Help with Understanding How the Rider's Seat Works

One of the areas that is the most misunderstood and that we are misinformed about is the seat. Too often the seat is thought of as a driving force. In the process the rider slides, pushes or drives into the saddle. We find these riders almost always using both seat bones simultaneously.

For the horse who moves one hip at a time, resulting in one side of the back being activated at a time, a rider that uses both seat bones simultaneously is at the least impeding the movement, and at the worst causing the horse discomfort. Even the best fitting saddle in the world will cause the horse to have back issues if the rider is not riding correctly.

The seat is the most effective when first of all it can allow the movement of the horse to go through from the power of the hind quarters through the back, up into the neck and right through to the very last muscle of the horse, which is the tongue.

So first we need to understand how we can ensure that our seat can allow and follow the movement as it is created by the horse, because obviously everything and anything that we do through our seat to halt the movement from going through is going against the very movement we are encouraging or trying to create.

Too often we see riders blocking with their seats on one hand, and then told by their instructors to drive the horse more. This often results in the riders using whips and spurs to try to get this flight creature to move.

To understand how the seat can work, we need to understand the full range of motion in all three dimensions that are available in the seat and how that is directly and completely dependent on other parts of the body. It can be exciting to find exercises that directly address learning to understand and feel what your body can do and how it can be done.

It can be eye opening as we isolate different ranges of movement in the seat, especially discovering our own limitations, particularly between the right and left side of our bodies, limitations that can affect our horses and their own handiness.

Self-Evaluating Problem Areas

Isolating movements is also excellent for self-evaluating individual differences and problems with range of movement in different planes and in individual joints and different areas of the body, so then we can take the time to focus on one joint or one side of the body or the other and help our own individual problems. With knowledge and awareness, we can also become aware of not only which area to target but aware of how our own problems and limitations may be affecting our horses.

We all, for example, have a tendency to weight bear on one leg or the other; this has endless consequences throughout our bodies, including the ability to flex individual joints and the ability to weight bear when flexed.

A Good Seat is NOT Static

To return to the subject of the seat, everyone realizes that this is one of the most important elements of any rider, but it also seems to be one of the most misunderstood areas by the majority of riders.