legs will not stay back

[janetj235]

As a NR, im still at the rise and trot stage, and now ive have decided to start from the begining, cos as soon as i rise my legs go forward, any advise on how to stop this? i find that i am rise from my feet and not the hips, (if you know what i mean) and i watch people all the time and they look so good there feet just seem to stay in the same position and they use there hips, Any advise would be good

[NoviceNic]

The trick is not to rise too high. You need to just tip your hip slightly forward. To improve your legs you can do loads of stirrupless work. Helps loads with balance as well. Whenever I have any problems with anything I always got back to taking my stirrups away. :)

[laura jeanne]

Take a look at this post from a while back. The info is good even if you are not a disabled rider. I know it helped me when I read it.

http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49626

[janetj235]

Thank you both, and have read the thread, i am just going on a lesson now, so i hope i can put all this into practice, and i will also speak to my RI but sometimes when i tell him what i am doing, i now he can see it but he says i am trying to do to much at the same time, but the way i see it is yes i can rise and trot and sit and trot, and ride with no stirrups and reigns and have very good balance but i still want to get the position right before it get passed that stage of a bad habit

Well im back from my lesson and i got the horse to trot without using my crop i am so chuffed, and i trotted over jump bars that were on the floor, gosh little things make me feel so good

[teabiscuit]

i imagine that i am pushing off the ground with my foot flat to the floor as i rise/post. i imagine that my calf stretches down to the floor for this exercise. the push is more of a thinking tool, not a huge push into the air.

this helps me keep my legs underneath me

i read about this in centered riding by sally swift, she has lots of good visualisation techniques

[cvb]

janet

if you're like most typical folk at this stage, one of your problems is getting the time to practice...

So if you have access to a gym ball, you can use that to work on it. If not, you can simply use a normal chair but its harder to get the "bounce" feel.

Most of us, getting in and out of a chair, are lazy and just sort of collapse down and lever ourselves up. This doesn't do us any favours, and certainly doesn't help us when we get to riding and rising trot !

If you are working with a normal chair, try this. Sit on the edge so that your knees are bent and your feet as under your hips as they can be. They will need to be slightly ahead or you'll never manage to stand ! Now try standing up without using your hands or arms to lever or swing yourself. (In fact, you may want to have arms and hands in riding position to give you something to do).

Practice and experiment, working out how much you need to lean forward to get the movement going, how to control it all the way up so you could stop at any point.

Rising trot will be easier, as you have the horse's forward motion to help you !

While you're at it, for every "rise" you can practice a controlled "sit" as well, again controlling it the whole way down ;)

If you have the luxury of a gym ball you will do something similar but you'll find the "give" in the ball allows you to both do a sitting trot *and* get into a rhythm rising and do rising trot as well.

[entreat]

Are you tipping forward with your upper body as you rise? It could be pushing your butt into the back of the saddle, which will bring your knees up.

What are your hips doing in the rise? are you tucking your tailbone under? You don't need to 'thrust' but give a little tuck - it helps keep your rise more upright.

Can you get a lesson on the lunge? That will free you up with you hands to focus on your balance and what about your rise is under tension that's bringing your leg forward.