Dissecting the Seat - Part 5: Deep Seat vs Light Seat by Dr. Thomas Ritter

What is a deep seat?

You have probably all heard that one of the qualities of a good seat is that it is deep. But what does that mean? For me personally, a deep seat is a seat with a low center of gravity and the largest possible area of support. This lends the seat stability and it allows the rider to feel the horse with her entire body, which is why the old masters used to say that the rider should sit “in” the horse, rather than “on” or “over” the horse. A seat with a high center of gravity and a small support base, on the other hand, is unstable and doesn’t allow the rider to feel the horse very well.

A low center of gravity and a large support base also allow the rider to connect her weight through the horse’s legs to the ground. The seat is then secure and balanced, which leads to a sense of feeling at home on the horse’s back and to relaxation.

Heavy seat

One potential pitfall is that perhaps some riders think that in order to sit deeply they need to ride with extra long stirrups or that they need to sit very heavily on their seat bones. However, stirrups that are too long overextend the rider’s hip, knee, and ankle joints so that they can no longer function as shock absorbers. The support base becomes smaller when the legs are too extended, the rider feels less stable and less independent in the saddle. The femurs tend to rotate outward, and the hip joints tend to lock up. The rider is then no longer able to allow the horse’s back and rib cage to move freely in all directions because she herself lacks the necessary freedom of motion in her leg joints.

When the rider sits heavily on her seat bones, she will prevent the horse’s back from lifting in the long run, which prevents the hind legs from engaging. The horse breaks into two pieces and falls onto the forehand. The connection between the hind legs and the bit through the spine is then severed. The rider’s pelvis and legs need to be able to accommodate the movement of the horse’s rib cage in all directions and to shape it by increasing or decreasing certain movements at any given time. So you could say that the seat has to be deep AND light at the same time. Sometimes it is necessary to create a small space under our pelvis and our seat bones so that the horse can lift his back and engage his hind legs more, which leads to an increase in roundness and throughness. This requires the rider to get support from below the seat bones, i.e. the inner thighs and knees in addition to the bottom of the pelvis and the seat bones.

Hovering seat

The opposite potential pitfall is that riders may want to sit lightly at all times and end up in a permanent 2-point seat, or hovering above the horse. This usually leads to the horse extending his hind legs and pushing the croup up, so that he ends up dropping his back and falling on the forehand as well. Sometimes these horses step under their body with their hind legs, but they don’t flex them. As a result, they may lean onto the bit or invert. If they are short backed or a little croup high, they may forge or the hind legs step on the heels of the front legs because the overloaded front legs don’t lift up in time to get out of the way of the landing hind leg. When the hind legs flex under the weight, the front legs have enough time to lift and make room for the landing hind leg.

Biomechanics of the stride

In each stride the hind legs lift off and swing forward, touch down and flex under the weight, and push the body mass forward by extending their joints. The rider’s seat has to allow all three by flexing and extending her hip, knee, and ankle joints to allow the wave like up and down motion of the horse’s back. In addition, the pelvis has to be able to move in all three dimensions in order to accommodate the movement of the horse’s rib cage and back in all planes. In a neutral seat the rider’s joints flex and extend exactly as much or as little as the horse’s back and rib cage move up and down, forward and back, and left and right. The rider neither increases nor decreases any aspect of the stride.

A heavy seat, in which the entire body weight of the rider bears down all the time, accentuates the flexion of the grounded hind leg at first. But it also keeps it grounded and makes it return to the ground as soon as possible. This has the effect of slowing the hind legs down and preventing them from lifting up and engaging, so that the strides become shorter and the hind legs no longer support the back. The back collapses under the rider’s weight, and the horse inverts or shortens the neck.

A hovering seat does the opposite of the heavy seat in that it never asks the hind legs to flex. On the positive side, it allows the back to lift, but on the negative side, the hind legs become stiffer because they stay more and more extended. This results in rough gaits because there is no shock absorption by the hind legs if they don’t flex, and the back won’t lift and swing if the hind legs don’t act as springs. It can also result in forging and injuries to the heels of the front legs. But it can also lead to tripping or short, minced strides, if the toes of the hind legs drag on the ground.

