Improve Your Stability in the Saddle by Riding "On Your Thigh"

Hi, I'm Callie from crk training. I'm here today with my horse Noel and I'd like to share a simple

riding

tip that has made a big difference in my own writing, so this is something that applies to all different disciplines and can be applied no matter the level of ability you have, so this is the idea of ​​

thigh

walking, so what I mean by that is walking with some of the weight on the

thigh

and allowing the thigh to stabilize you. the chair, so it's completely different than hanging or gripping with

your

thigh, but it is a basic leg position that will allow this type of fleshy part of the thigh to support some weight.

Let me explain a little more. I mean, when we have our thigh in a position where we can allow the weight to come to this inner part, our lower leg will be underneath us and we will basically be in that classic shoulder, hip and heel position. So the reason for this is that when we're moving, whether it's just walking, but it's especially important when we're going to say a jog or a caner, this part of our thigh can start to support some weight and it can stabilize us because as our thigh goes down more as the horse moves, we have a lot more

stability

here than if our thighs were outside the

saddle

, so two common positions that will get you sort of the opposite of being able to use

your

thigh. when you ride it's if your leg is too far forward because when I kick my leg forward I feel like now the weight is further back here and it's no longer on this inner part of my thigh, the other thing is if I think about taking my foot outward, it's really going to rotate my knee and it's also going to rotate me from the hip joint, so I'm also going to lose all this contact, so the first thing you want to think about to find more

stability

using the thigh is to bring the lower leg back and if you have been rotating your toe outward, think about allowing the heel to drop slightly so that it actually finds alignment with the foot in a way that is comfortable for your confirmation and that it goes further. with the horse instead of trying to achieve a toes out position, so this is the basic position that will help you feel your weight here on the thigh and then I have a few different ways to describe this sensation that I have .

Collected from different teachers or different writing mentors that I've worked with that were helpful to me, so I think the best one is Angela Telatin and she describes the idea of ​​kneeling in the

saddle

, so when you're

riding

, especially When When you're riding the trot and caner, you want to think about you're kneeling in the saddle instead of trying to press the stirrups or instead of sitting here like you're on a couch or in an armchair, the other expression that really gets me like. comes from Wendy Murdoch and she has these three rules for riding and one of them is to always keep your knees forward and down, so there are several reasons for this, it just helps maintain good forward movement and allows your horse to move forward freely, but when our knee moves forward and down, it helps keep the lower part of the leg backwards, so we do not pull the lower part of the leg back, but rather it is the mechanics of the movement that stabilizes us in this position, what I'm going to do next. is to go out and just walk for a few moments and show you in motion how this can really help you walk so we're going to start at the easiest door to walk in so as I'm walking here, I'm thinking about just feeling.

Again this inner part of my thigh and I'm feeling the movement of my knees forward and down and now, when I go to resume the trot as I go up in my stall, I want to feel that my weight is distributed not only in my stirrup, but I want to feel my weight distributing on my thigh here when my seat leaves the saddle, so one of the things I encourage you to do is experiment a little with your own riding, so when you're riding experiment with exaggerating this position. I can see that Noel wants to stop because it's already a little less comfortable for him to move, but if you take your leg here you can feel like you don't have it, you're not going to have any weight on your inner thigh. but if I go from here to bringing my leg back not only do I get a better Noel movement but now I feel much more stable because I have more leg against the saddle keeping me safe and I'm also transferring weight. up to my thigh and instead of just on the bumps, so this is just a simple riding tip that will help you, especially if you find that you have been struggling with the trot, post, trot and caner, think about experiencing a bit. with your leg position and bringing your lower leg back feeling the difference if you move your leg in and out of these different positions and then riding and feeling the weight on this part of your thigh so I hope you enjoyed this video if you have any questions.

Go ahead and leave them below and if you're seeing this anywhere besides crktraining blog.com, that's where I'll read his comments and answer any questions.