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The Rider's Pelvic Area

So many mistakes in this area!
So many rigid and frozen postures!

The position of the pelvis is very important because it so much determines the quality of the contact with the horse, in other words the seat.

A correctly positioned pelvis determines the rider's posture, the shape and position of his/her back and the position of his/her legs.

Your pelvis must stay straight and vertical so it can move in any direction with flexibility. The kidney area is flat and keeps all it's suppleness.
The rider then matches the horse's movement.

The riders does not move more or less than the horse's back. When a rider works efficiently, he/she looks motionless, neutral…

Any movement that is accentuated with a tilt of the pelvis in rhythm with the horse's stride bothers the horse, perturbs his balance and serenity.
Try to carry on your back a small child who is agitated… you'll understand! Some riders are agitated, contracted, hard and stiff. They change their posture, loose steadiness and independence of aids, and their cues become rough… And that applies as much to riders who sharply project their belly button forward with every stride, as to the ones who arch their lower back strongly at every stride and "polish their saddle"!

It is inefficient, useless and disgraceful!

Riders who, without appearing agitated, keep their lower backs hollow or curved in excessively (a posture sometimes seen on Spanish riders), or the opposite, keep their lower backs slouched (it's sometimes taught that way) are stuck, contracted and frozen. Too much tilt of the pelvis, forward (ante version) or backward (retro version), is to be proscribed.

It's hard, it's stiff, and it's inefficient!

What to do?

It's simple, keep your pelvis straight and vertical, so that you can follow the horse's movement either way. Do not sit on the back of your buttocks, but rather on your seat bones, your lower back slightly curved in, and I insist on "slightly". That is why I prefer to advise you to "push your belly button toward your horse's ear", which is definitely not the same as a hyper hollow and frozen back! I prefer a slightly hollow lower back to a slightly slouched lower back.
It's the only posture that allows riders to be in balance, with their shoulder-seat bones- heels on the same line.

Of course, your lower back will move one way or another depending on the required balance and the requested exercise…
In a passage-piaffe transition, your lower back will curve in imperceptibly, to allow your upper body to move back slightly, to make the horse lower his haunches… and in a piaffe-passage transition, your lower back will loosen, "slouch" unnoticeably to modify the horse's balance and allow the forward motion.

Here like anywhere else, use nuance, be sober and relaxed.

next themes

Posture-position / Walk / Trot / Canter / Shoulder-in / half-pass / Flying change of lead / Pirouette /

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