So what do I do?

A good strategy is to start with a neutral seat that is deep, balanced and supple, not fixed in any one position, with all joints flexing and extending just enough to accommodate the horse’s natural back and hind leg movement. Observe the quality of this movement. What do you notice most? What is good about the walk, trot, or canter that you are riding? What would you like to improve? Is it elastic, springy, round, energetic, or jarring, hard, flat, lifeless? If you are not sure which aspect to change, you can always experiment by accentuating one of the three phases of the stride and observe whether the horse feels better or worse to you. In lessons I often ask students how the horse feels before and after an exercise. Many riders find it very difficult to put their feelings into words. But if you try to describe precisely what you are feeling, you train yourself to feel more clearly and to reflect on what you are feeling. This becomes a very valuable diagnostic tool.

You can accentuate the liftoff and forward swing of the hind leg by not merely letting the horse lift you up, but by supporting yourself more with your knees for a split second and letting your pelvis swing up a little higher than the horse would lift you if you were completely passive. This can be further supported by driving with your lower leg on the side of the hind leg that is lifting off. If you drive a split second before the hind leg lifts off, you can accelerate the hind leg if it’s too slow.

You can accentuate the flexion and weight bearing of the hind leg by letting yourself sink down more and sending your energy and your weight through the flexing hind leg into the ground. This creates shorter and higher steps during the release of the seat aid. If the horse is rushing, you can stay down a split second longer before you allow the horse to lift you up again. This will slow the tempo down. It can be further supported by stepping into the stirrup on the side of the landing hind leg and/or by a half halt on one of the reins.

You can accentuate the extension of the grounded hind leg by engaging your back muscles, sending your weight and your energy down into the ground through the extending/pushing hind leg. You can give a brief push with both knees when the hind leg is on the ground behind the vertical. I also let my pelvis swing up and forward when I want the hind leg to push more. That way I don’t suppress the lifting of the horse’s back in a lengthening and I direct the energy upward as well as forward so that the horse doesn’t fall onto the forehand.

Conclusion

One important thing to keep in mind is not to do everything at once, all the time. But to select one aspect of the stride that you want to improve, accentuate it for 2-3 strides, then return to neutral and observe the effect of your aid. Based on your observation, choose another aspect to accentuate, or repeat the last aid, if it wasn’t enough yet. Sometimes it makes sense to build sequences of aids, e.g. accentuate the lift off/engagement of a hind leg for 2-3 strides, then accentuate the flexion for 2-3 strides. This creates more elastic gaits.

Or accentuate the flexion of the grounded hind leg for 2-3 strides, then accentuate the lift off/engagement. This will lead to shorter, higher, more energetic strides, which can evolve into a passage over time.

You could also engage a hind leg for 2-3 strides, then accentuate the extension of the grounded hind leg for 2-3 strides. This creates more powerful strides and a more solid connection from back to front if a horse tends to hold himself back.

Dr. Thomas Ritter
www.artisticdressage.com

Dissecting the Seat – Part 4: Biomechanics of “Bearing Down” and plugging your seat in with the horse’s movement

Expanding from this post, a more in-depth explanation about the biomechanics of the seat and how it affects the horse’s energy an “thoroughness” in an excerpt from Mary Wanless's Article 42.

…When a rider is having this problem, I like to say "Imagine that we could perform a surgical operation, and insert a fishing rod just beneath the horse’s mane. If it had a small fish on the end of it, it would make a slight curve throughout its length. The whole length of his neck should ideally feel as if it really were hung from a fishing rod. But you may find that the rod has soggy bits, or even that it’s missing completely. What do you sense is happening here?".

