How to Sit in the Saddle When Riding a Horse

So what is the safest way to sit on a horse in the saddle?

Below some tips and techniques that you can use so you can learn more balanced and effective way to ride your horse.

Well, the first thing you want to ensure that you do when you first get on your horse is that you have proper posture so when you sitting on a horse you want to be sitting vertically, your shoulders, hips, and heels should be in a line. You don’t want to be too far forward because that can cause your horse to surge or pick up some speed. You also don’t want to be too far back because that can cause your horse to haul out its back and get a little off the balance.

So you want to be nice and vertical, have your shoulders and hips in a line. You want to have your heels pressed downwards. You don’t want your heel to come up because first of all it is going to throw your leg off balance and second of all it can cause too much of your foot to get stuck in the stirrup because when you have your foot in the stirrup, the ball of your foot should be on the stirrup and shouldn’t have too much of your foot in the stirrup. If you were to happen get thrown, your foot could get stuck and you could get dragged and it could be very dangerous.

So when you are sitting you want to be sitting in your vertical line. You want your shoulder blades to be almost touching together. You should have your shoulders pulled back and downwards. You don’t want your shoulders scrunched up and you also don’t want to be pressing them downwards. You want them nice and relaxed, nice and rolled back, shoulder blades touching. And that will ensure your back is arching properly as well. 

You don’t want to over arch your back because that is going to cause you to sit a little bit too far forward and not sit back on our seat bones. And you also don’t want to round your back because that is going to cause your posture to be off and your horse to go off balance. When you are sitting on a horse in a saddle in nice vertical line, back nicely arched, shoulders square.

You also don’t want to be leaning to one side of the horse or the other because that is going to cause your horse to go off balance as well. So whether you are riding one or two handed you just want to hold your reins rather loosely, elbows bent at your side, you are holding them a little bit above the saddle horn and about four inches off the horse’s neck. You are holding it in one hand right in the center of the horse’s neck and right off to the side or off to other side. So when you are looking, you want to keep your chin parallel to the ground, you don’t want to be having it too far up or you don’t want to be looking down at your horse. You should be looking straight ahead where you want to go or between your horse’s ears. This will ensure that your horse won’t get off balance or you won’t crash into somebody if you are not paying attention to where you are going.

So now I hope you have some ideas how to sit in a saddle correctly.

Want to learn more about horseback ridng basics? I found the most helpful book ever to read about horse back riding basics – Horseback Riding For Dummies by Audrey Pavia. It’s very funny and educational at the same time.

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