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Re: [RC] [RC] Legs forward - Marlene Moss

There is another piece of the picture when seeing riders with their legs forward – the saddle.  So few saddles really have the stirrup truly under the rider, especially a woman or one with shorter feet.

 

My best guess is that there is a fair amount of saddle design that just copied well made saddles over the last couple hundred years.  In Europe, in the past most riders would have been men.  Their seat bones are in a different position and their feet are longer.  If you put a woman in the same saddle, she will have to fight to keep her legs back.  And then you have a lot of women trying to put their butts in a too big saddle so they look smaller, makes the problem even worse.

 

In the US, western saddles have evolved to keep “dudes” comfortable sitting on their horse, when the correct stance is more of a standing position. 

 

I give riding lessons in my Free’n’Easy which has adjustable stirrup bars.  It’s a 17” seat, with a seat cover, but I can set it up for 6yo kids and overweight women and most in between.  Exceptions being those whose anatomy really determines that they need more room because their femur comes more forward out of their hip, so the knee roll interferes.  But even someone whose thigh comes more forward should then have a more bent knee and the heel should still be under the hip.  Same thing with jumping – if the foot is out in front, regardless of where the knee is, the rider is adversely affecting the balance of the horse, landing hard on the loins and stressing their own joints.

 

I almost think I’m doing my students a disservice by letting them ride in a saddle that almost universally puts them in a balanced position without working – when they go buy their own saddle that they can afford, they have to work 10 times as hard to keep their feet under them because so few saddles have the stirrups in a good position.  This was a lesson taught to me when I bought my first endurance horse from a lady with a ton of miles and in trying to find the right saddle for my horse I sure got to experience both ends of the spectrum (painfully!) 

 

Posting is effortless when the saddle is aligned for the body of the rider.  In a balanced saddle I can usually teach decent posting in 1 or 2 rides.  When the stirrups are forward it takes weeks to build muscle to overcome it.

Marlene

 

Marlene Moss

Saddle Fitting - www.KineticEquineAnalysis.com

Boarding/Training - www.LosPinos-CO.com