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Re: [RC] posting?? manes??//Angie/Stirrup Length - rides2far@xxxxxxxx

.)Intuitively, and for my body, shortening the stirrups results in 
somedestabilization of the legs and body.
The shorter the stirrups, the more bent the knees.
The more bent the knees, the more I tend toward bum out, chest forward,

I'd agree...at home. But in competition, I see so many people having to stand 
the trot, tiptoeing & leaning forward because they're using the same stirrup 
length as at home (before the horse becomes superhorse) and they think the 
really big trot can't be posted. But I *can* post it, comfortably, if I get my 
stirrups right. Don't get the "bum out" pose when I get them right, because the 
last faze of my "down" movement is to tip my pelvis forward and go down with 
him. "Bum out" is a much harder landing with no shock absorbing curving of the 
spine. This is how I do it on my little horses with the big trots. When I ride 
Aries, Jody's 15.1 mare, who is *smooth* I ride with a longer stirrup and 
sometimes hardly post at all, just take a little off the jarring motion in the 
ankles.

(I suspect a lot of people w/ knee problems are riding w/ stirrups tooshort.)

Since I've been starting a new horse and trying to go slow I've been keeping my 
stirrups longer. Riding with competition length (short) trotting stirrups would 
cramp my knees all to heck on a long walking ride. The downside of that is that 
when I have let him really reach out and trot I end up having to stand. I now 
have a pulled muscle in my right bun from standing and leaning 
forward...because I am *not* a person who 2 points much. This weekend it 
started hurting and enough was enough. I shortened my stirrups and let him 
trot. It was nice to see that I can post him. It was so much easier on me. 

What I've got to work out now is that this horse has a wonderful canter that I 
believe he's going to use a lot in competition. It's obviously just easy for 
him and really efficient. I like a longer stirrup to ride a canter for very 
long. >sigh<  I want to invent a saddle with electric stirrups like electric 
windows on a car. I just want to push a button and readjust.

Angie




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