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Coordinating Aids
By Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett
Dressage Department Head, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
We use corridors of aid pressures to create a feel in the horse of a shape we want his body to take. Refinements in the positioning, intensity, timing and release of our basic seat, leg, and rein aids convey information about gait, speed, direction and the degree of collection we want. We aspire to the clear, precise coordination of aids that allows us to flow from one movement into the next then the next as we ride. In our daily riding sessions, however, "aspire" is more often the operative word than our actual experience.
Applying coordinated aid pressures is a continual riding challenge for several reasons. First, we learn aids in theory as though seat, leg and rein operated quasi-independently of each other. Second, it takes hours in the saddle to transfer theoretical understanding of the aids into muscle memory that allows us to apply an aid correctly, modify it as the situation may require from moment to moment, and apply it with proper timing. Third, even when the rider may be fit and skillful, the horse may lack the fitness or full understanding of the aids necessary to respond correctly.
Teaching Aids One by One. While coordination of a whole corridor of aids is the ultimate goal, we teach the aids individually because that is the easiest way to explain them and to learn them. For example, when I teach the half halt, I start by explaining how to influence the horse with the seat as this is the most difficult part for students to grasp. Once they understand how their seat influences a horse, we move on to leg aids and, finally, to rein aids.
The majority of riders like to do everything with their hands and the use of leg comes more or less easily to most people once they master the concept of not gripping with the thigh. I teach rein aids last because the majority of riders rely too heavily on rein aids to direct their horse. Either they use rein aids alone or they use too much rein and not enough seat and leg. So, in the beginning, I do not focus on rein aids. Though I start with seat aids, eventually I want students to coordinate all three of their aids to achieve correct response.
Rider Understanding Versus Physical Ability. In reality, the horse always experiences our aids as a complete package of pressures whether or not we are applying them intentionally and whether or not we are applying them correctly. One rider may have a clear theoretical understanding of the package of aids for a particular movement but lack the body awareness or physical fitness to apply or modify the aids correctly. Another may have no difficulty applying a corridor of aids at one gait but struggle at another.
Look at an example of what typically happens when theory meets the real world as a rider attempts a circle to the right. In theory:
The rider starts by setting the rhythm with her seat then, simultaneously,
she drops the right hip to add more weight on right seat bone,
applies right leg pressure at the girth to activate the inside hind leg and to ask the horse to bend its body to the right along the arc of the circle,
lays her left leg against the horse's side just behind the girth to hold the horse's haunches on the circle and ready, if needed, to apply pressure to keep them from drifting to the outside,
opens her shoulders like a door while spiraling them to the right, turning only enough to stay in balance over the horse's center of gravity and direct him along the 'straight' line of the circle.
looks in the direction of travel along the circle as an aid to shape her spiraling seat,
slightly positions the horse's head to the inside with the right rein, and, if needed, uses the outside rein to adjust the degree of bend or to keep the horse's shoulders from falling out.
Whew! That is a lot to coordinate correctly. In actuality, most people drop their right shoulder or lean to the inside when asked to drop weight onto their right seat bone (think of staying on a balance [UTF-8?]beam—gymnasts must keep their shoulders directly over their hips or they will fall off the beam). Sometimes riders spiral their shoulders too much or not at all which means they are not in alignment with the horse's shoulders. If a rider turns her shoulders too far, she throws her weight onto her outside seat bone (to the left, in this example). If she spirals too far, she is focusing too much on just one part of the corridor of aids. The majority of the time, riders rely on the inside rein aid alone to turn their horses and do not use their seat or legs at all.
Horse feedback can be an invaluable training tool when a rider is learning to coordinate a full corridor of aids. Some horses give riders validation like our Sassafras who turns obligingly from correct seat and leg aids alone with no rein aids needed. She can boost the confidence of a rider just learning to apply seat and leg aids, even if the rider is still making some mistakes with her reins.