People can normally answer this question very easily, and you can probably imagine from looking at the photo that the fishing rod ends two thirds of the way up the horse’s neck. What is much less obvious is that the fishing rod will also be soggy at the base of the horse’s neck. This is the part which the rider must repair first - and amazingly, just thinking like this is often enough to fix the problem! Having reorganized the base of the neck the rider can then successfully think about the top of it …

Horses find it very difficult to make the correct connection from the hind leg, over the croup, under the panels of the saddle, and up the crest of the neck. Think of this as an energy connection, or as water flowing through a hose. When complete the circuit continues through the rein to the rider’s arm and back, so that the energy received into her body rejoins the original conduit. This connection gives the rider a very correct influence, and enables the horse to seek a light contact with the rider’s hand, and, potentially, to "sit himself down". How wonderful horses look when they achieve this! But it requires very skilful, correct riding, and the lengthening of the horse’s spine mirrors the "use" which people aspire to when they have lessons in the Alexander Technique.

This horse breaks the circuit both at the base and at the top of the neck. He also is not "sitting himself down" – if anything I think he is raising his croup to evade this demand. Instead of maintaining the correct connection whilst shortening his whole frame as he would in collection, he has scrunched his neck backwards whilst lifting his croup. So things have gone rather awry - and as always, the rider is unknowingly playing a part in allowing this to happen.

She too has lost the ideal connection in her own spine, this time by stretching it too much and in the wrong way. From her waist she has separated both halves of her body, drawing her ribs up and stretching her legs down. If we could see the shape of her back, I am sure we would find that it is hollow. However, we all hear so much about "growing up tall and stretching your legs down" that our rider will almost certainly believe that she is sitting correctly! But I like to think of riding as a martial art, and this is not the stance used by good martial artists, who understand that this kind of stretching renders you much less stable and effective.

If you stand in a martial arts position and then exaggeratedly grow tall and lift your chest, you will find yourself all but holding your breath. You will also feel very tense and unstable. Then drop your ribs down towards your hips, so that you remove the hollow from your back. (Doing this sideways on to a long mirror will give you the clearest feedback.) For added strength, you can then engage your abdominal muscles in the way I call "bearing down". Cough, giggle, or clear your throat, and then maintain that muscle use. Your major difficulty might then become breathing, for to bear down continuously you must use diaphragmatic breathing, which only seems to come easily to people who run, sing, or who have learnt to play a wind instrument.

Many people who "grow up tall" are shocked by my insistence that they need to drop their rib cage. By comparison, they often feel slouched or round shouldered – so they are convinced that this new idea must be wrong. Some have heard the idea from the Alexander Technique that they should think of themselves "being pulled up by a string attached to the top of the head". These words, however, are intended to describe a much more subtle expansiveness through the whole back and neck, which is not the same as this hollow backed version of growing tall.

The version of "stretching your leg down" which accompanies the wrong way of "growing up tall" becomes an attempt to get your knee beneath your hip to and make your whole leg vertical. This usually generates a strong pressure into the stirrup, which pushes the heel down and forward. If you are sitting in a chair as you read this, push one foot hard down into the floor, and realise how doing so tends to lift that side of your pelvis. Your body is obeying Newton’s third law of motion, which states that "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" ie. every push down will create an equal and opposite push up. This is one of the main reasons why people usually sit to the trot better without their stirrups – for they cannot then push down on them, and do not experience the straightening of their joints which then sends their backside up out of the saddle.

This bodily use opens the angle between the leg and the body too much, and it plays into the horse’s evasive pattern. (It would take me too long to explain to you exactly how this happens.) So to change her horse, this rider needs to change herself, completing her part of the circuit before she can complete his. I would like to see her bring her lower leg back underneath her and lighten her pressure into the stirrup. Creating a vertical shoulder/hip/heel line will make her feel as if her heel is back and up, and the change will probably horrify her! She also needs to spread the weight which does go into the stirrup over the entire width of her foot, and not roll her ankles over to weight the outside of the foot. The next step is to think of the thigh and calf making an arrowhead shape, in which the knee is the point of the arrow. This means that she will no longer be "stretching her leg down" in the way she is now.

