- [Instructor] Audio lessons are like having a
coach on your shoulder, each step of your ride,
we give you straight forward techniques, visualizations,
and exercises, to help transform you and your horse
into the best possible team.
In today's lesson, I'd like to do the first in the series
of how to quit bouncing when you ride.
This is a question I get asked quite often about,
from riders, wondering how they can fit the trot better,
how they can be quieter as they ride,
and to begin with, I think it's pretty important to
understand the why, because if we can understand why we
might bounce when we ride, then it's easier to make the
corrections later on.
One of the reasons I see quite often that people are
bouncing when they ride, is they're bracing on
their stirrups, and that would look a little something
like this, where you're pushing down on your heel, and when
you do this, this pushes your leg forward and it creates a
rigidity through the whole entire leg.
The other piece that happens when one does this,
is it pushes our seat towards the back of the saddle and,
then it pushes us up out of the saddle slightly,
so it's going to be important that you're aware of your
leg position, and you keep your leg quiet.
Something that can be helpful, so that you know that you're
not bracing on your stirrups, is to lift the feet in the
stirrup and just, kind of do a little dance in your stirrups,
the other thing one could do, is by opening the leg,
it's going to allow you to secure your seat down,
so you'll feel like as you open your leg,
your seat drops down into the saddle.
Once you feel like you're quiet, and your leg is very
flexible and soft, the next thing you're going to check for,
is you're going to check for the tone in your body.
Now riding here is a family affair, and my husband uses a
really good example of, when you ride, you can either
be like wood, or you can be like clay.
When you're riding, you want to try to feel and tune into,
what does your body feel, feel like?
If you feel like you're stiff and tense, and like a piece of
wood, more than likely, you're going to be bouncing.
If, on the other hand, you're really mushy and not carrying
any tone, you're going to also bounce, but if you can have
a little tone throughout your body, and be a bit more like
clay, moldable and pliable, yet strong and resilient,
then you're going to be able to go with your horse
much more easily.
Another thing, that one could consider when they're riding,
is the upper body and where you're carrying it.
If you're leaning back, or if you're tipped too far forward,
you're going to be in a position where the energy
comes through and causes a lot of movement.
I'm going to try to be like a piece of clay,
and I'm going to go with his motion.
Next, I'm going to push on my stirrups, now my horse stops
because he feels that amount of tension in my body,
but if I push on my stirrups, you'll see, my seats coming
out of the saddle, and I'm bouncing a bit so,
I'm going to go back to riding just like a piece of clay,
I'm going to go with my horse, and then,
I'm going to come down to the walk.
Now, another thing that we,
should be aware of,
is if we are tight and carrying tension in our thighs.
I see this happen as well,
and if you think of a clothes pin, a clothes pin as it comes
closer, so if my legs were a clothes pin, if I'm gripping
my thighs as my legs come closer, I'm actually pushing
myself up out of the saddle.
Which is again, going to create more bouncing in my body.
So do a check with your thighs as you're riding along,
and make sure that you're not gripping and lifting yourself
out of the saddle.
Again, that exercise where you take your thigh away
might be helpful.
I hope you feel like you've got a good grasp of the things
you might be doing, that is creating some bouncing
when you're riding.
In our next part of the series, we're going to go over some
things you can try doing so that you don't bounce
quite as much.
Alright, until I see you next time, happy riding.