(upbeat uplifting music)
- Welcome.
Today, we're gonna be talking about rider position.
This is something that you guys
have heard me talk about before if you follow this channel,
which is having that ear, shoulder, hip, heel alignment.
It's something that can be a little bit elusive
when we're working on it.
I know for me, for many years,
rider position was really difficult.
I really struggled to feel like I was in a position
that was balanced with my horse, where I was really relaxed
and it was easy for me to sustain that good position.
So I wanna share with you some things
that have really helped me on my journey
to getting a better position as a rider,
and hopefully it'll be a help to you as you work on this.
I'm doing a four part video series.
I'm gonna be highlighting on a rider on the screen,
each section that we're going through
so that you guys can follow along
and have success with this.
The first thing that we want to pay attention to
when we find that great position
that really secures us in the saddle,
is our pelvic position.
So your pelvis is the cornerstone of great position.
When we ride, we balance on our seat bones.
So having a pelvic in the correct position
can make all the difference in stabilizing you
in the saddle.
There's three different positions your pelvis can be in
when you're riding a horse.
The first one is an interior rotation.
So that's when your back is arched like this,
and you're riding more on your pubic bone
with your seat bones pointed behind you.
The next one is posterior rotation.
That's when your back is rounded like this,
and your seat bones are pointed forward.
And then the last one is neutral.
That's when you're sitting at the neutral spine
and your seat bones are pointed straight down.
In order to find this position of a neutral spine,
which is our ideal position, we wanna take our hand
and put it under our bum,
and we're gonna feel that interior,
posterior, and then neutral.
So in the interior of the seat bones,
you're gonna feel them point back,
posterior, you're gonna feel them disappear.
Neutral, you're gonna feel them pointing
straight down into your hand.
Neutral position in the pelvic allows you
to absorb the shock of the motion with the horse.
You have the most flexibility through your hips
in this position so it's most ideal for riding.
If you're having trouble finding this position under saddle,
you can find it on the ground.
And you can do that by laying on the ground.
You're gonna put your hand under your low back,
and then engage your core to the ground.
As you do this, you're gonna find that there's no space
between the ground and your low back.
This is the correct position for your pelvis to be in
when you're riding.
So when you ride your horse,
if you feel like this is, you know,
feeling really tense or really sore to be in this position,
it just doesn't feel quite right,
it could be because your hip flexors are tight
during the front of your leg here.
If the hip flexors are tight,
this can pull on your pelvis
and make it kind of uncomfortable
to find that neutral position.
One thing that you can do to help you out with this,
is do some stretches of the hip flexors.
And some stretches that I like to do
are the butterfly stretch as you can see here,
and just the traditional hip flexor stretch.
Doing this five minutes before a ride,
can make a big difference in how comfortable it is
for you to sit in the correct position.
The other thing you can do, if you're finding it difficult
to stay in this neutral position,
is to work on your core strength.
So your core really stabilizes your pelvis
and is an essential part of your balance when you ride.
Strengthening your core by doing things like planks,
just traditional planks, for 30 seconds to a minute,
can really strengthen up that core
and make it easier for you to keep
that neutral position in your pelvis.
So there you have it.
Now we know how to find a nice neutral position
in our pelvis, and be more secure in the saddle.
If this video was a help to you,
make sure you like and subscribe
so you never miss another video.
Remember that if you are struggling with this,
to keep chipping away at it and be kind to yourself.
We all have areas that we're struggling with
in our position, in our riding at different stages.
So remember it takes time to build that strength
and stretch those muscles out.
So be kind to yourself in that process,
and keep chipping away at it.
Before you know it, you'll be riding in great position.
No problem.
So I hope you have a wonderful week,
and I'll see you in the next video.