Some horses, like Clyde, give riders fits. Clyde, a 35-year-old Appaloosa with camp experience under his girth, is a master teacher because he demands that his riders be 100 percent correct with a full corridor of aids before he acknowledges their requests. If even one aid is not quite right, Clyde chooses to ignore them all. He may refuse to come off the rail and just keep barreling forward. Or he may duck to the outside if his rider pulls on the inside rein (they may position the rein, thank you, just do not pull on it). If a rider does not keep the rhythm correctly with her seat, he runs off at the trot. If the rider's seat rhythm asks him to speed up or slow down, Clyde just keeps trucking forward at the same pace. Clyde's frustrating behavior is what makes him a great teacher. Students must learn to organize all of their aids and time them correctly. Once they have worked through all of their problems, Clyde becomes very obliging and they experience the satisfaction of coordinating a full corridor of aids. Thanks to Clyde, they now own that corridor.
Horse Understanding and Fitness. Like riders, horses move along learning curve as they develop an understanding of the meaning of individual aid pressures and respond to them equally well at every gait. No matter how knowledgeable, skilled and fit the rider, a green horse may simply not understand what a corridor of aids means. A horse that is unfit or dealing with other physical issues may be unable to respond. An uncooperative horse may decide to ignore the rider or to kick or buck in annoyance.
For example, the rider may only need to weight the right seat bone to ask a sensitive green horse to turn to the right. However, the horse's response to the rider's question is incomplete because the horse does not yet understand how to bend around the inside leg. The horse needs to learn and understand a more sophisticated response to a full corridor of aids in order to stay bent and balanced on the circle or turn.
This is why we work with instructors until we become confident about our skills. A knowledgeable ground person can help a rider sort out that age old question is it me or is it the horse or is it a bit of both and make the necessary modifications in what she is doing based on the horse's level of understanding and fitness.
In the beginning, riders focus on individual aids at individual gaits. We ask the horse to take a shape then answer his response with a modified request. We ride stride by stride, constantly adjusting our communication with our horse. As the coordination of our aids becomes more automatic or instinctive, we slowing reach the top of the riding tree where we are able to influence a horse. In the meantime, remember that every rider and every horse is a work in progress and be patient.
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© 2010 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett has earned numerous United States Dressage Federation horse awards including Bronze and Silver Medals on horses she has trained. She competes her horses at Training through FEI levels. As a Certified Riding Instructor she brings over 20 years of experience to her position as Head of the Dressage Department at Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (147 Saddle Lane, Waverly, WV 26184; 800-679-2603; www.meredithmanor.com), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.
Leg Aids: Thigh Bone Connected to the Hip Bone
By Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett
Dressage Department Head, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
WAVERLY, WV: you hope to give your horse clear requests with your leg aids, there is no wiggling out of some basic work on your seat. Before you can apply leg aids correctly, you must be able to follow the motion of the horse's gaits with your seat, using strong core muscles to hold you in balance so that your lower body can relax and move in rhythm with the horse. It can take months, even years, of riding to achieve this.
All of your body parts are connected. Tension held anywhere from your jaw to your toes interferes with your ability to communicate clearly with your horse. Grippy thighs or stiff ankles bounce you out of the saddle. Clamping calves or feet braced against the stirrups make it impossible for your legs to move on and off the horse's sides in rhythm with the gait. These muscles must be relaxed so you can apply leg aids with many degrees of pressure.
It is hard to 'see' the degrees of leg pressures. So let's go to a visual of a whip, an easily observed artificial aid. Novice riders apply their whip only two [UTF-8?]ways—a light tap or a hard tap. Seasoned riders have at least ten whip pressures available in the vocabulary they are developing with their horse. The first pressure is simply carrying the whip. The second is laying it against the horse's side. The third is just a very light on/off touch with the whip. The fourth is a quicker, crisper touch. The fifth is that light tap most people start with. The sixth is a firmer tap, the seventh is a medium tap and so on up until you get to ten. Ten is a shout, maybe even a bellow. Most riders will never need to use a ten. But understanding the range of pressures available helps you use your whip aid in a way that is clear to the horse.
