinks to do while riding. When you pull up your heels it is going to tip you forwards and you are very likely to fall of forwards when your horse suddenly slows down or jumps aside.
You are more likely to pull up your heels when the stirrups are too long. Some people are told to ride with longer stirrups because that would help them to get a deeper seat and a longer leg. This is not working and even dangerous because you will reach down with your toes to try not to lose your stirrups. When your toes reach down your heel will come up which will actually shorten your leg and tip you forward instead of deepen your seat. Also you will be trusting on your stirrups when you need them to help you maintain balance like when your horse spooks, but they won’t really be there. Your foot might even slip through the stirrup because your toes are reaching for them which is of course very dangerous. What does work to get a deeper seat and long leg is ride without stirrups.