Simultaneously, she needs to drop her ribs down towards her hips, and to take the hollow out of her back. This too may horrify her. It is as if she needs to shrink both ends of her body towards the middle – and into a martial arts stance. Then she is in a position for make the "fishing rod" idea work for her.

How to feel the “bearing down”: excerpt from Article 37

With your seat bones pointing down and your feet flat on the floor, put one hand under your sternum, and put the thumb and first finger of the other hand each side of your spine at waistband level. Then clear your throat. You should feel your muscles push out against your hands. Put your hands on your sides and repeat the experiment. Then place the fingers of one hand half way between your belly button and your pubic bone, and clear your throat again.

Sam is riding as if she is doing this permanently. I first called this use of your abdominal muscles ‘bearing down’, although I now think that ‘bear out’ might have been a better term, since it does not make you sit heavier. Wherever you have soft tissue, i.e. in the entire band around your waist between your ribs and your hips, and all down your abdominal muscles from your sternum to your pubic bone, your guts push against your skin. Think of pulling your stomach in, making the muscles into a wall, and then pushing against that wall. It is as if your torso were a jam jar or a baked bean tin, and the contents of the tin are under pressure, pushing against the edges, but without deforming the shape of the container.

The next difficulty arises with the need to breathe and bear down both at the same time. This requires diaphragmatic breathing, which will be familiar to you if you have learnt to sing or play a wind instrument. In this, the ribs expand outwards but do not lift up: think of the air being drawn down into your abdomen, as if pair of bellows down there was sucking the air in.

Bearing down whilst breathing well is a big deal for most riders – I suggest that people practice whilst driving their car, for this has to become a way of life…

….

I’m delving more into the biomechanics of riding, because I believe that a lot of what I am reading here I have either experienced in person while playing around with my seat connection on Copper, or it is something that I need to experience because it’s a missing connection.

The subtle feedback of a horse’s energy into your body as you position your skeleton in different ways – releasing some muscles, holding others – is a endless book to learn from. But I am trying to read this book all by myself and if there is insight to be found, I am more than happy to learn elsewhere!

More pieces of the puzzle are falling into place.

One thing I do know more and more for certain from this journey I’ve been on: THE RIDERS WHOLE BODY INFLUENCES THE HORSES WHOLE BODY

… How I breathe, how I tilt my head, hold my neck, bend or straighten my wrist, shift my left seat bone, etc… It’s a matter of learning where to place each individual part of me so that it is most effective in influencing Copper’s energy and movement. 

The riding masters know that, I wish that more teachers would teach that instead of focusing so much on the horse. Get the rider right and 90% of the work is already done.…

See ya,

bonita

Our FIRST Clinic – An Introduction to Working Equitation

- Concentrating very hard on circling through the triple barrels -

This happened on the 28th of February, 2016… Wowee, that was too long ago! We had a fantastic time at the very first clinic either Copper or I have ever attended!

It was a one day clinic - Introduction to Working Equitation. We started out by learning the history of W.E. and how it came about, and then we moved into the practicalities of how W.E. competitions work – the levels (Introductory, Preliminary, Novice, Medium, Advanced, International: Debutante, ?, Masters), the structure of the trials (4 stages to the competition – Dressage, Ease of Handling*, Speed*, and Team Cattle Trial) etc.**

Next it was time to mount up for the “dressage-ing” portion. We started out as one big group, walking around the arena and halting, moving on, crossing over the diagonal to stretch and release the horses backs.

Then we moved into 5 meter circles on the outside track, and loosened the horses up even more. The whole group started to look really rhythmical and unified turning our circles in synchronization – it was actually really cool! Then we started trotting, and we did 20 meter circles at each end of the arena.

Copper started out super stiff over his back, so much so I was wondering if he was lame(!!) but by the end of this session he was so soft and light. It was so fantastic!! He felt great and I was really enjoying the workout. Then we stopped and did individual sessions for 10 minutes where we ran through an entry level W.E. dressage test.