Horses naturally understand that pressure escalates when a request is ignored because they do it all the time among themselves. If you watch a group of horses in pasture, you will see them constantly exchanging subtle, small signals like a wrinkled nose or pinned ear or a cocked hind leg to convey a message. If the other horse ignores the initial message, the signals become more noticeable. It is not until the other horse continues to ignore the message that a mare may charge with bared teeth or turn and let loose with both barrels. Similarly, you want to use the least amount of aid pressure, and the least reinforcement of the pressure, that will get a response from the horse. But if the horse does not respond, you need to escalate and reinforce, then release the pressure when you achieve the desired result.
The degree of leg aid pressure the horse responds to will vary from day to day, even minute to minute. Many factors come into play. Does the horse live in a stall or out in a pasture? When was the last time he had turnout? Did he work yesterday or was his last work session four days ago? What is the horse's basic personality and what is the mood of the day? Is it 90 degrees or 20 degrees?
How consistently you applied your leg aids the last time you rode can also affect the horse's response during today's ride. Let's assume that when you last you rode your horse, you bumped with your legs to ask him to move on a little faster and nothing happened. You did not get the response you wanted but you just let things go along. A few strides farther along the arena wall, you applied your leg aids again and, once again, the horse paid no attention to them. Maybe about the fourth time you squeezed harder with your legs and you added a little tap to reinforce your leg aid. The horse finally realized that your leg bumps meant 'more energetically, please' and responded to your aids.
If you apply and reinforce your leg aids inconsistently, your aids will not have any consistent meaning to your horse. So, when you apply those same leg bumps at your next schooling session, the horse will still not understand if you are asking him for something specific or just banging your legs against his sides randomly. If you consistently apply a pressure and immediately reinforce it if the horse does not respond, the horse quickly makes the association between the aid and its meaning in terms of a shape or direction you want him to take.
Whether your reinforcement is a stronger application of the aid or a touch with the whip, the timing of any reinforcement of an aid is critical. Unless the correction follows the aid request within a split second, the horse cannot make the connection between the two events.
The horse's basic temperament can also affect how you apply and reinforce your leg aids. Let's look at two ends of the horse spectrum. Walley, my upper level horse tends to be a little lazy. If he ignores my leg aids and I reinforce them by squeezing harder, he begins to go slower or may even react with a passage. This is lovely but it is also his way of getting out of giving me a forward response to the leg aid. A quicker pressure with the leg or pulsing the leg on and off in quick sequence works better to get a forward response than a stronger squeeze.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is my horse, Cory. This big Oldenburg is a much hotter, somewhat insecure horse who needs constant reassurance. Laying a supportive leg against his side as a suggestion to move forward is all the encouragement he needs. My legs are 'on' but not squeezing. Horses like this often launch themselves forward from any sort of bump. Although it is hard to convince some riders that a very light, constant leg pressure will calm their reactive horses, a constant pressure does not chase or increase the energy level of a horse the way an active on-off pressure does. A constant pressure, like the pressure of the girth, gradually goes away after the horse first notices it. So, a very soft, steady leg pressure against their sides can be a comfort zone for these horses.
We discussed the feel of following the horse's motion at each gait in previous articles. The application of driving leg pressures that ask the horse to go forward also varies from gait to gait. At the walk, leg pressures alternate from side to side in motion with the swing of the horse's hips. At the rising trot, both legs squeeze simultaneously in the sitting phase and release on the rising phase (if you reverse this, you will be out of rhythm). When rising, you can only drive with your leg aids every other stride. The sitting trot becomes more aerobic because you can now drive at every stride with the swing of your hips matching the swing of the horse's hips. This rhythmic pulsing becomes a 'keeping' leg for the horse's forward momentum.
In the three-beat canter, you squeeze with both legs as the horse's back reaches its 'up' phase. As you feel your hips lift, your calves 'lift' the horse then release as the back flattens out at the beginning of the next canter cycle. This lift/release, lift/release leg pressure in rhythm with the horse's motion is often easier for many riders than the trot leg aids.
