Maintain Balance in the Saddle
September 5, 2008
Whether you ride western or English, better balance will improve your ride.
Illustration by Jean Abernethy.
AQHA Professional Horsewoman Lynn Salvatori Palm explains that many riders exhibit “an overall stiffness,” which decreases their effective communication with their horses because they can’t truly synchronize with their horses’ motion.
Leaning forward and looking down also deter riders from having a great ride.
Maintaining balance is one of your most important responsibilities on the back of a horse.
Once you get into good balance, you have to keep practicing to maintain it, Lynn says. You have to keep yourself in good shape and continually assess yourself, no matter how advanced a rider you are. She suggests having someone take pictures of you while you’re riding.
Find Your Ideal Seat Position
Lynn explains a great way to learn how to feel when your seat bones are positioned correctly:
“Sit on a hard-bottomed chair, with your feet in front of you. If you tilt forward with the upper body (with an arched back), you’ll feel yourself sit on your crotch. If you sit (correctly) straight up and down, you should feel the points of your two seat bones, the bottom of your pelvis. If you lean back (with a rounded back), then you’re sitting on your tailbone.”
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9 Comments on “Maintain Balance in the Saddle”
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September 11th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Also remember a lot of balance is having your heels down for flexibility and shock absorption to your horse.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
A balance trick I learned a long time ago was to hold the reins in one hand and place your hand, palm out, in the small of your back. Squaring your shoulders will assist you in gaining proper balance.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
I have been riding very well. but then i had a fall, since then the very horse that would react to my every direction doesn’t obays me atal. what shall i do and how shall i make my balance. the horse seems to slip away from underneath me. Plz do answer
May 26th, 2009 at 8:27 am
[...] Work on balance. You have to really think about and work at keeping your body in the correct position. Keep your arms and hands [...]
May 17th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
[...] try to judge each horse on his correctness of gait, precision of patterns, consistent performance, balance, eye appeal and by the point system that AQHA has in place. Everyone should, at least one time, [...]
June 15th, 2010 at 6:02 am
[...] you want to learn to rope later in life, then spend a lot of time riding and developing your balance. Some of our amateur competitors come to the house, and we gather cattle in the mountains or take [...]
June 28th, 2010 at 6:02 am
[...] If the saddle is not the right size for the rider and the stirrups will not adjust to the correct length, don’t compromise the safety of the rider by letting him ride because the rider relies more on those stirrups for balance. [...]
August 13th, 2010 at 11:34 am
[...] on. This is considered neutral for the joints in your body. When you mount up, take notice in the change of your alignment. Your hips are open (abducted), the knee, slightly bent in flexion, is wrapped around your horse, [...]
August 24th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
I’ve been having trouble with my balance on my horse, but recently I learned that breathing is an essential part of it, to breathe from your diphagram. Then, immediatly after, I heard that looking where your’e going is tied in with that as well. You have to open your eyes, look ahead at where you’re going, not where you are, and don’t focus hard on one object. The key for most riders is letting yourself flow with the horse and keep up with your motion. Flowing with the horse is not looking brtween their ears, it is constantly adjusting your focal point and taking in the whole scene in front of you. You got eyes. Don’t be blind.