okay hello it's josie from basic horse training going to show you some work to do on your seat
today to help improve that one of the things i do when i do seat work is i have a little monkey
grip on my saddle here and when i can get the silly thing undone i clip it through my reins
so that i can do some work without my reins without actually losing them now only do this
work if you're comfortable doing it with your horse obviously i don't want anyone to get hurt
a lot of us work a lot on our own and these are some exercises and ways that
i worked out to sort my seat out in the early days working on my own from home
most people sit right on a horse a little bit like this with their toes and their legs rolled out
and they sit back on their bottom with their legs a bit in front or their legs a little bit too
much forward and they're sitting on their crotch and what we need to do is get ourselves so that
our body is in alignment and i'm sure most of you have heard of the ear shoulder hip heel alignment
what an easier way to think of it is we actually stand astride our horse we do not
sit on a horse we stand a astride it and if the horse is whipped out from underneath us
we should land balanced on our feet if my legs are too far forward here already i can feel myself
falling backwards and if i'm trying to rise trot i would need to use my arms for leverage these
are some exercises that i did to help the first one i'll get spiders working and because i've got
if he'd like to walk ways to help you find your seat bones when you're doing these on your horse
as well just be careful some horses can be a bit sensitive about your body parts moving on them so
please be careful and if you're worried and you've got to helper you can always get someone to lead
so the first one to help you find your seat bones is just literally gently bring your
leg up and down up and down up and down outside one can come up and when you're at the top there
and if you're in a saddle that that works uh suits your horse properly sorry you should
feel your seat bones and down and up and down and because when i come up my seat stops spider
actually stops because it's hard for me to keep my seat flowing and bring my leg up and then if
you when you get really good at it you can bring two up if you're comfortable honestly don't do
this on a horse you're not comfy on i don't really want anyone to get hurt but i can really feel my
seat bones here i'm sitting back on my bottom i'm aware of that but these are exercises to help you
fix your seat up and you should be able to do them in walk trot and canter
i've got a monkey grip if i need it
and good boy good boy another one that you can do is the scissor kick so your leg comes forward
and back forward and back now what you're trying not to do and what i see a lot of the people i
teach do is they do this with their lower leg we're not aiming to get the lower leg mobile
we're aiming to get the thigh mobile so you actually have to move from this joint here
forward and back forward and back if you do these every day
while you're warming your horse up you've warmed yourself up you've stretched and i'm doing the
outside one forward and back forward and back and you should be able to do those at trot two
spiders had a week's holiday and he's being a bit lazy i don't hang on or you can hang
on to your monkey grip or the front of your saddle if you need to while you're learning
because really you should be actually balanced on your horse and not gripping anyway
good boy okay some seat fixes another one when you're riding the horse and you're actually
turning you should be able to turn the top of your body independent to the bottom of your body
i've picked the corner of my arena because i've got three sides which makes it easier
for me obviously don't do this one if you're not happy to let go of the reins but if you
are you can have your arms straight out and just turning what the aim is to try to keep
your belly button pointing forward while the top of your body
turns and it's so that you get some suppleness yourself through your waist and if i turn this
way with a bit of luck and it's not going to happen spider should actually turn and he goes
i'd like to go down the end of the arena because i've had a week's holiday and i don't feel like
working today and then there's another one where you just get your shoulders mobile
if you've got someone to lead you get them to lead you to start with
these are really really good exercises because whilst you're doing this you should be relaxed
through the rest of your body and if you get to this point your horse decides to go down there
and just uh yeah good boy ask him to come around that's why this is here
all right a lot of people i notice sit with a bit of a wrong tilt in their pelvis and this
a lot of that comes from the upper thigh and or the upper thighs a little bit too far forward
and this is a really good exercise to do that but this is also one of those
where horses that are sensitive may hump and buck so just be careful i do do
these exercises on my horses um i'm always thinking about my position when i'm riding
so i'll just wait till we get around on the side so you can see the inside of spider
so when you do this one be gentle to start with to make sure you're not going to upset your horses
because a lot of them can be ticklish around this flank area but if you slide your leg up and that's
where they can get a bit woohoo and that is stretching my drivers like down the front of my
thigh that one down stretch that up and the aim is to try to let your leg down
good boy and not allow your thigh to pop back forward and then so that one goes up this way
it's all right spidey and you can if you can get it right up there that's good and eventually
if you can get it you can get both up and this will really really give you a feeling
okay this isn't the position we want you in but it gives you the feeling of your belly button
or your belt buckle leading which is what you shouldn't be
like this on a horse riding all collapsed the belt the belt buckle i almost feel
like somebody's doing that with my belt buckle and that's from a supple soft back
lower legs are also an issue and i definitely have a right leg that wants to turn out in fact you
can see there that's its natural position that's not good enough for riding what you do is what i
think of is i lift it slightly and push my heels out so i'm almost rolling my thigh in girls that
have got bigger thighs might actually need to put their hand under there and turn their thigh but if
you just heels out oh good boy and that will help you get your legs straight to where you're going
so i will when i'm riding
especially this right leg my toes wants to go out i'll often think push the ankle bone
out josie you'll see coming at the camera and i'll go out because it wants to sit like that
now you should be able to do all of these sitting without stirrups eventually but also with stirrups
and i'll just steer him on the open side
and i can do all of these and see you'll see my right toe go and i need to put it back good boy
you should be able to do all them at walk at trot
including knees up i'm not balancing on anything here but my core strength and canter obviously you
only do them if you're comfortable doing them i don't don't you be cheeky from a week off
no legs no legs i'm balanced
hope they help i made a commitment to myself to do them every single day for six weeks in my warm up
for my horse quite a few years ago now and i said to myself if they don't make any difference to me
i'll stop doing them and if they do they do so i had everything to gain nothing to lose
and to this day i still do work on myself and on my seat thanks