Again, unless you have developed a feel for the horse's motion and an ability to follow it with your seat, you will not be able to develop the correct feel for applying your legs aids under different circumstances or for understanding whether the horse's response to the aids was correct. Use your horse's feedback and keep experimenting with degrees of pressure and reinforcement to figure out what works for that horse, that day. Your goal is a calm, attentive horse that responds quietly to your aids as soon as you apply them.
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© 2009 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett has earned numerous United States Dressage Federation horse awards including Bronze and Silver Medals on horses she has trained. She competes her horses at Training through FEI levels. As a Certified Riding Instructor she brings over 20 years of experience to her position as Head of the Dressage Department at Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (147 Saddle Lane, Waverly, WV 26184; 800-679-2603; www.meredithmanor.com), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.
Talking With Your Seat
By Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett
Dressage Department Head, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
WAVERLY, WV: Until you can follow your horse's motion at the walk, trot, and canter (the subject of our last three articles), the feel of your seat aids on his back does not convey a clear request to your horse. You also must be able to follow the horse's motion before you can quietly apply rein and leg aids in coordination with your seat. You need strong core muscles to hold your upper body erect and flexible hips to follow the rhythm of the horse's back as it lifts and rolls in a different motion at each gait. When you can follow the motion, you are ready to apply your seat aids without 'noise' in a way that is meaningful to the horse.
Beginning riders say a million things to their horses at the same time. Their seat bounces all around in the saddle while they pull, grab, grip and slap with their hands and legs. At this point in a rider's education a goldie oldie school horse that ignores these beginners' mistakes and just keeps traveling along the rail in a nice rhythm really is truly priceless. Once you can follow the motion, your body understands the basic feel of your seat aids. Now you can practice applying them in ways that feel clear and meaningful to the horse.
As an oversimplified example, if you are following the motion at the walk and you stop following it, your horse feels the difference and stops. You can use your seat aids (or some books refer to them as weight aids) to ask your horse to start, stop, or back up. As your communication becomes more sophisticated, you can also ask him to move sideways, adjust his speed within a gait or adjust his degree of suspension within a gait. Start by practicing some simple exercises in coordinating your seat aids with rein and leg aids at the walk.
Stopping your Horse - As you follow your horse's motion at the walk, feel your hips swinging in rhythm with the horse's footfalls. As the horse's barrel swings left and right, your lower legs alternately pulse left and right to encourage the horse forward. As your reins maintain a light and steady contact with the bit, your hands oscillate forward and back as they follow the bobbing rhythm of the horse's head.
When you want the horse to halt, you take in a deep breath. As you let your breath out, sink into your seat bones, stop following with your hips, stop pulsing with your legs and stop following with your hands. Without any dramatic gestures on your part, your horse will feel the cessation of following movement and he will halt.
Some authors talk about 'burdening' the seat or 'bracing' the back. I dislike the latter term because it implies muscle tension. You use muscle strength, not muscle tension. You should feel like you are relaxing into the saddle and sitting deeper into it. Sit straight up in a chair with your hand on your lower back. Now take a deep breath and release it while keeping your back muscles relaxed (keep sitting straight!). You will feel your lower back belly out a half an inch or so. It is a very subtle change but one the horse completely understands as a feel that means 'stop.' If you fall behind the vertical, round your shoulders, or collapse your middle, you garble your request. Your hands do not pull back, even an inch. Your legs simply stop asking for forward as your hands stop following the bobbing of the head.
Walking Off - To ask your horse to walk off, begin pulsing with the legs, lighten your seat bones by breathing in, and resume following with the hands and pulsing with the legs. With a trained horse, the sequence starts with the leg aids. However, coordination among the aids for 'walk on' may depend on the horse's training level and on whether he is lazy, excitable or somewhere in between.
If it is hard to lighten your seat bones without tensing your back or lower leg muscles, think of 'growing tall' or stretching your neck to the sky as you breath in. Keep sitting straight and don't stand in your stirrups or arch your back. If you 'overburden' your seat bones in asking for a halt, you risk falling behind the motion when you ask your horse to walk off.
