Rider position and the importance of working on it
“A straight, equal, balanced rider promotes a straight, balanced horse…”
Why as riders it is important to think about our position
It is very easy for riders to become fixated on our horses being in a correct outline but are we spending enough time working on our position being correct, supple and balanced enough to help our horses achieve this?
We’ve all heard it hundreds of times, imagine a straight line through the top of the head, elbow, hip, heel and elbow to the horses mouth, but how often is our weight distribution and straightness in the saddle actually talked about?
Horses like people are generally stronger on one side, like us being left or right handed. This means that a straight ,equal, balanced rider is able to help promote a straight, equal, balanced horse. A rider sitting more to one side or crooked is going to encourage the horse to be the same.
Nobody is perfectly symmetrical but the more unilateral and isolation work we do the more we will improve on this.
A good example of this would be my mum. She is a happy hacker and bought an ex HOYS winning highland pony. He was obviously very well schooled, so much so that when mum was in the arena on him she was getting very frustrated as to why she couldn’t get him to walk in a straight line. The problem was she was sitting crookedly in the saddle and he thought he was being asked to leg yield.
“Stretch and lengthen the tight overactive muscles … ”
Common position errors and how to ‘fix’ them
There are many position error common in riders, examples of them include, rounded shoulders (kyphosis), an anterior pelvic tilt, dropping the shoulder on one side, swinging lower leg, gripping with the knees etc. I won’t go into great detail on all of these but will touch on the most common ones and how we can fix them.
When looking to improve our position we need to identify the overactive and under-active muscles which are leading to the positional error to then stretch and lengthen the tight over active muscles and strengthen the under-active weaker muscles.
Rounded shoulders -
Arguably the most common positional error in riders, and the most easy to spot and hardest to disguise. It is an extremely common posture error, especially in those with a 9-5 desk job. How many times have we heard instructors should shoulders back over and over… That’s all and well telling people to do that but, with a clear over and under-active muscle it is pretty near impossible to hold and maintain. I have been particularly bad with having rounded shoulders in the past so I know my self how hard it is to stop this when the only suggestion to ‘fix’ this is to put my shoulders back rather than understanding how and why this was happening and exercises I could do to help improve this.
With rounded shoulders the overactive muscles have become tight and are pulling the shoulders into a forwards position. The main culprits for this are often the pecs and upper traps, in combination with a general lack of thoracic mobility.
Under-active muscles that have become weak and are failing to pull the shoulders back into a neutral position. The main culprits are typically the traps (mid and lower) and the serratus anterior (a fan-shaped muscle that originates on the superolateral surfaces of the first to eighth or ninth ribs at the lateral wall of the thorax…. It acts on the scapula and is the prime mover in both scapular protraction and scapular upward rotation…most importantly to remember is it is a key scapular stabiliser, keeping the shoulder blade against the ribcage at rest and during movement).
Exercises to help stretch the pectoral msucles and the upper traps would include doorway pec stretch, hands behind the back, wall slides, floor angels. Exercises to help stretch the traps would include ear to shoulder stretch, cobra pose, and cat cow.
Anterior pelvic tilt ( overarched lower spine)-
Anterior pelvic tilt is a change in posture that happens when the front of the pelvis rotates forward, and the back of the pelvis rises. It is often caused by excessive siting or lack of physical activity. With riders, it is more common to see this in females as we can sit differently to men. As I was taught to isolate for sitting trot, it is easy for women to sit on our lady parts rather than our seat bones. If we sit on our lady parts we automatically have an anterior pelvic tilt, whereas is we sit correctly, on our seat bones we are automatically encouraging a more correct position and engaging our abdominals more easily.
Anterior pelvic tilt is caused by the shortening of the hip flexors, and the lengthening of the hip extensors. This leads to an increased curvature of the lower spine and upper back. Weak abdominals also play a role in an anterior pelvic tilt.
Exercises to help improve an anterior pelvic tilt include hip flexor stretch, seated butterfly stretch, bridge pose, lunges and more.
For more information on stretches to help improve rider position or posture then join the members site which has more detail and exercise demos to go alongside…
A straight, balanced, equal rider promotes a straight and balanced horse .
Being able to identify the under-active and overactive muscles is the first step into correcting your position in order to help improve your horses way of going.
Contact me about programs to help give you and your horse a more balanced ride!
X Lucy