Unfortunately, by the time Copper and I had our turn, Copper had cooled down and was definitely “done” for the day. One of the side effects of  always working in 20-45 minute sessions – he’s convinced his legs stop working after that length of time unless we are out on the trail!

The meant we spent the better part of our session just loosening up again – we didn’t really get a good run through. I was a bit concerned about how he’d go in the afternoon session because of this, but as it turned out, he was fine.

We broke for lunch, and ran out to pick up Subway, scarfing it down in the car as we rushed back to tack up….. Lol! I’m never prepared food-wise, but oh well.  We made it back in time, ready to get stuck into the fun stuff – the W.E. obstacles!

- Not melting down juuussttt yet… Wait for it! -

Copper took it all in his stride and I was really proud of him! He did so well with everything – even the bull and the garrocha pole. The only one he had a bit of a melt down with was the gate. We’d get two thirds of the way through the obstacle, but after I had maneuvered him up, unlatched it, turned-on-the-forehand through the opening, he just didn’t want to back up the final three steps so that I could close it again. Gah.

Anyway, I ended up having to turn him in a circle up to, and away from the gate, come back along side it, pick up the rope (yeah, it was two jump standards with a rope – not an actual swinging gate) and back him up to latch it. You are not supposed to let go of the rope, so that’s the one obstacle we “failed” and couldn’t complete, but you know what? That’s really not bad at all!!

We did the bell, the side pass pole, the L corridor, the stock pen, the double and triple barrels, the slalom, and the bridge, as well as the gorracha and bull. 

After we had all had a chance to play with the different obstacles there, and have some instruction on how to do them, we then got to do little individual run throughs where we strung some of the obstacles together.

This time I learned my lesson though – I spent five minutes or so warming Copper up before we ran through it, and he did brilliantly! We did the bridge, the slalom, the bell, the L corridor, the triple barrels and finished with the bull. We got told we had a “score” of seven (out of ten – “reasonably good”) *fist pump* and this made me really grin…

It was smooth, easy, Copper was having fun, and we were concentrating and oh – it was brilliant! I reallllly enjoyed it, and I could tell Copper did too – even if he was pooped by then (hehe, I was too!).

- Picking up the ring from the bull with the garrocha pole – it takes a lot of concentration! -

By end of it all, we were both utterly out of energy and all the moves, but it was. so. good.

Copper really calmed down with the work, I could feel his brain settle and really start to work. All of the horses were really listening at the end of the day, and I could feel that Copper could see the “point” to what we where doing. He really enjoyed the thinking aspect of tackling the obstacles – he loved the work I was giving him.

I loved it too – the fact that this combines the best of dressage training (lightness, harmony between horse and rider, feel and more!) plus, fun stuff in the sandbox?? I’m all for it!

I’ve toyed with the idea of eventing before, trying to combine dressage with other kinds of fun, but Copper can’t jump sticks tbh, and doesn’t really enjoy it either. He races because he’s uncertain and scared, and so I get uncertain and scared, and…. We’d never jump anything higher than beginner/Intro level.

But W.E.? I can see us doing a lot more with this. We might even learn how to chase cows!!  Haha!

Plus, I personally believe that W.E. marries the work and principles of dressage far more deeply into the fun side than eventing does.  You can’t do W.E. without the classical dressage training, it just wouldn’t work. The obstacles are specifically designed to test a horse’s balance, collection, lightness in hand, and ease of handling - which I’m not saying that eventing doesn’t do - just not in the same way, or to the same extent. :D

Basically, I’m a fan and I can’t wait to do more WE.

See ya,

bonita 

? I missed that level’s name, but there is one. (-__-)’

*The obstacle course is run twice – once, you and your mount are judged on how precisely and easily you do the course (which can be any variation of any of the 19 WE obstacles, taken in a certain order), and the second time is the speed trial – where you want to get through the course as swiftly as possible.

