Rider Position

Not enough time is spent on the rider's position. Without a good position the rider can not control his hands well enough to obtain lightness and self carriage in the horse.

When sitting relaxed the rider is tall with a straight vertical line from the head through the shoulder, elbow, hip and heel. The arms hang relaxed at the sides with elbows bent and the lower arms forming a straight line to the horse's mouth. Relaxation is required in the basic position. Aids, which require the development of tension, cannot be applied if the rider starts out with tension. Eventually, the horse adapts to a tense rider and becomes unresponsive to the further application of the aids. The rider must remain relaxed to maintain sensitivity of the horse. Because relaxation is so important, under no circumstances should the rider force him or herself into a correct position causing tension. Corrections in position must be made gradually over a period of time. Once the rider attains a correct, relaxed position she or he can begin asking the horse to perform the lateral and other movements in dressage.

Head. Looking down is a common error for the dressage rider. You should look forward, toward the next letter or next corner. It is true that if you look where you want to go it will help you go there. We certainly don't want to go down. Riders tilting their heads may began to collapse a hip, or drop their shoulders. This causes their horse to become resistant to bend and/or proper balance and straightness.

Shoulders Your shoulders should be parallel to the horses shoulders, always. How many times have you seen a rider asking her horse to turn right and she is are turning left? This certainly doesn't make a harmonious picture. Shoulders should be back, not rounded, and also should be at the vertical with the rest of our position.

Elbows Your elbows should be gently against your sides, in a relaxed manner . Sometimes you can feel them touch your hip bones. The length of rein is important, if your reins are too long then your elbows will end up behind your back, if your reins are too short then you will tend to reach out forward and stiffen or straighten your arms. A straight arm is very tense and therefore affects your horses carriage. You will find that your horse protects him/herself against this stiffness.

Hip Seat should be slightly tilted forward under you (the pelvic tilt) not on your crotch. Seat bones are round, the rider should sit on the back of her seat bone not the front. Sitting on the back of your seat bone allow you to follow the action of the horse. Sitting on the front of your seat bones will cause you to ride a crotch seat, and ride behind the action of the horse (thus making the horse heavy on the forehand). I am sure you will agree that the object is to ride well forward and to create long strides from behind.

Heel Heels should be down! Toes in! Your feet should be parallel to the sides of the horse. Your ankles should be relaxed so that your heels can lower in a relaxed manner. Pressing on your toe with heels up forces you out of the saddle and is totally wrong. Most of us wear spurs. If our toes are out the spur is in the horse, if our toes are down and heel up our spurs are in the horse, all of the time. It causes, ringing tails, tense gaits, and more. Dressage is supposed to be beautiful, free flowing, and the horse should look happy not tortured.

Stirrups should be adjusted at a proper length, so that heels can be easily lowered. No matter how hard we try we can only make our legs so long. To adjust stirrups too long for our leg length is wrong. On the other hand stirrups adjusted too short is even worse.

Seat properly used is a very important part of your riding and can influence the horse in many ways. You know that the horse tries to stay under your weight. If you want to turn, you sit a little heavier on the seat bone in the direction of your turn. If you want to go straight you sit straight, evenly on both seat bones. If you want to go more forward you sit heavier. When you are satisfied with your horses impulsion and length of stride you sit lighter. You should not continually sit heavily (or drive) all of the time.

There is much more to say about the rider's position. I will add to the basic position in future sessions.