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hello everyone i'm amelia thanks for watching today i'm going to give you a tip for how you
can feel more grounded and more secure in the saddle and let me know if you struggle with this
i think it's hard you know none of us want to fall off and we feel pretty secure when we're
walking around but when you're in the saddle you might feel very like tippy or off balance
so a really good way to feel grounded in the saddle is to really focus on your feet
in the stirrups and i have to credit sally swift for this tip
i was reading her book and if you haven't checked out sally swift's book called centered writing
it's really such a good book i'll link it down below where you can purchase it but she was
talking about exactly what your feet should be doing in the stirrups so that's what i'm going to
talk about in today's video be sure to give this video a thumbs up and let me know in the comments
if it helps you out or what you're working on with your horse i always love to hear from you guys
so the first thing that we want to think about and what sally swift talks about is what we call the
bubbling spring so the bubbling spring is a point on your foot it's the balance point of your foot
so if you draw a line through the middle of your foot like from your heel up the line goes between
your big toe and your second toe and then if you draw a perpendicular line to that right below the
ball of your foot that's your bubbling spring and so when you're riding you want your stirrup to go
on that bubbling spring and you want to be able to feel your balance point in your stirrup so
in order to feel this your stirrup has to be sitting perpendicular to your foot
and then as you go through your ride if you use your leg or if you make a transition
you have to check in and make sure that you can feel the ball of your foot on the stirrup and this
is really going to help you to feel grounded when you're in the saddle so i'll show you a little bit
this in motion it was funny though i was reading her book and you know i ride a lot i ride a lot
of horses and i started thinking about this bubbling spring and really paying attention to
my feet in the stirrups when i'm riding so a couple of tips to help you feel this one is that
like you saw he was mercurial sleeping so i had to give him a little kick to get him to go but it's
really important that when you give that kick that you still keep the weight on the ball of your foot
so that you like make a little correction and then feel your bubbling spring and feel that weight
down in your seat it's really important that you have weight in your stirrups one so that you stay
connected and that you don't fall off and then two so that you don't lose your stirrups because
if you're drawing your legs up and your foot slides out of the stirrup then see now i've lost
my stirrups so that's why it's really important to keep the weight on your foot another common
problem that happens that i see a lot is that people their stirrups either go like this so
they're angled too much forward you want to make sure that your stirrup is 90 degrees
to your horse or other times people end up with their stirrups back here too much in the arch of
their foot so again you really want to feel your stirrup and the weight going into that balance
point of your foot to get your horse going forward you may have to give a little bump
and then release your leg long again it's also really important to note that in order
to keep your foot in the stirrup you have to have flexibility in your ankles so you need to be able
to push your heels down if you have tight calves then you need to make sure to do some stretches
before you get on so i'll just go through in rising trot same thing i'm posting but
as i'm going here i'm really saying okay can i keep that balance point can i feel
the bubbling spring what you're going to notice is that when you start paying attention to this
some of the benefits is that it helps to keep your center of gravity lower
it helps to keep you from losing your stirrup you're also going to feel
like your legs are longer and more effective and then same thing in the sitting trot
i'm thinking about moving my hips but lengthening my legs so that i really feel
that bubbling spring and canner as well and you notice how they're like i put my leg on
for the canner but i most definitely kept the weight in my stirrup when i did that
so i gave you know a little correction and i might give my horse a little kick but whenever
i put my leg on it's really important that i stay grounded
in my stirrups and that i always check in with feeling that bubbling spring again boy
so just as you're riding around over the next few rides really notice this feeling in your stirrups
you can also play around with kind of like wiggling your toes
and it's really going to help you so that you don't end up gripping
with your legs and that you're really using your legs correctly all right and like make
a correction like there i said come on go a little more forward because i haven't really
warmed him up yet today and then pushing my heels down feeling my ball of my foot on the stirrup
oh boy
good boy good boy so it's definitely something that you know you
you use your leg and then you check in with your bubbling spring again and you use your leg and
then you check in with your bubbling spring for me i tend to like be too much on the outside of my
foot and not have enough pressure into the inside of my foot so i've been really trying to feel that
and feel like the entire stirrup across my foot and again the reason that this is important is
because it helps you feel grounded it helps to lower your center of gravity so that you can be
more secure and effective up here when you have your stirrups correct it's much more likely that
if your horse spooks or spins or does something that you're going to stay with your horse
and it's also going to allow your leg to be more effective so that if you need to use your leg
you can use your leg and then you can go back to this feeling so i hope this video was helpful and
again your legs are such an important aid to communicate with your horse and so this
feeling will help your leg position it will help allow your seat to move better with the horse
and it really will allow you to stay safe and be more effective in your riding
so thanks for watching give this video a thumbs up also check out in the description i have a free
mini course on confidence that might help you out and we post a new dressage video every wednesday
bye