** For more information please see http://www.workingequitationaustralia.org.au/

Start At The Beginning –The Lesson of Literal Enlightenment

One of the most exciting things about moving to our new paddocks, and this is what I’ve most been looking forwards to (besides the giant indoor arena) is the fact that there are great instructors that come in to teach at the facilities on a regular basis.

A month ago, we had our first lesson with a classical dressage trainer, and ohmygoodnessitwasthebesteverandnowIamsoexcitedit’scrazy!!

*deep breath*

- Waiting around for our lesson to start, we were both suffering from extreme attacks of the needle… He’s spooky and I just feel plain old sick… But as it turns out, we needn’t have worried!  -

I should try not to get ahead of myself, but it really was such a good lesson…. As I remarked to MG (Mighty Guy – Classical Dressage Instructor Extraordinaire!) after the lesson, it was difference between groping around in the dark at a book, unable to read it because it is closed shut and you can’t see. You are struggling to take the next step towards that elusive feeling, and then someone just - *ping!* - turns on the light, opens the book right in front of your eyes, and explains exactly what it means, in great detail - right then and there to you.

It. Was. The. Best. Ever.

We learnt a ton, but we didn’t do much: Halt, flex, walk, counter shoulder in. That was it. Only walking for the whole hour, and I couldn’t keep the grin off my face!

Right from the start, I was told quite simply that Copper doesn’t know any of the basic building blocks of carrying a rider – how to give to the aids. I didn’t know how to teach him that, and we’d never been taught any better. Copper showed how little he knew by marching around with his “race track” walk, which is super fast and not at all a clear, four beat pace, just a churning of the legs!

He needed to slow down and learn to give… And we so were taught how to do that.

What did we learn?

• Copper needs to learn to give to the aids, not react to the aids. He is not soft, and that’s why he is always so twitchy and fast.
• He doesn’t know how to give to the rein aid/and my hand. He holds his tension in his jaw, poll, neck and shoulders. (Haha, tell me something I don’t know!  : P )
• We were taught four flexion exercises for releasing the ligaments under the jaw and neck – all are preformed at the halt, and involved lifting his head and asking him to soften, chew and swallow. The fourth one then asked him to soften over his topline and bring his nose down again without locking up.
• These flexions where done in stages: first one was done at the halt on the ground, then repeated under saddle. Then we had to walk around and halt and ask again for the flexion any time he started to fall downwards towards the forehand, or stiffens his jaw.
• The second and third are pretty much the same one – flexing to the left and right from the poll
• The fourth is asking him to round over his topline all the way along his back and neck.
• We built up through these flexions with a lot of walking around a 20x40 arena space, including changing the rein across the diagonal and asking him to stretch out over his topline. He actually strode out with a clear 1-2-3-4 beat and a nice stretch without falling into his chest! A baby walk-lengthening!! 
• We did the first exercise on both reins and when he was soft, did two and three, one on the left rein first, then the other on the right.
• Then we moved to learning counter shoulder-in. Which was totally confusing for a directionally-challenged body such as myself.
  • The counter shoulder-in started with a walk down the long side, a six meter half-volte at the end, in the corner, which brings you back to face the long side you just walked down.
    
    Then, facing the wall asking for the bend towards the direction you just came from –i.e., back towards the corner – you ask with the inside leg, (which is the one your horse is bending around) for the horse to move in the direction OPPOSITE to your bend; back down the long side.
    
    You should feel the outside shoulder step into your rein and the inside hind crossing underneath as the horse steps over one foot at a time.
    
    The slowing down, but lifting at the front, is crucial to this exercise. Where it can go wrong: the horse rushes through it and looses the true bend from nose to tail, or alternatively, the horse dives down and falls into the bend, leaving his tail trailing off every which way.
    
    When done correctly, you can feel each footstep as the horse moves across, and the shoulders fill both reins.

