How can I maintain the beautiful seated position it seems most western riders maintain during a lope? (could my reins have too much tension or do I need to learn forward a little)
2007-03-02 03:19:16 · 4 answers · asked by southernboy 4 in Sports ➔ Horse Racing
Keep your shoulders back and your entire upper body back over your hips. Press your butt down in the saddle. Keep your feet in your stirrups, but don't put any pressure in them... if you have too much pressure in your stirrups, it will push your upper body up out of the saddle. You could try loping without stirrups or bareback. That will do 2 things: your weight will be all on the horses back instead of in your stirrups and that weight will keep you down on the horses back instead of bouncing around up and down. Make sure you do not lean forward. Keep your weight over your hips and press your hips down on the horses back. The second thing that loping without stirrups/bareback will do is force you to have the correct posture... if you're sitting too forward, you'll come up and down off of the horse and you'll feel unstable, so you'll have to sit back and down on the horse with your shoulders back... So practice sitting back and pressing down into the saddle... don't depend on your stirrups and do not lean forward. Your stirrups are just a place for your feet to go, especially with western... your balance is in your seat... that's the center of everything you do on the horse.
2007-03-02 03:54:47 · answer #1 · answered by kmnmiamisax 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
you should be well back in your saddle with your weight over your hips sitting well into the seat. your body should be relaxed and you should have a loose rein. your feet should be in your stirrups with heels down but no weight on the stirrups. you should allow your body to move with the horse and not fight against it, allow your hips to move as much as possible to capture as much of the motion as possible. if you fight the motion or try to keep a rigid body below the waist, it will throw you out of the saddle. so keep good form up top, but relaxed, and flow with the horse below the waist. keep in mind that this is a lope (a very slow canter) not a fast canter or a gallop so the horse should be slow and smooth.
2007-03-02 07:24:48 · answer #2 · answered by SC 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
AH! Don't lean forwrd! Physically roll your shoulders back, you should feel at the end of that roll that you are leaning back slightly too far. This is where you want to be, slightly on the back of your butt bone. To stay seated you must relax your lower body and concentrate on where your balance point is. I find this leaning back feels a little odd to my students at first but looks great and help s the horse a great deal.
2007-03-02 07:38:05 · answer #3 · answered by gg 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Bear a lot of your weight on your legs and let your legs act like "shocks" as you ride.
2007-03-02 03:23:39 · answer #4 · answered by Nasubi 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