Improving Your Seat - Learning to Move as One With Your Horse
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- Опубліковано 3 кві 2023
- In this lesson, Ken and one of his apprentices work on improving seat position by riding bridleless in a roundpen.
When you improve your seat, you not only make riding more enjoyable for yourself, but more comfortable for your horse. In this lesson, Ken demonstrates how confidence, awareness, body position, and weight distribution all have an impact on your ability to ride in rhythm with your horse.
CONFIDENCE
One of the most important things to remember while trying to improve your seat is to relax. The ability to relax into the horse’s movements comes from developing confidence in your riding. One of the biggest mistakes people make when they start bouncing in the saddle is to grip with their inner thighs and calf muscles, which only makes your body more rigid, leading to even worse bouncing. When you respond to bouncing by relaxing those muscles, you gain the ability to move with your horse instead of against him. Combat fear by pretending you are in your favorite chair at home. Trust in your ability to ride the horse.
AWARENESS
Ride your horse where he’s at, not where you expect him to be. Stay in the moment and wait for the horse. When first starting this exercise, watch your horse’s ears to get an idea of where he’s headed. Stay with him. Respond moment by moment. Start gaining awareness of your horse’s body position. Ride the horse, not the saddle.
BODY POSITION & WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION
To maintain proper balance, you should have your feet under your shoulders, rather than out in front of you. Relax into the center of the saddle. Place more weight in your feet than your seat. Keep your heels down, and your toes out. Visualize your feet extending all the way to the ground. At a trot, put springs in your knees. Relax your legs, and let your ankle take the ride instead of your hip pockets.
And remember: Don’t just be a passenger. Be an active, involved rider.
Until Next Time, May God Bless the Trail You Ride ~ Ken
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Man of God. I’m a fan, Ken. I’d like to ride with you sometime. 🙂
This guy's amazing. Just who I was looking for.
Ken, this is another excellent lesson. Clear and understandable instruction that will help me practice what you taught. Thank you for posting these videos. I'm becoming a better rider with each one that I watch and then apply.
I thought that was wonderful. I was a rider, but realised I’m not so good. Love to learn that real thing.
So very helpful to see the ride from both student and trainer. Learned a new way to approach riding the horse and not the saddle. Thanks Ken!
Great lesson ken. Went for a shorter ride today. Soft hands, soft nose, stand in the stirrups. Thankyou.
I feel bad for this guy.. when you don't have a natural seat it's hard and I swear if one more person said to me to relax I would have blood on my hands.. the best advice I ever got - for me - was to 'hump the horn' so a rolling movement which gets you away from the up and down movement.. can we remember that we are actually riding an up and down movement and trying to do it as smoothly as possible. Im sure he didn't want to be a ping pong ball either....
That's definitely a helpful (and hilarious) visual. 😂
Srsly...if 'Steve' went from bouncy to relaxed, it'd have delivered on its promise 'Learn to move as one'. I have to agree with you, there's something yogic with your hips and where you connect with your low back that should allow for the 'roll'. Plus finding your rhythm.
I love this!! Great way to get the feel of the horse ❤
Ken. Thankyou this is excellent. I did a 2 1/2 hour ride today. Great brush up for me and also to teach grandkids. Simple to understand. Thankyou
Great educational video ! Two questions: 1) in dressage they insist on having toes facing forward , what is your thought on that ? 2) do you think something like a balance board/wobble board helps with bettering one’s seat ?
Great info. Really appreciate you finishing out with the student pushing you. Although watching that dude drive that horse was painful to watch 😂
Painful, yes 😅
Wow.. As a confused newer rider.. You helped me so much w this video… thank you so much..
I wish you were here in my city. You are an amazing horsemen.
I'm sure watching this video really helped Steve. It helps me A LOT to watch myself on camera. I can see exactly what I'm doing and what I need to work on! I'd love to see an update with Steve in a few months :)
Ken awesome job! Steve! Read that horse when you're on the ground brother!!!
Looks like a great exercise!
Really interesting lesson. Enjoyed it. If I ever had a horse, this exercise makes me think an English saddle is better to learn on.
Thanks
This is AWESOME!
Many of us learned to ride bareback first. Then you van feel every muscle of the horse moving and let your hips roll and move with theirs.
It would be helpful if you instructed him to loosen his lower back and roll his hips with the horses gaits...
Talking about saddles --- try riding this in an English cut-back saddle (no saddle horn, tiny cantle, no safety strap). Y'all will learn balance Real Quick, LOL.