Speed Adjustment - If you want your horse to walk out faster, pulse or squeeze your legs in the increased rhythm you would like and immediately allow your hips to follow with an increased swing. If your hip swing does not match the request from your legs, the horse gets a mixed message and will not extend his walk. At the same time, your elbow joints open and close a bit more as your rein contact follows the increased motion of the horse's head.
As your legs ask 'more forward,' your seat and hands must immediately follow the increased motion with 'more forward' aids as well. Otherwise, the horse gets conflicting signals. Depending on his temperament he may ignore them or express frustration.
To slow the horse's walk, slow your aids. Depending on your horse's training and temperament, pulse or squeeze your legs in a slower rhythm or momentarily stop driving altogether until the horse's speed matches what you want. At the same time, slightly burden your seat without ceasing to follow the motion completely as you would when asking for a halt. Gradually slow the swinging motion of the seat until the desired rhythm is achieved. Your hand oscillation should slow as the horse's head motion slows.
Be careful not to fall behind the vertical rather than lightly burdening your seat bones. Rather than pulling back on the reins to slow the horse, just slow the oscillation of your hands forward and back as they following the bobbing of the horse's head.
Following the horse's motion at the walk, trot, and canter enables riders to coordinate their aids and take communication with their horses to new levels. When you have a solid foundation for your seat aids, you can then become more conscious of what you are actually saying to your horse with your rein or leg aids and of how the horse is responding to subtle adjustments in any aid. As you learn to coordinate your seat aids with leg and rein aids, your communication with your horse will take a quantum leap.
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© 2009 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett has earned numerous United States Dressage Federation horse awards including Bronze and Silver Medals on horses she has trained. She competes her horses at Training through FEI levels. As a Certified Riding Instructor she brings over 20 years of experience to her position as Head of the Dressage Department at Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (147 Saddle Lane, Waverly, WV 26184; 800-679-2603; www.meredithmanor.com), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.
Following the Horse's Motion at the Trot
By Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett
Dressage Department Head, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
WAVERLY, WV- Most riders easily learn how to sit equally on their seat bones and follow the motion of their horse's hips with their own hips at the walk. Successfully following your horse's motion at the walk, however, does not mean that you will automatically be able to follow the motion at the trot.
The walk is a four-beat gait with no moment of suspension. It is relatively easy to feel the left/right forward swinging motion of the horse's hips at the walk while staying balanced over your seat bones with all muscles relaxed yet firm. The trot has a moment of suspension when none of the horse's hooves are on the ground. Riders who are unable to follow the horse's hips at the trot often grip with their thighs or tip forward when this 'bounce' occurs (and some horses are bouncier than others).
Also, the swing of the horse's hips at the trot is generally quicker than it is at the walk. This feels different to the rider. The bigger the horse's trot, the more likely a rider grips with the thigh and bounces. The bigger the horse's trot, the more it feels as though both hips are swinging forward at the same time, rather than swinging left/right. If your horse has a slower, flatter trot (a typical pleasure horse trot, for example), you may still feel a slight left/right movement in the swing of the hips.
Following the swing of the horse's hips at the trot is basically the same as it is at the walk. Push your horse forward at the walk by moving your hips faster, then exaggerate the motion even more until the horse transitions to a trot. Keep swinging your hips to get the feel of this motion. Later you will ask the horse to trot with leg aids, then follow the motion with your hips instead of pushing with the hips. In the beginning, however, using your hips to push your horse from a walk into a trot helps the rider understand that the swing of the hips at the trot is the same tipping motion as it is at the walk with a different rhythm.
I describe the motion of the hips at trot to students in different ways:
· Think of lifting with your pelvis.
· Think of swinging the horse's back into your hands with your hip.
· Think of crunching your abdominal muscles to lift the pelvis up and forward toward your hand (be careful not to let the upper body drop forward when thinking of this abs "crunch” just lift the lower abs up to the upper abs).
· Think of doing a pelvic tilt every stride.
· Think of lifting the horse's back with your hips with each stride.
