"Sitting tall"

[Jeanette]

Hello there

..this is another one of those novicy questions! But can somebody tell me what the expression "sitting tall" actually means?! typically I've been told to do this coming into a halt....but I've also been told to sink into the saddle and exhale to come to a halt so now I'm confused!  (It's suddenly become very relevant because I've done a loan swap for my very quiet pony who was a struggle to learn on for a forward going pony to try to improve my technique)

I have a tendency to ride with a hollow back which I realise now is because although I don't have a belly my stomach muscles are non existent . I've been working for a couple of weeks on these now and finally beginning to discover that once you have stomach muscles you begin to get independant control of all the others!

..so that's why I ask the question...when do you sit tall ...what muscles are being used and what does the horse feel?

[Fiona]

If you clench your bottom muscles when you want to come to a halt this will raise your seatbones from the saddle, the horse will feel that they have stopped following his movement and will halt.  You may also have to close your fingers around the reins, depending on how attuned to the seat your horse is, but don't pull backward with your hands.

Fiona

[samboc77]

I suppose the term sitting tall really means don't colaspe or tip forwards!

In your downward transition like Fiona says, you will squeeze your butt muscles (make sure you don't over do this as people often do to much and end up looking like they are trying to prevent an accident from occuring  ) Play around with it to see just how little you need!

You will also need to make sure you hold your core muscles so you don't colapse though your middle, tipping the pelvis forwards. Keeping the rib cage lifted help you sit up (some people achieve this easier if you think about lift up though your sternum) so you maintain your frame... I liken a bit to dancing .... have you seem dirty dancing

This stops you rounding the shoulders off which also would tip you forwards as you come to halt. The main thing is to remain toned not tense though your muscles, you can't be ridged or this will transfer to the horse hense why when we try to much, we often create tension and it all falls apart! Gulity as charge mi lud!

So maintaining your frame (with out sticking the boobs out as that just hollows the lower back!) keep your tummy toned, do as fiona says when you ask for the downward transition and hopefully you should start to feel a difference, play around with it and see how little you can get away with and the more you do it the quicker the horse be

HTH a bit! 

[Jeanette]

Thank-you so much!

It's so refreshing to be given advice in exact terms but without the use of fancy language!

(Actually I was squeezing my bottom , and it was working....but I think I might have been inadvertently squeezing my thighs and knees a tiny bit as well..clearly helps if you can isolate thighs from bottom!!)

[Heather]

Hi Jeanette and welcome!!

You need my new ebook, 'Horseriding Right from the Start'! It will tell you all this sort of thing in detail. We had it online as an ebook but had a dickens of a job with the software. I am hoping now to put it on CD, or send as a pdf file and will be on the online shop. I know people will copy to friends, ( although we respectfully ask them not to!) but when you see how little we authors make in royalties - my last book sold for £18.99 and I got 40p royalty per copy, paperback was £12.99 and I got 20p!!- it is still better than the pittance we get from publishers!

I know people like hard copy, but at least if you print it off- I am going to get some nice binders made which can be bought to put it in- you have the hard copy, and I dont get ripped off by a publisher!!

Heather

[Jeanette]

Heather

I've read the print off Enlightened Equitation ....and checked there to see what you said before posting! It wasn't until I reread your book at some point last summer that I finally twigged that I was supposed to be moving my hips alternately in synch with the horse and not "holding" myself erect as I'd thought...I was quite upset that countless lessons had not picked that up!....but at least I know now..and it did make a big difference!

..last night I was walking circles round the kitchen table to figure out what you were saying on advancing the inside hip on a circle...I'd also been told to bring my inside shoulder back and got myself very mixed up and contorted in the saddle!

An ebook sounds good..would rather have it by CD I think though

But when are you bringing out a DVD?...reading is one thing but seeing is another!

[phillipa]

Hi Jeanette  Welcome to the forum.

I have a real tendancy to over arch my back too (used to look like a duck on horseback  )and one thing I always have to watch out for is is not to tip my pelvis to far forward. In otherwords that you are not sitting too far to the front of your pubic bone (not good at anatomy so hopefully that's right!!).
I found pilates made a huge difference for me and now I'm beginning to ride normally again.

If you do the same then when you slow down (obviously the advice already given is most important) something also to think about if you are perching is to think about slightly tucking your bottom under - just a fraction - which slightly `flippers' your seatbones. Its a small thing but makes a huge difference if you do ride duck-style like me - don't mistake this for leaning back though!! This helps me when I'm working on sitting trot too.

I always interpreted sitting tall as being responsible for my own body weight so that I am in balance above the horse, not collapsing back or collapsing forward - but I think we've all got our own helpful descriptions 

Good luck and look forward to seeing some pictures of you and your new pony 

[intouch]

Imagine there is a magnet above your head gently stretching you upwards.  then think of the movement you would make if you were about to take your feet out of the stirrups.  That will engage the core muscles and bring your seatbones into the saddle in a way which the horse can interpret as an aid to halt.  It IS possible to make both movements together!! 
Pilates is the greatest.