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Before you can clearly communicate to the horse what shapes you
want him to take at what gait and in what rhythm, you need to have control over
your own body. You cannot simultaneously influence the horse's shape, gait, and
cadence unless you are in the right position over his center of gravity to
apply the right sequence of aids with the right degree of pressure and the
right timing. To control your body to that extent, you need to have an
independent seat.
Relaxation is the
basic skill riders must master on the way to achieving an independent seat. It
is the first of six skills that build on one another to create what I refer to
in my classes as "the riding tree" because once students have mastered them,
they have the necessary foundation to branch out into any specialized riding
discipline they may choose. An independent seat is the strong foundation that
allows a student to successfully ride and train a dressage horse or reining
horse or a higher level horse in any discipline.
Riders need to be relaxed both physically and mentally. Physically,
all of the muscles should be relaxed and all of the joints should be loose. The
ankle, the knee, the hips, the elbows, and the shoulders are the joints we
think of first. However riders need to be aware of tension anywhere in their
bodies such as their wrists or fingers, their neck or jaw. While you are riding
scan your body frequently for any muscle or joint that is
tense.
A lot of riders carry tension somewhere in
their bodies and it commonly shows up as tension in the lower leg, a stiffening
of the seat, so that you can't follow the horse's motion. So the first thing an
instructor should work on is relaxation. If you have stiffness problems, your
instructor might have you bounce around without stirrups until your muscles and
joints let go of their tension and you can be as loose as a rag doll. Remember,
your joints, especially your hips, are shock absorbers. Any joint that is
braced or tense makes it harder for your body to absorb the shock of the motion
of the horse.
Obviously, if you're bouncing around on your
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