Bouncing your legs in rhythm to your horse's trot (at the sitting trot) is an exercise that can help you swing your hips correctly. If you bounce your legs in a gentle upward/downward motion, your hips will start to swing in the same upward/downward motion simply because your hipbones are connected to your thighbones (sing the tune, if you like!). This exercise also helps riders with a tendency to tip forward because it helps to position them deep in the saddle with a straight back. When you tip forward, it is impossible to swing your hips to follow the horse. This exercise also helps riders loosen any grip with their thighs. When you grip with your thighs, your hips lock and are unable to swing.
Another exercise that can help you find the feel of the hip swing at the trot is to hold onto a grab strap placed on the front of your saddle (or, even better, hold onto your crossed stirrup leathers while working without stirrups on a longe line). As you hold on, focus on the horse's bounce. Try to bounce your elbow, hip, knee and ankle in rhythm with your horse. You want to move with your horse's body as it is moving. You do not want to hold your body steady by tensing your muscles. Ironically, the more you relax your muscles and move your joints as your horse moves his, the steadier you will be without tension or gripping. The horse is in constant motion, therefore you must be in constant motion in order to achieve steadiness. As you ride:
· Try to pull your seat into the deepest part of the saddle.
· Try to straighten your spine.
· Try to open the shoulders and upper body area without arching your lower back or collapsing your upper body.
· Try to loosen your thighs so you are not gripping.
· Try to bounce your legs in rhythm with the horse at the sitting trot.
Now try to swing your hips. Even though holding onto the grab strap or crossed stirrups may introduce tension in your arms, the exercise should help you loosen your shoulders, thighs, knees, ankles, etc. in order to swing your hips. If these essential joints are tight, your hips will be locked, too, and be unable to swing. When your hips are locked, you bounce more, which makes you grip more, which makes you bounce more and a vicious cycle begins.
Muscle tension in any joint will make the rider bounce and this hurts the horse's back. A lazy horse copes by slowing down. A tense horse is more likely to speed up or even start running to get away from the discomfort. Bouncing at the trot does not influence the horse in positive ways. When you get it right, the swing of your hips at the trot can either maintain the gait, slow the gait, or increase the gait. You do this by using your core muscles to set the rhythm and pace. If the rider deliberately (or accidentally) introduces a right/left swing to the hips at the trot, it slows the horse down. By holding the swing of the hips for just a nanosecond, the rider's core muscles can direct the horse's forward energy upward, helping the horse spring off the ground.
Following the horse's motion at the trot might seem impossible when you first try. Keep moving from walk to trot and back again to remind yourself that you can follow the horse's motion. When you finally 'get it' at the trot, your communication with your horse will move new levels.
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© 2009 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett has earned numerous United States Dressage Federation horse awards including Bronze and Silver Medals on horses she has trained. She competes her horses at Training through FEI levels. As a Certified Riding Instructor she brings over 20 years of experience to her position as Head of the Dressage Department at Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (147 Saddle Lane, Waverly, WV 26184; 800-679-2603; www.meredithmanor.com), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.
Correct Rider Position - LOWER BODY
By Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett
Dressage Department Head, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
WAVERLY, WV--Your body position influences the way your horse stands and moves. If you sit crooked or off balance, your horse's compensations will reflect those position faults. Understanding and mastering a good position is part theory, part practice. Your mental image of correct position must match the reality of how that position feels when you are in the saddle. Correct position is the starting point for anyone who aspires to achieve the independent seat that allows you to influence every move your horse makes.
As viewed from the side, you may have your ear, shoulder, and hip correctly aligned and perpendicular to the ground. However, if your heels are ahead of the ideal vertical alignment of ear, shoulder, hip and heel you are sitting in a chair seat. If you glance down and see any toe, it is a sure bet that your upper body and lower body are out of alignment. A chair seat puts you on the back of your saddle, behind your horse's motion, and puts more pressure on your horse's back than necessary. Since you may also feel out of balance, you may tip forward to try to get in balance with your horse, compromising your vertical alignment even more.
