Step 2: Find Those Seat Bones
Now, learn how to sit on your seat bones. To do so, try the following exercise on a wooden chair before you try it on your horse. The chair is harder and your legs aren't spread as wide as when riding, so it's easier to find your seat bones.
Sit toward the chair's front edge, with your knees bent and both feet flat on the ground. Keep your shoulders forward and your back straight. If you sit up straight with your shoulders in line with your hips, you should easily be able to feel your seat bones, the bottom two prominent bones of your hip joints.
But lean forward just a bit, and you'll find you won't feel your seat bones at all. This is because you're sitting on your crotch, a common problem with riders who are tilted forward in the saddle. When you do this, you'll start to grip with your legs or stiffen your upper body, because you'll be instantly out of balance.
After you've found your seat bones sitting on the chair, mount your horse, and find them while in the saddle. When you've identified the correct position, lean forward and then back slightly and notice how you're thrown off balance as soon as you aren't sitting on your seat bones.
Riding too far forward (sitting on your crotch) or too far back (sitting on your tail bone) not only is uncomfortable, but also seriously challenges your balance, because you'll bounce. Anytime you bounce in the saddle, you're likely leaning too far forward. Bring your shoulders back, sit up straight, and you'll find the bouncing will minimize or disappear.
When you sit up straight and centered on your seat bones, you'll be able to relax both your upper and lower body, and stay balanced.
Step 3: Ride Without Stirrups
Your goal is to sit deep and balanced in the saddle at all times; one good exercise to help you sit deeper in the saddle is to drop the stirrups.
Avoid trying to balance by pressing your weight into the stirrups, or by gripping with your legs. The irony is that when you push down into the stirrups, you're actually pushing your body up out of the saddle. Likewise, if you're gripping with your thighs, knees, and/or calves, this tension will also bring your seat up out of the saddle. It also tends to make you bounce.
Starting at a walk, ride in an enclosed area without using the stirrups. Don't ride on the rail; stay toward the middle of the pen. Start out riding in a straight line, then ride circles, serpentines, and curving patterns. End by riding again in a straight line. As you turn your horse, you'll need to use your aids to control and direct him. Turning also challenges your balance. Keep your legs relaxed at all times.
Work on this exercise at any gait with which you're comfortable, but work in short segments. If you have a tough time maintaining your balance, go back to a slower gait, and regain your balance before you continue at a faster gait. The trot can be hard to ride without stirrups if you haven't practiced, so take your time, and build up to riding for longer periods without stirrups. When you do pick up your stirrups, keep in mind that relaxed leg feeling you achieved without them, and try to duplicate it.
Step 4: Move Your Hips
Whenever you ride, your hips are moving. Ideally, they should be moving forward and back with your horse's rhythmic motion. If you're not, you'll be moving up and down, bouncing uncomfortably in the saddle.
True comfort and confidence comes when you're in a correct, balanced position, sitting on your seat bones. In this position, your hips will be slightly tilted forward and can freely move forward and back with your horse's motion. Not only does this make for a smoother ride for you, but it allows your horse to relax his back and better engage his hind legs.
Your horse's natural forward-and-back motion is easiest to follow when he's either walking or loping/cantering. At the trot, that motion is still there, but because the trot is a two-beat, diagonal gait, it's much quicker.
To get in touch with the correct forward-and-back motion, start at the extended walk, and concentrate on allowing your hips to move with your horse's movements. Once you feel in sync with him, ask for a lope/canter, and again focus on moving your hips with his motion.
You can and should also practice at the trot, moving with the quicker forward-and-back movement. You may think the trot is an up-and-down action, but your hips should still move forward and backward in rhythm with your horse's movement.
