Sitting and free exercises

Many riders have one and the same problem: they worry over the rider's seat and having difficulty staying calm in the saddle. Instead, they tip over forwards, pull their legs up or literally hold on to the reins - unfortunately, there is no trace of fine riding and a seat that is independent of reins.
There are many exercises for training balance and promoting relaxation, which can be done on the horse with appropriate instructions, e.g. during relaxation breaks. So for example

• Tilting the upper body back and forth ("hugging the horse's neck"),
• Lateral tilt down of the upper body,
• With the buttocks on the saddle to the right and left
• Pull the knees up or down towards the front,
• Stretch the legs by bending the knees and lifting the feet,
• Right/left hand goes towards left/right foot,
• Arm circles,
• Turning the upper body to the right and left,
• Carefully turn the head to the right and left.

But even the most regular performance of sitting exercises cannot hide the fact that there are usually other, very different causes behind a bad riding seat: from a lack of fitness and mobility, to uneven breathing or tensing the wrong muscles, to the fear of falling off or a saddle that doesn't fit.

Solving seating problems & improving the rider's seat - tips for a seat that is not dependent on reins!

Tip 1: Improve your fitness and own mobility

The reason why many riders have seating problems is quite simple: they don't do enough for their own mobility! Even if riding is already a sport, you should do other sports besides your hours in the saddle. On the one hand to maintain your own fitness and on the other hand to improve your agility. After all, we require our horses to run diligently and loosely, but we do not work on our own body and suppleness. Other sports can help you not only to sit better in the saddle, but also to ride finer in general. Because: If you train your own body specifically, you will not only gain more strength and endurance, but also a better body feeling. After all, a good body feeling automatically makes you a better rider!

And these are the best additional sports for you as a rider:1. for a better general fitness:

• Jogging: provides more endurance, strengthens especially your trunk muscles and improves your breathing
• Volleyball: improves your reaction time, trains several muscle groups and makes you a real team player
• Inline-Skating: strengthens your bottom and leg muscles and provides more endurance

2. for more mobility:

• Dancing: improves your balance and coordination and makes your pelvis more flexible
• Yoga and Pilates: strengthens your body's core, improves your body awareness and breathing, increases your ability to concentrate, teaches you peace and serenity

Tip 2: Relax!

Often there are sitting problems because riders are simply not relaxed. Do you know this? You tense up and that has unpleasant side effects: You pull your legs up, your hands, even your arms are restless, you fall over forward or plop your horse uncomfortably in the back. The fear of falling down and hurting yourself badly is usually behind this. But at the same time it is also a sign of a fact that nobody likes to hear: You have little trust in your horse.
And that is a huge problem, because: Without trust, you and your horse cannot form a real team and you will probably never be able to communicate with your horse about your aids. Trust is and remains the most important thing in the cooperation with your partner horse. If you do not trust your horse, it will not trust you and will certainly not follow you.

Ground work helps and provides more trust
In order to regain confidence in your horse - and vice versa your horse in you - you should integrate ground work into your daily training routine. Ground work not only clarifies the leadership relationship between you and your horse, but also makes for a great change. Various exercises, from correct leading, head lowering to determining the speed of breathing, help you to improve communication with your horse and thus strengthen your mutual trust. As soon as the relationship between you and your horse improves and you have gained new confidence, you will also sit more relaxed in the saddle and your sitting problems will disappear by themselves!

Tip 3: Take seat training on the lunge

Every rider should take them from time to time: Seat training on the lunge. Just two or three seat training sessions can work a real miracle And if you think that lunge lessons are only for beginners, you are very much mistaken: Riding several laps on the circle and concentrating only on your own seat is much more strenuous than you might think. Your riding instructor now really only looks at you and your seat and suddenly discovers even more mistakes than ever before. But don't let that discourage you, see it as an opportunity to improve your seat many times over in the shortest possible time. It also helps if you leave the reins out completely, turn over the stirrups or close your eyes and let your horse's movements affect you completely.

Tip 4: Let yourself be filmed while riding

Often it feels completely different on the horseback than it looks from the ground. This has probably happened to you before: Your riding instructor tries to explain to you what exactly you are doing wrong, but you just don't understand what he means exactly. Here it helps if you let yourself be filmed while riding and then watch the video together with your instructor. This way he can show you better where your weaknesses are and what you should concentrate on during training. This in turn makes it much easier for you to implement the tips of your riding instructor and improve your performance. Just one video of you riding can open your eyes and solve your sitting problems forever!
But be warned: Often it is like a little shock when you watch yourself riding for the first time. You'll quickly compare your video to the many pictures of Grand Prix riders that are buzzing around in your head, and you'll probably get totally frustrated because it doesn't look perfect on your video. But don't get discouraged here either: watch the video several times and pay attention not only to what you do badly but also to what you do well. That way you will get new motivation and automatically improve faster!

Tip 5: Riding without a saddle from time to time

To feel your horse's movement more clearly and to get a better seat feeling, it helps to ride without a saddle every now and then. However, you should not sit on the bare back of the horse. It is best to use a good riding pad. You should also not ride too often without a saddle, because your weight is not distributed without a saddle, but rather presses on your horse's back and causes your horse pain in the long run.