We were swinging along with the exercise, and then tried a counter-shoulder in along the imaginary fence down the middle of our half of the arena. Yeah, I couldn’t get it AT all… We got hopelessly muddled and I know it was my fault! Even with MG helpfully directing the rein on one side, I still couldn’t get it, so we gave up on that and just worked along the wall.

All too soon the lesson was over, but I was giddy with excitement. I hadn’t stopped grinning like a fool the whole lesson, and I kept giggling, because riding Copper through out this lesson was like riding on a champagne bubble - and just as intoxicating!

He. Felt. Brilliant.

It was the very best I have ever gotten from him, or from any other horse I’ve ever sat on for that matter….

Yes, it was a month ago, but I still remember that pure joy that came from finally understanding how to achieve what I have been chasing these last few years - if not, my entire riding career.

I can NOT wait to do it again….

Even if I did just walk for an hour!

See ya,

bonita

Working Through The Muddle

I think we are working on something good; every ride feels like an improvement, but it’s still a big muddle.  We teetering on the edge of an upgrade – I can sense it, I swear!

 

 

So, quick notes for the interim while we chip away at this:

• I love the new Wide Barrel Loose Ring Comfort Level 1 Myler Snaffle I recently purchased, and I think Copper does too! I think he finds the mouth piece much more comfortable than the French Link Loose Ring Snaffle he was in, as it is thinner as well as shaped.  Boy, that horse has a really fat tongue.  He also can’t lock his jaw around this new bit so easily which means less running off against my seat/hands. A very good thing.
  
• Loads of transitions and longitudinal flexion has turned out to be a natural progression in terms of his schooling; not the step backwards that I thought it was. He is eating it up and behold!  The back has been discovered!  This has resulted in some moments of honest-to-goodness throughness and connection over his back. Yippeee!

All in all, I am super happy with the new direction our rides have taken, and I am so keen to keep exploring this. A level up definitely looms ahead!

 

 

I might actually be able to start working in circles again!  Haha!!  Only an OCD Dressage Diva could possibly be thrilled about riding on a twenty meter circle, but there you are. :D

See ya,

bonita

Dissecting the Seat – Part 2: The Sitting Trot

In this series on dissecting a rider’s seat, I’m looking at a lot of different texts and articles to try and decipher the principles and practice of the classical dressage seat.  This is concerning the sitting trot with an article from the Thoughts on Dressage blog.

The sitting-trot wizard: attaining the golden seat

Executing an effective and comfortable sitting trot is probably the most difficult challenge faced by amateur dressage riders. For most, it is hard to get your body in sync with the horse while still riding effectively. It is like the old hot and cold taps, where you can only have one or the other on at one time. : )

The biggest mistake made by most amateurs is that they try to learn the sitting trot in one step. In other words, they try to go from not even being able to get in the rhythm  - all the way to being in perfect sync with the horse. Many riders try methods such as riding half a circle sitting and then back to rising, or another favorite, being lunged with no stirrups. Unfortunately, a lot of these traditional methods cause the rider to clamp up even more and give the horse a bruised back. Not ideal.

I propose a phased approach:

Phase one: Sit heavy

Before you can have the perfect sitting trot, you as a rider need to learn how to put weight in the saddle. I know many instructors say not to sit heavy like a sack of potatoes as it will not help your horse’s animation. Although this is true, I believe that UNTIL you can learn to sit like a sack of potatoes you will never learn to properly sit the trot. Many riders hover in the saddle and kind of do a fake sitting trot, which looks stilted and awkward. Technically, they are sitting on their seat bones and pinch with the knees. In order to keep the balance with this configuration their seat has to be tense and their pelvic floor raised. It is actually quite an unstable way of riding and it astonishes me that so many riders opt to stick with this method of riding. Clearly, it does take more time and strength to ride a proper sitting trot, but I believe the extra bit of effort is well worth it.

