confused

[Silver1]

I have been reading the different conversations on "sitting deep" But I'm sort of confused, you say that when your sitting deep you have very little wait on the saddle, where does all the weight go? It can't go into the stirrups because you can "sit deep" with out them, and some of you have said it's a bad idea to grip with your legs, so where does it go? :confused: And is sitting deep sort of like riding a camel? With a camel you just sorta spread your weight through your upper legs, and seat and just go with flow....

[Maci]

The only time I sit deep is when I want to slow my horse's pace down to the previous gait. ie. trot to walk- you would sit deep to make your horse go slow because it puts more wieght in their hindquarters, or their 'motor' and they slow down.
You woudn't want to sit deep any other time, because it slows your horse down and puts a burden on their back. All my weight goes to my inner thighs (to help absorb the horse's movement) and to my feet.
Hope This Helps!
Maci :)

[Silver1]

cool!
this helped a lot! hanks so much :)

(I don't think i'm ever going to run out of smiles :)
:)

[fionahogg]

You don't actually sit deep, you just move your hips and seat bones in a synchronized (heck, big word!) movement with the horse's back so that you appear to be glued to the saddle. It therefore gives the impression that you are sat deep. If you sit deep when you want the horse to slow down, you don't put more on the hind quarters, because you are not sat on them! You put more weight on the part of the horse's back where you sit. This prevents the horse from lifting his back - something he NEEDS to do in order to engage behind. When I want the horse to slow down, I sort of squeeze my bum cheeks together (!) so that, one minute, I am moveing with the horse, the next I am blocking his movement with my seat. The horse feels this, and slows accordingly, but he can still raise his back and engage.

Fiona.

[JCB]

Also my instructor tells me (and please correct me if this is wrong) that some of your weight is in your upper body - you stretch tall and stretch your legs long so that the weight is not in the saddle. I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well but if you slump down in your seat as you read this and then stretch your upper body tall you'll see what I mean I think :)

Hope this helps.

JCB

[Silver1]

basicly your standing up in the saddle...

[JCB]

No - maybe I'm not explaining this very well - your seat is in the saddle but most of your weight is distributed down into your legs and also up into your torso by holding yourself tall. Can anyone else explain this better?

[Sarah]

hello!

You want to make sure that your weight is well distributed over the horse. You want to be sitting on your seatbones (try sitting on a hard chair and rock back or forwards till you feel you are sitting on a hard bit - those are your seatbones) with your legs wrapped round the horse. This doesn't mean grip the horse between your legs - Heather describes it as having your legs gripping like a wet cloth grips a barrel - a definite contact, but not hanging on for dear life with your legs. You also have some weight in your stirrups - not so you are standing in them, but not so that your feet keep coming out of them.

By keeping your legs wrapped round the horse, you are effectively spreading your weight down and through them.

When your teacher shouts 'SIT DEEP!!!' at you, what she means is that you look tense and are either standing in your stirups or are opposing the horse's movement through its back. If you spread you weight out as I described above, and try to let your back and hips move with the horse (don't think about it, let the horse move you), you will be sitting in a better position.

Sitting deep is thought by many people to be sitting and shoving your bottom down into the horse's back so taht you are closer to him. This infact just blocks and resists the movement of the horse adn is of no use to the horse or rider!

i hope that helped!

Why don't you start another thread and tell us about your camel riding, i for one am fascinated!

bye!

[fionahogg]

Sarah is completely right! I agree with her completely

[Silver1]

AH!
thanks!!!