hi it's josie and in today's video i want to talk to you about a two-point seat
we'll also touch on a half seat or a light seat but i really want to go into a two-point seat
because we use a two-point seat when we're riding young green horses they don't haven't
built the muscles up under their back enough to take our full weight you can use a light
seat for that but i use a two-point seat quite a lot on my young horses particularly when i'm
riding them out through the paddocks up and down hills to help take the weight off their
back while they're developing their muscles it's also an amazing exercise for you as a rider to do
to find your balance on a horse so in this video i'm going to give you a couple of exercises to do
and if you do them i can promise you if you do them regularly you will find that your balance
and your stability in the saddle will improve out of sight if you like these videos please give me a
thumbs up don't forget to subscribe if you haven't i would love to have you here at the channel and
remind you every friday when i pop out a new video the difference between a full seat and a two-point
seat so a full seat is basically when your seat from your knee all the way up under the saddle
to the other knee is in contact with the saddle and you are sitting down in the saddle just make
sure that you don't sit heavy that you carry your own weight on your horse but though that is the
entire area of your seat is in touch with the horse a light seat is where you just literally
lift yourself up a little bit more and take some of that weight off and more of it comes onto your
thighs than underneath here i'm not going to teach you about that one today because i
particularly want to do a two point now if you like me and ride in a dressage saddle mainly
if you've got big knee blocks you may find this exercise a little bit difficult because your knee
needs to come forward a little bit more for a two-point seat than it does in a dressage
seat but if you're riding in a gp or a jumping saddle you're going to have no problems at all
i'm just going to put my stirrups up one hole so that i can show you how to do this properly
now i have actually shortened my stirrups two holes so that i can get right up out of the
saddle and show you how it's done so when we move into a two-point position we instead of taking the
weight over the seat from the knee to the knee the weight is transferred literally onto the stirrup
and you stand up in your stirrups but you don't stand up like this because as you can see i have
very little balance while my horse is standing still if you haven't done these before make sure
you start this exercise standing still because you need to find your center then do them in walk
then do them in trot and then do them in canter build on it for yourself so that you
will succeed in it now the correct dressage seat is still appropriate in a two-point which
is a straight line literally down through the body and through the ankle of the rider
the difference in a two-point seat is that instead of coming down here through my seat bones which
will not be on the saddle because i come up out of the saddle you need to pop your hips backwards
and your knees come forward so i'm four and you do bring your upper body forward so i'm forming
a zigzag shape there because this concertina feeling of my knees
and my ankles and my hips to some degree are what absorb the movement when the horse is moving
when you're trying to do these exercises it's these joints ankle and knee the most
that actually absorb the movement do not grip with your knees i'll show you what happens when
you grip with your knees yes my knees are on my horse and they're softly touching him but i don't
grip with them the same with my calf if you've got a leg that's flying around everywhere sorry mate
you might find that you don't actually have your calf is hanging off and swinging around in the
breeze your actual calf should gently be on the sides of your horse just touching him even hugging
him slightly just to help you with stability so let's have a look what that looks like in walk
so when you do this guys you may need to put your your hands on your horse's neck to help yourself
stabilize please don't be scared of doing that but the aim is for you to be actually able to
stabilize yourself with your core your core is the bit from your pubic bone to your navel
and to your backbone it's that middle bit in there that is your core that needs to be
firm so let's go off and walk and let's get up into a two point position so i'm up in my
two point my ankles are flexed my knees are in front my hips are behind i'm a little bit
forward and if i need to i'm going to lean on my horse's neck when you lean on his neck don't
throw your weight forward it's literally there for you to touch to keep your balance
so you can do a couple of steps in walk and then sit and then a couple of steps in walk
and then sit and then a couple of steps in walk and then sit there is nothing wrong with doing
that rather than staying up in walk and losing your balance so when we move on to the trot the
easiest way i think as long as you can rise trot okay one of the easiest ways to learn a two point
is to do a two point for a couple of steps and then rise again then a couple of steps
and then rise again and then a couple of steps and then rise again and you can remember put your hand
on your horse if you just need a little bit of help keeping your center until you can find it
make those times you're in a two point in trot longer each time so you'll see here hopefully that
my ankles my and my knees mainly are absorbing the movement that's where i'm getting the absorption
so i'm not bouncing here boing boing boing so let's do four rise trot for two point
one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four oops i mixed lost my
count i want to point out to you where my weight is my weight is over my right and my left stirrup
on the foot on the bar of my foot my knees are bending and my ankle i can actually be honest
with you i can feel my right ankles quite stiff today so my knees taking more but that is where
i'm absorbing the movement when you get that one down another way to help with your balance
is to get into a two point lean more forward straight more up lean more forward
straighten more up lean more now when i lean forward more my hips go further back
so instead of falling on your face like this when you come forward this goes back a bit
I'm going to show you why you don't grab with your knees up in a two-point, and now
I'm going to grab with my knees can you see what happens to me as soon as you grab with your knees
you stop that the shock-absorbing qualities of your knee joint so grab
look what happens to me my whole body goes stiff so again you're going around you're in
your two-point and you grab with your knees and as soon as I pinch my knees together
I tense my whole body and I wobble
so once you can do this change from rising trot to two-point to rising trot to two-point and remember
in two-point your saddle you you only have two points of contact really so your seat should not
be anywhere near touching your saddle but once you can do this and alternate between the two
you will have found that your balance in the saddle has improved remarkably
I have no doubt when you're going to canter in a two-point position
you can get up again the weight is taken by my feet I'm not hanging on sorry I'm not hanging on
I've got my core on and my balance holding me and my knees and ankles are absorbing the movement
another quick little exercise if you've got a monkey grip here
which I don't have so I'm just going to put mine in the velcro there
but if you've got a monkey grip there and you're comfortable don't do this if you don't trust your
horse or you're not uncomfortable or you're going to blame me if something goes wrong
but once you can do that you can test how good is your two-point position
so you get your horse going in rise trot nice and comfortably
nice tempo nice rhythm find your two-point and see how good you are
rise two-point rise I better turn him or he'll run the cameraman over
two-point so just remember full seat knees all the way through touching the saddle light seat
is you just sort of take a bit of weight on your thighs and you lift your seat up out of the saddle
so that your breeches are touching the saddle but not so much the flesh flesh of your body
so two-point you're up you're clear of the saddle your calves are what give you a bit of stability
they're not gripping your horse tightly but they are on him the weight is in your stirrup
and your ankles and your knees and a bit of flexion and extension in your hip here as well
is what absorbs the movement so your top half concertinas and opens as the horse moves and
your knee and your upper thigh concertina and open as well and your ankle will act like a
shock absorber I'd love to hear how you go in the comments let me know and thanks for watching