Dem Bones, Dem Bones, The Head Bone’s Connected To The Seat Bone
You do not have to have a 60 plus second plank. You do not have to be able to run a mile in under five, or at all. You don’t have to be able to do 20 deep squats. You don’t even have to be able to do 100 crunches to be able to ride beautifully correct.
It is not the strength of your muscles but, the awareness of your muscles that is most important to riding well. Riding is tuning into what your body is feeling and having the ability to respond in the moment (aka lightning fast ie timing of the aids) intuitively, while carrying on a silent conversation with another species of whom you happen to be sitting astride of 😬Easy peasy and clear as mud, eh?!
First, as riders, we learn to move with the horse. We are taught to relax and follow. As a result, because horses are born with their own inherent one sidedness, we become a part of their crookedness.
We are seldom taught how be balanced within our bodies and maintain our own straightness. Then one day we are told to correct the horse’s balance and direct his hind legs where and how to go. How do we accomplish that if we have no frame of balance to reference within our own bodies?
This lack of core awareness and independence of muscle engagement shows up in tense shoulders, gripping legs and hands that work backwards to find a connection to the horse.
This missing piece in our education as riders is never more apparent than when we start the advanced exercises of the upper levels.
The answer is for riders to first familiarize ourselves with the muscles most closely involved in the development and correct use of our seats. Secondly to learn to consciously engage them independently and with appropriate timing.
Let’s start with the muscles of our backs, the erector spinae. It consists of the illiocostalis, longissimus, and spinalis muscle groups. Nine muscles in all that lie vertically along the whole of the spine from the neck to the lower back. As a whole they straighten and rotate the spine. They also maintain the natural curvature of the spine ie its neutral position.
Then you have the muscles that bridge your shoulders to your pelvis. Yup, the whole thigh bone connected to your shoulder bone thing.
Let’s track the path of connections. We’ll start at the insertion point of the latissimus dorsi on the scapula and humerus (shoulder blades and upper arm bone). Follow down to the fascia and ligaments of the thoracic/lumbar area (lower back) and continue on down to the starting point of the hamstrings on the tibia (thigh bone). Through this connection of muscles, ligaments and fascia we anchor our arms down into our seat through the scapula forming a bridge from the horse’s hind legs to the bit.
Let’s not forget the ever popular core muscle group responsible for the alignment of ear to hip and for dynamic and static function and balance; they allow us to maintain a posture and flow through movements, aligning our bodies through our center of gravity.
We’ve already covered the erector spinae. So, carrying on I’m going to include the psoas and pelvic floor muscles, as they are major players in our seats, and focus of the actions of the muscles below the navel.
The core group muscles are the internal and external obliques, rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus. Again, I’m including the pelvic floor mostly for reference for female riders; the multiple parts of levator ani and coccygeus muscles and the relevant connective tissue. Lastly, possibly the most important skeletal muscle in our bodies, the psoas. It connects your torso, from the lower back, to your femur. They are the deepest muscles of our core.
I do not own graphics if you need a visual, and if you’re like me you do. Give Siri or Cortana or Google a shout and they’ll point you in the right direction. A far cry easier than letting our fingers do the walking through the Dewey decimal system of the local library’s card catalog. Remember what a treasure hunt it used to be to find a book?
Collectively these muscle groups make up the riders seat. Through them, and peripheral muscles, we effect our horses’ way of going for better or worse. Ex: Holding or contraction of the pelvic floor inhibits our ability to sit into our horse’s back and is related to tight hips and gripping thighs. Contracted psoas makes it difficult to achieve the “up and open front line” for our horse’s hind legs to come under and can be associated with collapsing forward or the chair seat and driving our horse onto the forehand.
An upright, balanced, effective posture is not stiff or static but, rather it is dynamic. There is never a moment I can think of where a rider’s seat is static. Even in the halt it is dynamic and encouraging the forward balance of a ready posture in your horse. The halt holds and maintains the energy of motion. An effective seat is fluid without being floppy. Our aids should always be present in either allowing or active mode. I think of my seat as enveloping my horse in a warm bear hug of aids. It is reassuring without being restrictive. It invites my horse to come to me and stay with me but, doesn’t grasp and force him to.
There are a number of resources available that help us learn to independently engage our muscle and use our bodies in ways that encourage clean gaits and self carriage in our horses. Advanced riders and new riders alike benefit from the principals of Pilates, yoga, Gi gong, somatics, dance, massage, and gentle stretches. I incorporate aspects from these sources in the mounted and unmounted instruction I offer and work to customize a program specific to each horse and rider’s needs.
The pelvic clock exercise, which I wrote about previously, is one I recommend to all riders. Another is what I call hi/lo reaches because your arm reaches high while your hip drops low.
Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Spine and pelvis in neutral. Arms relaxed at sides. Abs just below the navel lightly engaged, what I refer to as positive tonus. Shift your weight slightly to the right, heel of left foot raises an inch or so. Both arms raise and fingers overlap above your head in a swim diver clasp. Focus your gaze on a spot on the ceiling directly above your fingertips. Reach your left arm towards a new spot just to the right of center as you drop your left hip down, think “dangling your left leg”. Through this subtle motion you are elongating the left side and seeking to lightly stretch the core muscles and effect a release of the psoas. Do not force a stretch. Let gravity do the work and simply allow the stretch. Exhale during stretch focusing on releasing the muscles to the left of your spine. Once you’ve emptied your lungs return to the neutral position and repeat in the opposite direction. Do not push, do not force, do not over stretch.
Finally, there is nothing better to put us in touch with our core and center of balance the going bum up and head down. That’s right, a good old fashioned head stand. Or forearm or hand stand for the more adventurous. Maintaining an inverted posture not through tension of shoulder, arm, back, etc muscles but, by balance (think stacking a tower of alphabet blocks; head, vertebrate, pelvis, and so forth) and positive tonus/engagement of our core. Place your focus on your solar plexus. Breathe deep during this exercise, fully expanding and emptying your lungs by passive allowing. Use gravity to engage your your diaphragm into emptying your lungs and then use release to fill them. When you have found your sweet spot of resistance free balance and breathing then right side up that’s your dressage seat.
*If you are unfamiliar and inexperienced with inversion postures please, see qualified help to learn them.
The short of it: Educate yourself about and be responsible for your own body and how it effects your riding and horse. You can achieve your own balance and create an effective seat and aids with whatever body you have.
** Do not perform any exercise or participate in any activity outlined in this article without clearance from your physician. I do not promote or guarantee any method or results.
~ Cindy Sanders, The Darke Horse Farm
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