In riding, someone is, quite often, being dragged. Either you’re dragging your horse trying to keep it ahead of your leg, or it’s dragging you because you’re behind the motion. Here’s the question to ask yourself: Have you ever wondered what it means to ride using your seat? You got one, ever use it? The second question is: Why does it really matter?
A lot of riding problems can be solved/resolved using your seat. Will power alone will not get your horse moving forward. Sitting quietly in the saddle will not get your horse stepping forward. Hoping it all works out will not make the rambunctious horse settle. Many western riders struggle with making their horse move forward, or worse, they can’t manage the forward movement of their horse and stay in control. When you are stiff in your body or quiet through your aids, the horse does not understand your purpose. When you are stiff or quiet through your seat, the horse does not care about your desire to move forward and/or stay in a calm, relaxed frame of mind and body because there is a disconnect between you and your horse. Are you washing or hanging out?
Moments of harmony between horse and rider create a taste for more; because it’s something worthwhile to experience and enjoy. Developing your seat is a very fun and rewarding pursuit that will produce harmony for every rider. Developing the seat is life long, and truly defines the phrase “practice makes perfect.” Simply put, it is your body awareness—for you and your horse. To ultimately control and produce movement from your seat is to bring to the horse a rider. But don’t sweat it too much though. Just do all you can do and let the rough end drag.
Back when Hector was a pup, we heard so much about a rider having a good seat, but what does that really mean? A good seat is one that allows the relaxed rider to stay in balance with the horse as the horse carries the rider along, either over a log in the woods, up or down a hill, or around the arena at a horse event; in other words, the horse and rider are staying together. If you are not relaxed you will not be able to follow the movement nor feel the movement.
Body Awareness
Your goal should be to be able to feel the direction and determine the movement of each foot of the horse. Here’s to down at the heels.
If you’re chomping at the bit for the definition of the seat, it is: contact with the horse from knee to knee —your flat upper leg giving you a wide and relaxed
ly a passenger. Great riders understand the rhythm of each gait and carry the same rhythm throughout their own body. Stiff riders with stiff seats do not understand what their horses are doing.
During my youth (so long ago), my horse and I spent a lot of time in competitions. It was like closing the barn door after the horse bolted because unfortunately, I have spent years unlearning many of the things that I was taught during that time. One was to focus on holding a very formal position–very still, stoic and stiff–in my seat, rather than focusing on being relaxed and free with an emphasis on moving with the rhythm of the horse. Well, finders keepers losers weepers—when you ride with an absence for formality, you begin to understand the movement of the horse; you can then begin to affect that movement. When you can feel the movement of the horse—balancing yourself on top of the horse through all of its movements—you are now in a position as a rider to be able to listen to the horse through the seat and communicate to the horse. It is a lifelong pursuit to educate your horse, and it is a lifelong pursuit to develop your seat. Get out on the trail and feel that rhythm! A change is as good as a holiday.
lower body to sit deeply into the horse and allowing the seat to swing with the horse. It is the core of your riding and is your primary aid. Through the seat you begin to communicate to the horse.
A good seat is first a relaxed one. A relaxed seat is one that can move with the horse, at different speeds, transitions and gaits.
It is from this relaxed seat that the rider is also able to “tune in” to the movement of the horse and be able to assess it, call it body awareness. That’s how ya earn yer spurs. If the rider cannot feel the movement, he is not riding, he is simply a passenger. Great riders understand the rhythm of each gait and
"It is a lifelong
pursuit to educate your horse, and it is
a lifelong pursuit to develop your seat. "