You must relax your thighs in order to align your heels with your hips. Achieving long, relaxed thigh muscles requires both stretch in the hip flexor muscles, which pull the leg forward when tight, and strength in the hamstring muscles, which hold the leg back. You must relax all of your joints so that your lower leg can flex upward and downward in rhythm with the horse's motion. If you tighten your hip muscles, grip with your inner thighs, pinch with your knees, lock your ankles, or tighten your toes, you will not be able to absorb the motion of the horse's movement.
How do relaxed muscles and joints feel? At the walk, on a tolerant horse, grip as hard as you can with your inner thighs as though squeezing a ball between your legs. Then relax. That feeling of relaxation after the tension of the squeeze is the way you want your thighs to feel while you are riding. Do the same exercise with your knees. Squeeze tightly and then relax. The relaxed feeling is the one you want. When muscles and joints are relaxed, the heels will flex up and down as the ankles absorb the upward and downward motion of the horse. Try gently bouncing your heels up and down to feel whether your ankle joints are locked or loose. If your ankles are locked, check your toes to see if they are tight and wiggle them to help loosen tight ankles.
Viewed from back or front, you should be sitting in the middle of the saddle with your legs and stirrups at an equal length. A line through the middle of your chin, breastbone, belly button, and pubic bone should align vertically with the horse's spine and breastbone.
Getting weight evenly on both seat bones is a challenge for many riders. Often the feeling of 'even' that is locked in our muscle memories is not quite right. So it is hard to do a self-check. Ask an instructor to line your body up correctly after viewing you from the front and back to check for any imbalances. Then begin riding again, working to reprogram that feeling into your muscles. If you are crooked, you may feel like you are falling off to one side when an instructor straightens your posture. Stick with it until you retrain your body to accept this new feeling of 'even.'
Which hand do you favor for writing? Your muscles on that side of your body may be stronger and more contracted. Meanwhile, the muscles on your weaker side can stretch and lengthen more easily. This combination makes it harder for you to keep the seat bone on your stronger side in contact with the saddle. Your weaker side stretches down more easily, so you may feel pulled to that side. As a result, your ribcage collapses on your strong side as you attempt to counterbalance. Try temporarily lowering the stirrup on your stronger side one hole to stretch the muscles on that side and develop a feeling for the correct position. If you feel comfortable, you can try working without stirrups to help stretch your legs down. Holding a strap placed on the front of your saddle can add a feeling of security as you work to relax your inner thigh muscles.
Whenever you ride on a circle, you must counteract the centrifugal force that pushes you onto your outside seat bone. This is particularly evident at the canter. It becomes an even bigger problem when you are cantering on a circle in the direction of your stronger side. Imagine you are lengthening your inside leg while drawing up your outside leg to help bring your seat bones into better balance. Think of yourself as a gymnast on a balance beam and keep your shoulders directly over your seat bones and hips. Holding the back of the saddle with your outside hand to help shift weight onto the inside seat bone is another helpful exercise.
From the front, your thigh should lie flat against the saddle and your knees and toes should point straight ahead. Your thigh cannot lie flat if your knees turn out. If your knees turn out, probably your toes do, too. If your toes turn out, you probably grip with your calves (which makes reactive horses oversensitive to leg aids and dulls the response of lazy horses to them).
Do not grip with your inner thigh, pinch with your knees, or turn your toes in to flatten your thigh against the saddle. Any repositioning of your lower leg actually starts at the hip's ball-and-socket joint. If your toes or knees point out, rotate your whole leg from the hip socket until your thigh is flat and your toes point straight ahead. Try pulling your thigh back with your hand and repositioning it flat against the saddle. You have tremendous stability when you position your leg correctly. Prove this to yourself by standing on the ground with your feet shoulder width apart and your toes pointing out. Shift from left to right and notice the range of motion you have. Now point your toes straight ahead, repeat the exercise, and notice the limited motion. It is easier to stay evenly centered in the saddle when your thighs are flat and your toes point forward.
Feedback from someone on the ground is the best way to correct your position faults. If you are unable to work with an instructor on a regular basis, viewing video of your riding helps. Ask a trusted friend to videotape you or tape your own rides by setting a camera on a tripod. Shoot from the side of the arena to check your vertical alignment from the side. Shoot from a corner on the long side of the arena to check your position from the front and the back.
