Rider’s Seat and Correct Basics Stressed

By U.S. Olympian Lisa Wilcox

By Cynthia Johnson

Olympian Lisa Wilcox came to Providence Farm in Palmyra, Nebraska, for an early October 2006 clinic and brought with her a simple message: “I teach the seat. If I get the rider’s seat correct, the horse will be beautiful.”

She then spent the weekend with nine horse-rider pairs, working primarily on three central aspects of effective riding: 1) use of the legs, 2) use of the weight, and 3) use of the reins.

Use of the legs

The rider’s thighs must be “open” and loose, not gripping, Wilcox said repeatedly. And if the horse does not respond to a light leg aid, she asks the rider to take her thigh and calf off the horse for a moment and “box” the horse with a flat calf.

Wilcox said she uses the verb “box” for lack of a better word. It is essentially an audible “thump” or “smack” with one or both legs, repeated as often as necessary to effect a result.

In using the aid, you must “turn your toes in” and box him with the inside (not the back) of your calf,” she explained. The leg position she describes is obtained by rotating the whole leg inward from the hip joint. “You’ve got to turn your toes in and learn what a flat calf  is.” The spur is not used in conjunction with the aid.

 The “boxing” technique can be used unilaterally, as well as with both legs at once. The inside leg causes the horse to bend in the ribcage; the outside leg drives the horse forward.

If the rider uses this approach when the horse has become unresponsive, he learns to be more sensitive to the leg, Wilcox said.

Use of the weight

Using an analogy in which she described the stirrups as similar to a board resting on a moveable object that acts as a fulcrum, Wilcox said the rider should have approximately 2/3 of her weight on the inside stirrup (and seatbone), and 1/3 on the outside when riding on a circle. In the board/fulcrum analogy, a person standing on the board who places more weight on one side will push the fulcrum away from the weighted side. Substitute the horse for the fulcrum and you can visualize the effect of the weight aid in causing the horse to yield and bend in the ribcage. (It is important that the rider not exaggerate this aid by leaning the upper body to the inside or collapsing a hip.)

Use of the reins

Finally, Wilcox emphasized the overriding importance of staying off the inside rein when turning or bending the horse. “At the very least, the rider must have a 50-50 contact on

the inside and outside reins,” she said, adding that the goal is to have more contact on the outside rein than on the inside.

“Your inside rein cannot make the bend. Cannot,” Wilcox said. “That’s not what it’s there for.”

Reprinted with permission:  This article was originally published in the Nebraska Dressage Association newsletter, the Contact.