Sitting Deep

There are many misinterpretations of 'sitting deep'. It does not mean sitting more heavily, although unfortunately that is the usual misinterpretation. We want the horse to lift his back under us, not sink like a hammock, which is when much damage is done to his ligaments, and why so many old horses end up with sunken, dipped backs.

Sitting deeply, means spreading your weight around as large a surface area of the horse as possible, i.e. you wrap the lower leg around the horse's sides, so that, as the German's say it 'clings like a wet cloth, without gripping'. Now to be able to do this, takes strong calf muscles, not to be able to grip, but to have the necessary control of the lower leg to allow it to drape around the horse. When the lower leg is draped in this way, it lightens the seat in the saddle, without losing contact with the seat, and makes it so much easier for the horse to carry you.

No horse was designed to carry a rider. If you were a horse, which would you prefer, someone dropping their ten, eleven, twelve, perhaps fourteen or fifteen stone down in the middle of your sensitive back, or someone that endeavoured to be responsible for their own weight? I know which I would prefer!

I know some heavier riders who actually sit much more lightly than riders who are several stones less, but plonk their weight down on the back of the horse, usually because some instructor has told them to.

Wrapping the leg around s only part of sitting deeply. Being able to synchronise the movements of your lower back and pelvis exactly with those of the horse so that you move as one unit, is the other very important thing which is never taught. 'Sit deeper' 'relax your lower back' 'go with the movement' is all that you are told. This means nothing to a novice rider.

All downward transitions are effectively the same, whether from walk to halt, trot to walk, canter to trot etc. In order to make a downward transition, simultaneously close the lower leg and squeeze together the seat/upper thigh muscles. The horse feels the difference between you moving with him, and then arresting that movement by the tightening of the buttock muscles and upper thighs.

It is not an action that causes the horse discomfort, because it lightens the seat in the saddle, enabling him to lift and round his back with ease. The reins should never be used in a backward pulling manner, which will cause a tug of war between horse and rider, but by closing the fingers of alternate hands as if squeezing water out of a sponge. Give two squeezes with the fingers of the left hand, then two with the right hand fingers. I have found this works best, although you won't find it in any book -except mine that is!

To achieve the correct canter lead, flex the horse to the inside by raising the inside hand a couple of inches, and squeezing the reins as if squeezing water out of a sponge, with a smooth, never jerky action. The outside hand is lowered, and against the neck, bringing the rein to lie along the neck, acting in support. The outside leg comes back a little behind the girth but with only light pressure, to initiate the canter from the outside hindleg, the inside leg remains with the toe in line with the girth, and used with more pressure than the outside leg to encourage the inside hindleg to step under and carry more weight, in turn lifting and lightening the horse's inside shoulder.

I would tend to flex the horse first, so that I could just see the inside eye and nostril, followed immediately by the outside leg, then the inside leg and outside together, with the inside leg predominant. This is because once the horse learns lateral work, any extra pressure of the outside leg behind the girth will make the horse move away from it, bringing the quarters in and giving a crooked canter depart.

Eeeeek!!! The use of the seat as a driving aid is a primary cause of back problems in the horse. Why, oh why, it is still being taught when biomechanically it makes no sense whatsoever, and is positively damaging, never mind also being the cause of many a sore backside in the rider, never ceases to amaze me.

When the rider drives with the seat, both seatbones slide back and forth together along the saddle, which hinders the function of the horse's back which works in two halves not one piece. Compound this with leaning back, which depresses the reflex points which lie under the cantle region of the saddle, and causes the horse to drop his back and raise his head, the very opposite of what we are trying to achieve through transitions.

The whole point of transitions is to achieve them as smoothly as possible, so that weight is transferred back to the hind end, and the horse lightens and lifts his forehand. It is the legs, not the seat, that create impulsion. When the leg is correctly applied, it will activate the nerves in the intercostal region around the ribcage enabling the back to lift and round under the rider.

The great German dressage maestro Dr. Reiner Klimke when asked at a clinic here in the UK at which I was present, 'why do you never talk about the seat as a driving aid?', he replied 'why would I use my seat when I have a perfectly good pair of legs!'. Kiwi world 3 day event champion Blyth Tait when taking a clinic here in Devon was asked why he didn't use his seat top create impulsion. He had a very simple exercise to prove why he didn't. He asked the students on the clinic to hold their legs away from the horse's sides, and to push with the seat. Every single horse ground to a halt! My book Enlightened Equitation explains the driving seat in great detail, and also has a whole chapter dealing with transitions. Try to get hold of a copy, even if you only borrow it!

Try sitting on a stool, and doing this exercise. Flex your lower back in, so that the top of the pelvis is slightly forward. Now straighten the spine again, pelvis back to upright, never allowing the pelvis to tilt backwards. Repeat this, flexing and straightening in the one, two, three - one, two, three, rhythm of the canter. That is all that you need to do to sit to the canter. Now do it again, and feel what your seatbones are doing. They are shaped like the rockers of the rocking chair. If the seat is allowed to 'scoop' as if polishing the saddle seat, you are directly opposing the horses movement. His back is trying to raise and round under you, with every canter stride feeling lie a little jump. If you are scooping down into the saddle, with your seatbones sliding along it, you will depress his back and make him flatten.

Flex your spine in and out again, and feel what your seatbones are doing. They will rock forward onto the front edge, the back onto the bottom edge of the bones. In essence, what they are doing is mirroring the angles of the horses back as it rises and falls, allowing the back to round up to your seat, which will feel very light in the saddle. Your shoulders will stay very still, and the whole picture will be very elegant. The shoulders should never come behind the vertical at any phase in the canter, or you will depress the reflex points under the cantle, and the horse will hollow.

I had a Swiss Grand Prix rider over here on a workshop with me the year before last. She rang me from Switzerland, to say that she felt that she was somehow squashing her horse's back in canter, which was causing him to lack lift and expression, particularly in flying changes in sequence - tempi changes as they are called.

I told her that I knew what she was doing even before she stepped on the plane! I don't think she believed me until she got here, and lo and behold, it was just as I had said. As soon as I stopped her scooping or 'driving' with her seat, she could immediately feel the horse's back come up under her. She phoned me on her return home, saying that she couldn't believe the difference in her horse in the quality of his canter, and the expression in the changes. So, it just goes to prove, how much the rider affects the horse by the way he or she absorbs the movement.