Independent Seat Article

May 18, 2010 at 5:06 pm  ·  1 Comment
Categories: Aids, Articles, Classical Riding, Lunge Line, Relaxation, Rhythm, Tension, The Classical Seat
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Developing An Independent Seat
By: Faith Meredith
Director, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre

Developing an independent seat is absolutely essential if a rider aspires to the upper levels of any equestrian sport.  An independent seat is wonderful to have, beautiful to see, but difficult to describe in words.  A rider with an independent seat can move each body part independently.  Each part of his or her body is flexible enough and strong enough to do its job without any compensation in another part.  He or she can balance perfectly over the horse’s center of gravity at any gait without any hint of gripping or tilting.  She can shift her pelvis to half halt without tensing her shoulders or falling behind the vertical.  He can shift his weight on his inside seat bone and bring his shoulders back to ask for a spin without collapsing a hip or grabbing with his legs.

An independent seat starts on the ground.  If riders cannot independently control their body parts before getting in the saddle, there is not going to be a sudden transformation when their feet are in the stirrups.  A rider whose balance on the ground is a bit shaky or who is physically unfit will not be able to achieve a completely independent seat once mounted.  Activities that help develop both strength and balance such as skating, skiing, yoga, dance or martial arts can help riders cross train to achieve an independent seat for riding.  Mounted riders can work without stirrups or reins on a lunge line or in a jumping lane to achieve balance without gripping.  The more control a rider develops over his or her own body movements, the more precisely he or she will be able to use body language to communicate with a horse whether on the ground or from the saddle.

Relaxation is absolutely key to development of an independent seat and relaxation, too, starts on the ground.  Meredith Manor’s “heeding” system of groundwork teaches students to move with relaxation and rhythm so that their horses will move that way too.  Students learn that their body language communicates a huge vocabulary of nuances to their horses.  This attitude of rhythm and relaxation and the understanding that even small movements can create huge responses in the horse also figure in the development of an independent seat when they carry them over from handling the horse from the ground to working with it under saddle.  Starting out on reliable schoolmasters can help more timid riders relax as they develop balance and other skills on their way to achieving an independent seat.

The rider who is gripping with her thighs and knees and whose heels angle downward from a locked ankle may look like she has good form.  She may even win ribbons.  However, her stiff form blocks full communication with her horse.  Her aids will be like cell phone static.  They may be garbled.  Worse still, the batteries may go dead and communication may stop altogether because the horse starts to ignore her constant aid pressures.

The rider with an independent seat is completely relaxed yet able to use any muscle independently of any other muscle at any time in order to use that muscle as an aid pressure whenever she wants.  Her ankles, knees, hips, and elbows are relaxed, flexible, and soft.  Her head and shoulders are loose, nodding almost imperceptibly at the top of her spinal column in rhythm to the horse’s gaits.  There is no unproductive tension anywhere in her body.  She is able to communicate with her horse with great nuance.

There is a mechanical level of understanding of horse communication that tells us what combinations of aids communicate what patterns to the horse when we ride.  Riders need to comprehend this mechanical language but they also need to understand that it is like speaking only to their horses in the present tense.  Communication may be clear but limited.

Developing an independent seat is like developing an understanding of more sophisticated verb forms.  Now the rider can talk to the horse in the present tense, future tense, future perfect and so on.  They can fine tune their performance by small degrees.  Muscle memory develops over time so that the rider no longer even thinks about each mechanical aid sequence every time he or she asks the horse for a particular maneuver.  Now they communicate so effortlessly that they appear to be of one mind.  Both horse and rider have reached a level of athleticism that is a beautiful thing to see.  This should be the ultimate goal of every serious rider.

© 2001-2010 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. All rights reserved.
Faith Meredith has successfully trained and competed through FEI levels of dressage during her more than 30 years as a horse professional. She currently coaches riders in dressage, reining, and eventing in her capacity as the Director of Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (147 Saddle Lane, Waverly, WV 26184; 800.679.2603; www.meredithmanor.edu), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.