Check your position at the beginning of every ride. Review your position whenever something is not going just right. Realign your body every time you take a walk break. Remember that your horse cannot use his body correctly unless you use yours correctly first. A correct effective seat takes time to develop. Keep practicing and realigning yourself and you too can have a correct seat.
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© 2009 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. Nancy Wesolek-Sterrett has earned numerous United States Dressage Federation horse awards including Bronze and Silver Medals on horses she has trained. She competes her horses at Training through FEI levels. As a Certified Riding Instructor she brings over 20 years of experience to her position as Head of the Dressage Department at Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (147 Saddle Lane, Waverly, WV 26184; 800-679-2603; www.meredithmanor.com), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.
Battling Sand Colic
OVERVIEW:
Horses eating sand is not commonly thought of as a regularly occurring event. However, being natural grazers, horses are constantly ingesting a certain amount of sand and dirt
from their environment. The amount that a horse ingests is determined by the horse’s eating habits as well as the horse’s feeding environment. Some horses are very discriminate about what they eat; however some are not. The amount of sand that will cause a horse to show signs of distress is dependant on the individual horse. Some studies suggest that it is common to find moderate amounts of sand in horses that show no clinical signs. Sand causes problems by way of irritating the luminal mucosa of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Over time, the mechanical irritation of sand causes inflammation and secondary decreased motility. Lack of normal motility causes a slowed GI transit time, which will also affect the normal GI microflora in the hind gut. This becomes a vicious circle as the amount of sand accumulates.
CLINICAL SIGNS:
A large sand burden can cause diarrhea, weight loss, colic, and may eventually lead to complete GI lumen obstruction. Many other things can cause this list of signs; therefore it is important to have your horse assessed by a veterinarian. Sand most commonly accumulates in the right dorsal colon, which has a very large diameter. Therefore, a very large amount of sand is generally required for a complete obstruction to occur.
DIAGNOSIS:
There are a few ways to check your horse for sand. One method that can be performed on the farm is a fecal sediment test. Place a sample of feces into a clear plastic glove, add water to break down the manure, and allow the glove to hang for several hours. If the horse is passing sand, the sand will settle out into the fingers of the glove. In some horses, sand can be ausculted by your veterinarian in the cranial ventral abdomen. It sounds like gentle waves rolling in on a sandy beach. These two methods do not, however, give any idea of how much sand is present or how likely the horse will colic due to its presence. Abdominal radiographs are the next step to be taken to assess the size and density of the mass of sand.
TREATMENT & PREVENTION:
The most important way to manage a horse with a tendency to ingest sand is to make environmental changes. A feeding area that raises food off the ground needs to be provided. Raised feeders, hay nets, rubber mats, and feeding tubs are all methods that can help accomplish this. Avoiding sandy paddocks and overgrazed pastures is necessary. Sometimes horses eat sand intentionally as a result of a mineral deficiency. This can be prevented by providing a mineral supplement. Psyllium mucilloid is commonly accepted as the therapeutic and preventative treatment of sand when management changes are not enough. Psyllium is reported to work in two ways. First, it acts as a laxative. Second, when it is eaten by the horse, its fibrous texture is changed into a gelatinous material. This gel-like form swells, picks up the sand and attempts to dislodge it. Research shows that the effectiveness of this approach is variable. There are studies that both prove and disprove the ability of psyllium to remove sand from the GI tract. Some studies have shown that combined use of psyllium, probiotics, and prebiotics enhance sand clearance. When treatment with psyllium is utilized, it is recommended to feed it once daily for seven days each month. Intermittent administration (one week per month) is recommended, because constant administration allows the normal GI microflora to adapt to the psyllium, thereby decreasing its effectiveness. When sand causes complete GI obstruction, surgery is indicated for its removal.
Please contact your veterinarian or any of the veterinarians at New England Equine Medical & Surgical Center if you have any questions about sand colic in horses.
Miranda Noseck, DVM
Jacqueline Bartol, DVM, DACVIM