There are so many reasons why a rider can become less confident or struggle to gain confidence with a particular skill – cantering is commonly one of these skills. Sometimes it is due to an accident or a scary incident, lack of balance or just not knowing how. Sometimes the rider has just always felt this way. Mindset skills play a huge part in developing rider confidence but there is no amount of positive thinking that will stop an unbalanced rider from falling off a horse if they don’t have the balance to perform the task. The best chance we can give any rider of feeling confident is to first help them develop an independent seat.
“An independent seat is a term used to describe the ability of the rider to influence the horse with the aids without interrupting the forward movement or distorting the position of their seat in the process. ” Tanja Mitton article Developing the Independent Seat.
One example, the ability to walk and trot on the lunge with no reins, greatly improves the rider’s capacity to feel confident learning to canter. As with most things, our body will develop habits whether we are conscious of them or not. Less than useful habits might be tipping forward, closing the knees onto the saddle, looking down, or grabbing the reins with the hands. The greatest “Habit” we can help a rider develop is to stay tall through the upper body, keep weight down through the lower leg and feel horizontal and vertical balance through their position as the horse moves forward into upwards transitions.
By breaking balance down into small parts, the rider can piece their seat and position together and develop useful habits. Once the body automatically / subconsciously and repetitively creates the correct posture for the task, then and only then can the rider truly begin to feel confident. Without proper balance the rider’s built in safety mechanism will continue to tell the brain that the body is in danger.
Do you ride bareback? Have you ever done any work on the lunge with no reins and or no stirrups? These are great places to start.
Written by India Woods – Valmont Farms 2020