13/11/2021
Bit of something to think about this morning
The obsession with a deep heel in flat work….
Have a look at the photo below. Would you squash my fingers when you ride? If the answer is yes, you have too much weight in your stirrups.
Next time you are in your saddle at halt, consciously push your weight into the stirrup and feel how your glutes and hamstrings contract, popping you up. You may have been doing this for so long it’s difficult at first to feel the contraction. Go back and forth between pushing down into the stirrup and just resting your foot. Really sense into what changes in your underneath when you push down into the stirrup.
Additionally, notice how this pushing into the stirrup jams up the joints of the ankle, knee and hip. All of which are required to stay soft and mobile if we are to sit the trot effectively. If too much weight in feet is not diagnosed by yourself or your coach you will bounce unnecessarily when using your stirrups. This is one of the primary reasons for no stirrup work and why you’ll feel like your sitting better and more connected without them.
I see many riders attempting to put their weight into the stirrup in hopes of following all gaits: rising and sitting trot and canter. It will only disconnect you from the saddle and your horses back. However, if we can learn to keep our ‘foot light’ in the stirrup we will have the same success with them as we do without. Not using your stirrups, sadly, will not help you learn to ride with them and ‘foot light’ is often the fix.
‘Heels down’ is something that is shouted by many coaches universally. Unfortunately, it results in many riders pushing their leg forward to appease the coach as often their hamstrings are tight and it’s the only way the heel will go down. Now the foot is jammed forward, removing the ability to follow the movement with a soft ankle and the body alignment of the ear, shoulder, hip, boney knobble of the ankle bone is lost. In this position, the rider is no longer responsible for their own body weight in any gait. The foot jammed forward and lack of proper alignment also makes the rider fall back into the saddle in rising trot with a thump because their feet are no longer under the hip.
Think of the ball of your foot across the pad of your stirrup iron and imagine you are about to dive backwards off of a diving board. It should feel springy and light. You are in a kneeling feeling and the energy comes from the hip socket, down the top of the thigh, out the kneecap and to the ground (not to your foot). Putting a sponge in each stirrup can also help you feel how the foot can stay light and spring-like through the joints of the ankle, knee and hips in sitting trot (and canter). If you don’t have some available, just imagining a sponge under the ball of your foot can have good effect.
If this is new to you, your new conundrum will be losing your stirrups until you can sense your way into feeling just the right amount of weight that will keep your stirrup but not squash my fingers! It is a conundrum worth working through, I assure you. Once this skill is solidified, you won’t panic if you lose a stirrup because you won’t be relying on your stirrups to stand in and balance.
***Thank you to Shannyn Clarke for being my photo model
