feet sticking out!

[ranger]

Can anyone help me with my lower leg position?! I seem to have gotten into a bad habit of poking my toes out when riding and therefore I think I am using my lower leg (and therefore my whole leg I suppose) incorrectly. I don't think my leg aids are as effective as they could be. It also doesn't look very elegant!

Has anyone experienced this and overcome it? Any tips? I've gotten to the stage that the "wrong" position feels "right" to me.

[vjwuk]

I have this problem too. I ride a pretty wide horse and am forever grating my foot against the boards. I try hard to keep them in and recently as soon as I have mounted and sorted stirrups I make myself push my upper legs back and almost go "pigeon toed" then relax.

It doesn't help that I am knock kneed and when I turn my feet in my knees turn in pushing my lower leg out a degree.

I have found that what I do helps get the "feeling" of where my feet should be in my head and they stay pointed straight forward longer than before, but whether it will help you I don't know.

Hope so, worth a try

[cvb]

your knee joint has very little sideways movement, so any turn out is coming from your hips.

I have this problem - especially over jumps where it looks like i am using my feet as wing flaps or something !

You need to work on hip mobility - make sure you warm up before you ride and do some stretching exercises. Relax through hip and bum. Think of opening the hip - although it sounds a bit backward - opening your hip to close your feet - opening the hip allows the leg to turn forward more.

Think of an arrow coming out of the front of your knee and use your hip to turn the arrows on each knee more in the direction you are going. You will not get them pointing straight forward, but work slowly at bringing the arrows around.

I saw a neat strap you can buy that keeps your stirrup a certain distance from the saddle, but breaks (velcro ?) if there is a problem.

Trouble is I can't find it now....

[ros]

This is one of those things that Heather doesn't worry too much about at first. As cvb says, it's a lot to do with suppleness in your hips, so forcing your position won't help.

What you mustn't do is force your knees in in an attempt to turn your toes in, because clamping your knees tends to pull your lower leg away from the horse where it's no good to man or beast :) Off the horse, I do stretching exercises when I remember (usually at the kitchen sink); on the horse I find it's useful to be aware of how you actually use your lower leg - if you get into the habit of clenching your calf muscle rather than moving the whole lower leg, you'll find you automatically keep your toe more forward.

[cvb]

I've been doing some thinking about riding position. When you look in a mirror at yourself riding, you can see the shoulder-hip-heel alignment and it feels ok - no big stretches or issues.

But I figured if you lie on the floor, then the shoulder-hip-heel alignment is there again. So I figured you should be able to practice the alignment lying on the floor.

Now if you bend your knees, but try to keep your toes "up", its really tough - as long as you keep your feet quite close together.

The only way this alignment works is if you open your hip joints as if you are on the horse (but don't flop your knees down to the side) ! Its amazing how wide horses really are !

Of course the other difference when on a horse is that your weight is going down through your seat bones - so don't worry if it does still feel very different !

[virtuallyhorses]

Actually if you're lying on the floor then the alignment will depend on how big your butt is :) In my case the alignment is not there :(

but the problem of gravity and stretch is also a little greater than you describe - practising standing up against a doorway would probably be a little better than lying down - or sitting on the end of a sofa perhaps ...

[cvb]

when you do Alexander Technique lessons you often practise 'monkey' position against a wall :D But you often start with your feet a little away from the wall. And with the exercise you do to work your thighs for skiing ("sitting" against a wall), your feet are away too.

The only reason I was thinking about how to get the alignment lying down is 'cos then you are less likely to do weird things with your back and are more likely to have uncollapsed hips.

The only problem practising this way is that you do start to feel a bit like you ought to be in a birthing chair with stirrups :eek: ;) so you really do not want other people around thinking its the funniest thing ever.....

I guess if you practise more than one way, you will get different benefits from different practising. After all - it IS only practising and not the real thing !

(I have a physio ball on my birthday list - thats another good one for practising hip mobility :) )

[ranger]

Thanks for all this. Funnily enough I used to go to yoga classes and I was told my hips were quite tight. I stopped doing yoga (not enough time!) but maybe I should start again.
When looking at photographs of myself, it looks like my knees are sticking out as well rather than facing forwards. I'm sure that this is better than gripping with my knees but I feel as if my whole leg is in the wrong position now! Heather does talk about squeezing/tensing the calf muscle but I thought she also talked about using your whole leg as well (eg move your whole leg back to go give the aid for canter?). I suppose this must also require hip mobility.

Anyway, I'm going to go home tonight, lie on the floor and see how big my bottom is!!

[cvb]

ranger

the calf position makes a big difference to how that muscle block works and affects the horse.

If you have your toes turned out, and knees pointing out a bit, then you tend to 'use' the calf by closing the knee joint, the heels will come up a bit, and you get a big lumpy, 'stiff' calf. The area of calf against the horse is reduced.

If you have your knees more towards ten to 2 (clock position) and toes in line with them, then use your half, you use it more inwards. The muscle in you calf does not bulk up in the same way and the area against the horse is much bigger. This means it is much more likely that you will be using your leg against the nerve endings in the horses side that you want to stimulate !

Anyway - I found the stirrups strap that I mentioned - it is in March "Horse and Rider" magazine. Its called a "Symmetry Lower Leg Training Strap" and its from Equilibrium Products (www.equilibriumproducts.com). They are £7.95 a pair. IMHO you would only use them to get a feel for where you should be, and not ride in them all the time. But I have heard of instructors tying pupils stirrups to the girth before now and at least these would be safe in case anything went wrong !

[Sue Watson]

I have been using the patent "Sue Carnell Ball Squeezing Technique" to improve my lower leg. I like to think that my lower leg is now more stable and effective. Certainly I feel as if I can wrap my lower leg round my horse better without pointing my toes out. Also the leg stretching exercise Sue taught me works really well to gain more flexibility in the hips.

The SCBST:
Buy beach ball, sit on chair, squeeze ball between calves, I do about 20 reps 2x per day.

The leg stretching is purely feet out of stirrups, stretch leg with toes down then release, I stretch for about 5-8 strides of walk and then relax for the same.

I must admit I am very unfit at the moment and I believe rider fitness is one area that can help riding no end.

[Lesha]

Squeezing the beach ball between the legs is definitely very good for developing endurance in the adductors (which bring your legs together). In addition, you'll probably find it helpful to strengthen the abductors (which move your legs apart), and move your weight more onto the outside edge of your foot than onto the inside (supinate rather than pronate). This will help you obtain the flexibility required to get a better knee/foot position.

Try this to see if you have weak abductors and/or over pronate. Stand on one leg and then bend that leg, squatting down. Does your knee/thigh go straight down so it's directly above your toes with the knee blocking your view of your toes, or does it go inwards too (i.e. towards your other leg, in a sort of knock-kneed position) so that your knee is "inside" your toes with all your weight on the inside edge of your foot? (clue, if your knees were against the sides of a horse now, your toes would be sticking out!). If so, try to "clench" your hip muscles (which will pull your knee outwards) and also try to shift your weight more towards the outside edge of your foot (which will push your knee outwards). These two actions should make it easier to position your knee directly above your toes. And that's what you need to be able to ride comfortably with your toes not sticking out! My physiotherapist told me all this. I go to see him about running stuff, but always end up asking about riding stuff too :D