02/22/2022
As you go about your day, remember to check your posture! Sit up, flatten your back, “don’t be a lurch”! Then transfer that new found posture to the saddle 🏇🏻
Rider posture
“Posture” is defined as posture
[ˈpäsCHər]
NOUN
1. the position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting.
Posture matters in riding probably more than we realize, and most of us suffer from indifferent upper body carriage, especially when we are just out trail riding, and not being watched, as at a show of some sort.
The horse has to carry the rider, probably hard enough to handle when the rider sits in balanced alignment, but when we lean, tilt, lurch forwards, backwards, side to side, slouch, kick our feet out in front, all the common aberrations, the horse really struggles to deal with a shifting and unbalanced load.
A tiny little person can get away with this more easily, simply because that rider has less mass, but the taller or heavier rider who has improper posture will have more negative impact.
I am tall, and have found sitting up and open to be a life-long challenge, especially on long rides. For me, at least, one of the worst habits is to look down, because it’s like dominos, first the eyes go down, then the head tilts, then the shoulders round, then the upper body leans, and, BINGO, terrible posture.
So, if you want to make things easier for your horse, try not to look like Lurch----Stay more tall and open, maybe not to the elegant pinnacle of someone like Mr Watjen here, but this is an example of what to strive toward.