From: Nerissa
Dear Jessica, I am new to dressage and find it all extremely fascinating. I don't have a dressage instructor yet. I am looking for one but there are not many riding instructors of any kind where I live, so I am mostly trying to teach myself from books. One thing that I read again and again, is "use the seat to halt the horse", "halt the horse with the seat", etc. I am trying to figure out how this works, because I have no idea what to do. One book suggested to pretend that my legs were so long my heels were dragging on the ground. My son stops his bicycle this way (only with his toes dragging instead of his heels) but I haven't been able to appy the image to riding, at least not when I'm actually riding. I was taught Western (not very well, apparently) long ago and we were told to stop by pulling both reins while pushing our feet forward and pushing against the stirrups hard so that we wouldn't get bounced around when the horse stopped. Of course now I know that this was all wrong. I try to keep balanced over my feet, and I have taught myself not to push my feet forward and push against the stirrups when I ask my horse to halt, but I always end up grabbing the saddle hard with my knees (to keep my feet from pushing forward and my rear end from pushing back, I guess). This isn't correct, and I end up with my rear end kind of up and out of the saddle. Also, I have never really lost the habit of pulling both reins hard to stop. When I catch myself doing it, I drop the reins, then my horse starts to walk again and I have to pull the reins again, so obviously I am doing something wrong here too. Can you help me? I learn better from being told what to do than from "images" like pretending there is ice cream dripping out of my heels, and things like that. Nerissa
You're right to want to stay balanced over your feet, and you're right to avoid pushing against your stirrups. So far, so good. Now I'm going to separate the two skills that are giving you the most trouble - deepening your seat and using your hands correctly to halt - and I'll deal with each one separately before putting them back together.
To get the correct feel with your seat, practice (on your patient horse, at a standstill) holding the pommel of your saddle with one hand and using it to pull yourself downward, into the saddle. Keep your legs loose, with thighs and buttocks relaxed, so that you can really sink DEEP into your saddle. That feeling - that you are IN your saddle, not just ON it - is the feeling you will need to recapture when you halt.
After you've done this a few times by pulling yourself deep into the saddle, stop using your hand on the pommel. Practice (still on your patient horse, at a standstill) sitting tall with your chest open and your shoulders straight, not up around your ears (if you put them back, be sure to bring them back AND DOWN).
It will take some time to get all of the parts working together correctly, and it may help if you make yourself a list. Starting from the top: Head up, eyes looking straight ahead. Chest open, shoulders square. Back straight and tall. Buttocks and thighs relaxed - even loose and sloppy.
If you sit on your horse and keep running through this list, being sure to perform and FEEL each position change, by the time you get to the last item, you should be able to feel your body sinking deeper into the saddle. If you don't, or if you get the feel for just an instant and then lose it, start over.
When it's beginning to feel more natural, try this: with your head, chest, shoulders, and back all correctly positioned, TIGHTEN your buttocks and thighs, and feel yourself popping UP out of the saddle. HOLD that position for a count of ten, then go through your checklist again, and when you reach the last item, you'll feel a BUGE difference as your seat sinks into the saddle. Then do it again - and again - and again, always slowly and deliberately and correctly.
If you find that you're still pushing against your stirrups, drop them and work without them - just remember to pull up your toes. It's not easy to relax your thighs and lift your toes at the same time, but it can be done, and if you're going to be a good rider, it's a skill you need to acquire.
With or without your stirrups, whichever works for you, when you've got the exercise down, do it a few hundred MORE times. This will get you off to a good start. You'll know the feel of having a relaxed seat and being deep in your saddle; you'll also know the feel of being tight in your seat and popped up OUT of the saddle - and, most importantly, you'll know exactly how you got from one position to the other, and the next time you catch yourself popping UP out of your saddle, you'll know exactly what to do and how to get BACK into your saddle without changing anything else about your position.
When you've done this so often that you think you can do it in your sleep, keep doing it until you ARE doing it in your sleep. Then begin doing the same thing at a walk, and pay close attention to your horse's reaction. Most well-trained horses will either speed up or become anxious when you tense your seat and "pop up" - and they will relax and halt calmly when you sit deep and HOLD (not PULL, just HOLD) your reins steady.
Which, of course, brings us to the other problem: what to do with your reins. The answer to this is "as little as possible".
First, check your posture (use your list), then take a deep breath. As you exhale, you may use your hands, but as gently as possible. Here's what you'll do. If your elbows are bent and your hands are on a level with your bellybutton, as they should be, and if your arms are moving with your horse's head and neck at the walk, as they should be, all you'll need to do is stop your arms moving when your elbows come back to your sides. With your elbows at your sides, check your posture again from heels to (deep) seat. By this time, your horse will probably have halted. If the horse hasn't quite come to a halt, squeeze your fingers tightly on the reins, just for a heartbeat, without moving your hands or arms. Then relax your fingers (but keep them closed, and keep your elbows at your sides).
This may feel awkward at first - don't worry, you can practice, and it will get easier. If your timing is good, you'll have taken that first deep breath just before asking your horse to halt, so that you could go through your checklist, relax your seat deep into the saddle, feel your legs sink lower on the horse's sides, and simultaneously squeeze your fingers just for a second - one heartbeat - before relaxing them again. During that exhale, your horse should have come to a smooth halt.
In the context of your overall position and action (straight back, deep seat getting much deeper), tightening the reins very slightly, which is what you do when you squeeze your fingers tightly for an instant, says to the horse "I want you to stop". Relaxing the hands says "Thank you, that's what I wanted." Your horse will NOT step forward just because you've relaxed your fingers. If the horse steps forward out of the halt, you will know that there is something else going on, and that you've somehow given the horse a signal to move forward.
Most of the time, when a horse steps forward out of the halt before the rider deliberately asks the horse to move, the rider has done something to make the horse think that the rider wanted it to walk on.
Here are some likely explanations - see whether one of them sounds familar to you!
1. The rider dropped the reins completely - and dropped her hands along with them. This changed her posture and tilted her weight forward, which caused her to tighten her thighs slightly - which said to the horse "OKAY, GO!" 2. The rider didn't drop her reins, but she wanted to be sure that the horse really had halted, so... she looked down at the horse's neck. This changed her posture and tilted her forward, which caused the horse to believe that she wanted it to go forward, so it took a step - at which point the rider felt herself tilting MORE forward and grabbed the horse with her thighs (which, of course, told the horse "OKAY, GO!" 3. The rider didn't drop her reins or look down, because she was being careful, but she wanted to reward her horse for giving her such a prompt halt, so she started to reach forward to pat the horse. As her hand and arm came forward and down, this changed her posture and tilted her weight forward, which... sing along with me here... told the horse "OKAY, GO!"
Are you getting the picture? You're not doing anything enormously wrong, but the problem is that it takes VERY LITTLE to change your posture and balance to change your balance, and your horse is always going to interpret your changes of posture and balance as SIGNALS. Being quiet is one of the most difficult things we have to do on horseback, and that's what you're learning right now - how to say only what you mean to say, say it clearly, and then to be QUIET so that you won't (accidentally) say something entirely different a second later.
I think this will be enough to get you started - lots of explanation, and not a single image in sight. Have fun!
Jessica
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