I sat in an English saddle once. Sat, because every movement the horse made I felt like I was going to fall lol. I went right back to a western after that
I prefer English (not flat seat, but forward seat) when I am trying to get in sync with a horse because I can feel more of the horse underneath me and use my seat and legs in closer contact.
@@charliewhon6548 the time i sat in an English huntseat, I freaked out. I felt closer contact, yes, but I felt like I was going to slide off of him and he's a pretty easy to ride horse. I ride him in western a lot.
@@alyssalong4755 if you ride, and it felt THAT shifty, I’d say maybe the panels on the saddle weren’t sitting well, the gullet size was not correct, the seat size was not fitting you well, or it was a junky constructed saddle. I don’t think there should be an extreme difference in a person’s balance between a western and an English saddle. You either have balance and can ride, or you don’t, and you’re just hanging on in a western saddle. People that are just hanging on, typically don’t have an independent seat enough to steer once a horse goes above a walk, and loping/cantering is a free for all.
@@charliewhon6548 I've trotted and steered just fine. I've never cantered or done any loping. I'm fairly new to riding. I ride twice a week for the last 4 months and it was only my third time on a horse when I was in English. I want to ride English again but I'm really nervous to try. I tend to lean forward when I feel like I'm going to fast in western so I'm fixing some of my bad habits before I put English on him again.
I’m gonna do that!
😊
you know, i dont understand why you dont have more likes! love the country music
I commiserate with Steve. Been riding all my life (I'm 71) and I am just now trying to keep my legs straight under me instead of forward as well as turning my toes out!
good on you for still riding and improving at 71
Why are we watching the ears and exactly how will they tell us where he's going? This is the kind of stuff i feel like gets missed and causes a lot of confusion. Also, relax your seat means something different to everyone...
Wdll, duh ...the canter or looe isnt bouncy, so ya its easy to get into the rythym. This has always been my problem, and why I'm here watching this video. Riding the trot . I been tryin to figure it outnfor a hear.and angalf. On my oage I ha e a video or two where hubs filmed for me , trying to do it tje "right" way, and me doing it the "wrong" way and bouncing a whole lot less. Maybe somebody can shed some.lignt.
Respectfully, I disagree with "heels down". It's been debunked too many times by too many people and makes a rider stiff and biomechanically it causes people to grip with their knees and cause joint issues over time. It quickly causes muscle fatigue as well. I felt bad for the horse too, seeing him bang on his back repeatedly. He couldn't relax, in part because of his legs. He should have been posting, even on the wrong lead would have been a better alternative for him and the horse.
Yes. Heels down causes your toes to extend beyond the knee.
Also toes out should be reserved for giving leg cues to your horse or asking for a rounded back and an engaged barrel.
You don’t post on leads (unless your riding a hunter/ jumper)you post diagonals.
The best way to teach someone to ride the horse and not the saddle is to have them ride bareback.
We are astride a horse not sitting. If we can imagine our horse disappearing underneath us, we then ask ourselves if we would land in our feet, in our face, or on our rump.
All my riding students ride bareback on their 4th lesson, unless they are still dealing with fear. The problem I see most of the time when teaching riders is they all want to go fast, even if it’s badly, before they are good going slow.
He needs to instruct this rider to stop bracing in the stirrups, point his toes up and use his ankles, knees and hips as shock absorbers. He also needs to be taught how to use the last 6” of his spine and his pelvis to flex towards the horses tail and meet the movement of the horse’s hips. Riders need to learn to feel, and know which foot is stepping forward and setting down. Once we can meet the horse’s movements, we can influence the horse with our seat instead of the horse influencing our seat.
Heels down is something great for new riders, so they don’t get their knees up and feet behind them. You’ll notice when Ken is riding his heels are not actually down but flat. Learning not to bounce and move with a horse is hard to learn, especially as an adult. Telling people to relax doesn’t help thogh, you’ve go to tell them exactly what to do, ie, roll your hips in “this” motion, let your back absorb the impact, focus on keeping your head straight and your butt in contact with the saddle, don’t squeeze with your knees etc.
it has zero to do with body weight, when a person says that you know they have no clue how to ride. In fact if anything the lighter the human the smother the ride should be. But in general, the lighter person is bouncing around. You should not be seat the trot until you can ride the trot they are different.
How can Steve be in the apprentice program? He has no clue how to
ride or handle a rope!
I’d think beginner lessons and a few roping lessons would have been money better spent.
Learn how the horse moves in walk b4 you trot… please think of the horses back 😳