Tip 6: Ride out into the countryside more often

Most riders take their horses out for a ride far too rarely, but the terrain offers many advantages: It provides variety in everyday training, has a motivating effect and offers great opportunities to exercise your horse. And that's not all: it can also help you to improve your seat! If you ask yourself why - here is the answer: Due to the different ground conditions you learn to balance better in the saddle while riding out. After all, the ground is not flat like in a hall or riding arena, but goes up and down. You know how it is: You ride out and after warming up at a walk you start to walk for the first time and it feels terrible. All of a sudden you can't really sit out the light trot or trot, and even the first canter feels more like a bumpy zigzag than a comfortable rocking. This is partly due to the fact that your horse doesn't run completely free, but also because the ground conditions in the terrain are completely different.

Tip 7: Work with inner pictures

Sometimes you just don't understand what exactly your riding instructor wants from you until he gives you a pictorial example: "You are a tree and your legs stretch out like roots deep into the ground" or "There are heavy blocks of concrete on your feet that pull you deep into the ground" - do you know these pictures? Such pictures can also help you to solve your sitting problems and to get a more independent rider's seat. Because sometimes your leg just doesn't want to get longer, your pelvis just doesn't want to swing along loosely and the heel of your foot doesn't want to look down. This is exactly when symbolic images help to shape the body in such a way that it resonates loosely and yet actively with the movement of your horse.

Tip 8: Pay attention to your breathing

Another cause for sitting problems can be incorrect breathing, which is often associated with the first two points. Because if you are tense or tense up because of fear, your breathing will also be blocked. This blockage in turn paralyzes your entire mobility - a vicious circle! So learn to breathe consciously. This works best if you pay attention to your breathing in the first place.
Is it flat and uneven, or do you breathe in calmly and deeply? Calm and deep breathing automatically leads to relaxation, more concentration and better balance. All this ultimately helps you to achieve a better and more rein-independent fit! The easiest way is to first try to pay more attention to your breathing in the crotch. You will notice how quickly your pelvis in particular relaxes as soon as you breathe in and out more deeply and evenly. It also works great when galloping, as long as your horse gallops correctly and in a clear three-beat pattern. This three-stroke helps you to concentrate more precisely on your breathing, so that you automatically sit better in the saddle.

Tip 9: Tense your abdominal muscles!

Many people think that riding is all about using your butt and leg muscles - but that's not quite true. The muscles that should work the most while riding are your abdominal muscles. If you don't have a sore stomach at the end of a riding lesson, then you either didn't exert yourself enough or you really did something wrong. What makes your pelvis swing loosely, your legs rest comfortably against the belly of your horse and your upper body and arms don't wriggle around like crazy are your abdominal muscles - especially the upper ones.

Tip 10: Make your horse feel more relaxed

If you are sure that your bad riding position is not related to you and your posture but rather to the movement of your horse, then you should work on the looseness of your horse. It may well be that your horse has either not yet reached the level of training necessary to walk loosely and carry you gently on his back, or that he is even in pain, which leads to tension in his back and makes a quiet seat virtually impossible.

Activate the hindquarters of your horse
If your horse has just started training under saddle, it is important that you ride exercises that activate your horse's hindquarters. This is the engine of your horse and provides the necessary thrust and load capacity. It allows your horse to move forward on the one hand and to absorb weight on the other. This is the only way your horse can develop the right swing and run freely. This includes exercises such as transitions and tempo changes, but also jumping gymnastics or cavaletti work.

Train your horse more from the ground
It also helps to train your horse more often from the ground. This way you can see how your horse moves without your additional rider's weight and where the cause of his lack of relaxation lies. For example, you can lunge it on the cavesson or try it out in liberty dressage.

Tip 11: Have your horse's health examined

If you notice that there is something wrong with your horse's movement or that your horse's movement is not improving and he continues to run tense, you should consult a veterinarian or horse physiotherapist. Tension is always a sign of discomfort and can sometimes be accompanied by severe pain for your horse. It does not even necessarily have to be the movement part, sometimes a tooth that has become too long or an incorrectly worked hoof can also cause tension and pain. In order to avoid worse, you should always intervene early and let your veterinarian come to the stable once too much, rather than once too little.

Tip 12: Check whether the saddle really fits you and your horse!

Unfortunately, many riders save money at the wrong end: the saddle! The saddle can cost several thousand Euros - money that many horse owners are reluctant to spend. Instead, every year a new saddle pad, new bandages and a new riding outfit is bought - preferably all in a uniform color such as pink. The most important thing is to have the right saddle! First of all, it is important that it fits your horse. But what is often forgotten or even ignored is that the saddle must also fit you. Apart from the way you ride, your height, weight and general posture also play a role. So if your horse does not walk when you let go and you have enormous difficulties to stay calm in the saddle, this may be because the saddle either does not fit your horse properly or is not optimal for you or - in the worst case - does not fit you or your horse. At the same time you should also have the bridle checked, because it can also cause tension if it does not fit your horse properly.