One leg shorter than the other

["Tracey" <tracey@tbt.co.za>]

Hi, everyone.


I had an accident as a teenager, which resulted in my left leg being
dislocated where the femur joins the hip, and my pelvis being fractured.  I
have noticed that my left leg is about 4 cms shorter than my right leg.
However, the shortness is from my hip to my knee, not my knee to my foot, so
it is awkward to compensate for this when I'm riding.   Shortening my left
stirrup one hole helps to some extent in compensating, but not totally.


I have found that, the more I ride, and the deeper my seat gets, and the
longer I wear my stirrups, the more pronounced this problem becomes.  Riding
in a dressage saddle makes it particularly pronounced, as my left leg is far
less secure than my right, and tends to "swing" more in the canter, and I
tend to use it, unconsciously, when I post to the trot.  My right leg stays
very still.   As I start doing more advanced work with the horses, it
becomes more of a problem, as they will respond (provided Toc isn't having a
brain fart) to the slightest movement of my leg.  I really don't want to
give unconscious cues with an "unsteady" leg.

Steph - I hope you don't mind me posting this here, but the dressage list I
belong to gets terribly technical and academic about it, and really haven't
helped, and the people on RC are far more practical.   I am sure that I
can't be the only person ever to have this problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could correct this?  Working
without stirrups, if anything, has exacerbated the problem.   Keeping my
stirrups very short (jumping length) eliminates the problem, but I think it
is because I can really bear down on my left leg.   Obviously, this isn't an
option for trail riding or dressage.


TIA,

Tracey