But back to sitting heavy… If you’ve gotten to the point in your riding that you either want to finally learn a proper sitting trot or would like to try sitting trot for the first time than you need to start at phase one. The basic instructions are as follows:

1. Go into a slow trot from a walk
2. Don’t TRY to sit the trot, instead focus on feeling your pubic bone and seat bones as the three point contact in your saddle
3. Once you feel your points of contact, make sure you are sitting up tall and let your full weight rest on these three points.

It is important to keep your horse slow during phase one. Again, the advice many of us get is to keep “riding the horse”. But you must be realistic. At this stage, no matter how much better it would be for you to school your horse while trying to learn the sitting trot, it isn’t going to happen. Your best bet is to let your horse go nice and slow and if possible let them have a soft long contact where they are stretching for the bit. This stretch will help lift their back, which will make it easier for you to sit. Many will feel that they look ridiculous mincing around, sitting like a sack on their horse. You must ignore this for now. You must get used to the idea of allowing your full weight to sit on your three points and by doing so your pelvic floor will relax and lower, which is essential before moving to phase two. Practice your sitting trot near the end of your ride when you and your horse are warmed up. Don’t move on to the next phase until you feel like you’ve had success here first.

Phase two: Animate your seat

Once you feel like it is second nature that you are sitting on your seat bones and your pubic bone rather than putting your weight on your seat bones and knees, you are ready for phase two.  The instructions are as follows:

1. From a walk ask your horse to go into a slow trot
2. Sit heavy as you did before with your three point contact
3. This time you are going to tilt your pelvis (think of a speed boat as it takes off, or if you do yoga think of warrior pose ed: or you can think of sitting on a ball and rolling it forwards with your butt!)
4. Now shut your eyes for a moment and feel the rhythm of the horse, count in your mind the trot steps 1-2-1-2-1-2
5. With your tilted pelvis I want you to animate your seat, not back to front but in little pelvic pushes forwards
6. As you do so you will notice you don’t feel as heavy in the saddle, but the weight that is still there should still be resting on your three points
7. this is the critical piece of phase two – STAY IN FRONT OF THE MOTION. If you try to keep the rhythm of your seat with the horse’s gait you will always be a bit behind the motion. In your mind, you must attempt to stay in front of the motion, what you will accomplish instead is that you will just be in sync. A good example to demonstrate what happens when you are behind the motion can be found when using a trampoline. Have you ever heard the term, stealing someone’s bounce? This happens when you are bouncing on a trampoline with a friend at the same time and one of you slightly bounces just after the other, the first bouncer gets a dead tramp and instead of bouncing high doesn’t go anywhere. This is what happens to your horse when you are behind the motion. You steal his bounce and you as the rider get bounced even higher.

Phase three: Lift

Most riders don’t get past phase two, but if you want to help your horse reach collection you will need to move beyond it. If you keep practicing, you can have a pretty decent position riding in phase two and feel reasonably comfortable at the sitting trot. Phase three is all about helping your horse out, where phase two is about trying not to interfere with your horses motion. In phase three, the idea is to use your seat and body to help animate your horse. Every time your horse lifts his back (and if you were posting you would be rising), you, the rider also actively lift your seat to help the horse get the maximum animation possible for that stride.

The instructions are as follows:  At this point, you are very comfortable in phase two and are in perfect sync with your horses movement. You are not interfering with their gait and you are able to stay in the sitting trot for an extended period of time. As you begin to enter phase three you will make the following changes to your approach and position.

1. Instead of simply doing the pelvic pushes to stay in sync you will now sit even taller in the saddle and actually lift your body straight up during the rise stage of the gait as though someone is pulling you upwards by your helmet.
2. As you work through this change you will notice that you feel like you are almost bouncing in the saddle, don’t be alarmed this is normal
3. you will also notice after a while that you almost feel like you are – in a sense – standing in your tack and getting more stability from your upper inner thighs than your seat, this is also normal.
4. Ultimately, you will be able to aid your horse, providing them with more balance and lift than they would offer without a rider – when this happens you know you’ve attained phase three.

I intend on trialing this process and working on improving my sitting trot seat – I will let you know how it goes!

See ya,

bonita