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What It Means To Me

December 19, 2009 at 4:22 pm  ·  5 Comments
Categories: Bits, Classical Riding, The Training Scale
Tags: , , ,

After my brief intro, I want to put a more personalized spin on all this classical stuff. You can say “classical riding is correct riding” until you’re blue in the face, but it still doesn’t help you until you know what correct riding is.

Here is what classical riding has come to mean to me:

1. It means you follow the training scale. All the time. There are several slightly different versions, which I will go into depth on later. Even when you feel like you can do things a faster way, you need to remember that this is the fastest way. If you don’t have time to do something right, you must have time to do it over. And guess what? It takes a heck of a lot longer to re-train than it does to train correctly in the first place.

2. You don’t pull or yank on the reins. This is a tough one, because inevitably after reading this you will have a life-threatening emergency, be at a dead gallop heading towards the edge of a cliff, or just plain scared. I have been as guilty as anyone of the last one…and I am really hoping that as I progress as a rider, my instinctual response to something like a bolt or spook can be to just relax and calmly help the horse recover. Besides situations involving large amounts of adrenaline, pulling back on the reins in general blocks the action of the hind legs and creates tension – two things that go in the opposite direction of progress.

3. You use the softest bit possible. Translation: You use a soft bit – it’s always possible. The bit is not a brake, it’s not a getting-the-head-down device, it’s not a punishment. It’s a method of communication, a fine-tuning of the energy created from the hind end, and your horse should LOVE IT. Someday I will have to post a video of my Mom standing next to her horse with the bridle – he actually tries to bridle himself when he sees his bridle and if he could walk around with his bit in his mouth like a pacifier, he would. He loves it.

4. You understand that all good riding comes from the seat, and the classical seat is something that takes a long time to develop and must be maintained. You work at it. The lunge line is a great place to start if you have somebody willing to help you.

5. You don’t use force. You don’t beat the crap out of your horse for any reason, and you don’t use gadgets. (Gadgets don’t include the use of the dressage whip and spurs – when used correctly they can be useful aids.) For example, I used to use running/draw reins occasionally…but the more I read, the more I realized it wasn’t such a hot idea. You shouldn’t use a gadget to compensate for your lack of riding ability, and if you had the riding ability you wouldn’t use it. On the other hand if you’re using a gadget to compensate for your horse, then you need to back up and start following the training scale again; if you horse can’t perform the way you want without the gadget, then he isn’t ready for what you are asking. If you ride correctly (from back to front), you will get there.

6. The horse is your training calendar. Sometimes things may seem to be going unbearably slow, but this doesn’t mean you start skipping steps or using force. If things are going slow, they are going slow for a reason. Find the reason! It might be a physical injury, certain muscles might need more time to develop, and it might even be you. Whatever it is, take the time to try to figure it out, and never stray from the training scale.

7. The horse is innocent. Always. Horses are products of how humans have treated them. They don’t have hidden agendas and secret plots to get us when we’re not looking. Behavior is functional and always has a reason. So many times I hear things like “I’m doing everything right, my horse just has a mind of his own”. You have to be willing to accept responsibility for your riding and for your horse. Or don’t ride that horse.

8. Be fit! This is a quote by Ernst Hoyos from the book Dressage Masters: Techniques and Philosophies of Four Legendary Trainers: “A rider should be very fit. His condition should be good enough that he can always help the horse to perform better. He should be able to ride double the amount that is required. A tired rider makes a lot of mistakes. He becomes a heavy burden for the horse to carry.” Enough said.

9. Read – a lot! Seeking out knowledge is one of the easiest and best things you can do to help yourself ride your horse better. Find the best books, articles, and magazines and get crackin’. To help you out, I’ve compiled a list of books that I really like – click on the Read tab to check them out.

10. See the whole picture, and make sure your horse gets to be a horse. A happy and healthy horse is a much more willing partner. This can mean anything from making sure he is getting adequate nutrition and turn out time to checking that his tack is fitting correctly. It’s important to learn about equine physiology and psychology as well so you can be sure you are safeguarding your horse’s well-being to the utmost.

That’s what it means to me. What does it mean to you?

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