Three Secrets to a Secure Seat
No Matter What Your Riding Skill Level,
You Can Improve Your Riding and
Your Horse's Performance by Improving Your Seat.
1. THE FIRST SECRET TO A SECURE-SEAT: DO NOT GRIP ANYWHERE.
This may come as a surprise to you. You may be thinking “If I don’t grip with knees, thighs, calves (whatever), I’ll fall off. What else would keep me on the horse?” I asked my dressage trainer this very question. Her answer startled me:
YOUR BALANCE KEEPS YOU ON THE HORSE.
When you are in perfect balance, your seat stays in contact with the horse’s back no matter what he does. This is the essence of a perfectly secure-seat. So how to you get there?
Imagine that your horse was short enough so that when you sat on his back, you could just touch the ground with the entire soles of your feet. Imagine stretching through your legs into the earth from the sole of your left foot, up through your left leg to your seat bones, down through your right leg, and into the right sole. Imagine balancing your pelvis gently on your seat bones—gently enough so that if your horse moved, your pelvis would simple roll with the movement. Your legs lie softly on your horse’s barrel like damp cloths.
This is the foundation of a secure-seat. No matter what your horse does, your pelvis will automatically adjust, your seat bones and legs softly accommodating and following the movement. No matter what your horse does, you will NOT fall off. You will feel perfectly secure in the saddle because you have a perfectly secure seat.
This may come as a surprise to you. You may be thinking “If I don’t grip with knees, thighs, calves (whatever), I’ll fall off. What else would keep me on the horse?” I asked my dressage trainer this very question. Her answer startled me:
YOUR BALANCE KEEPS YOU ON THE HORSE.
When you are in perfect balance, your seat stays in contact with the horse’s back no matter what he does. This is the essence of a perfectly secure-seat. So how to you get there?
Imagine that your horse was short enough so that when you sat on his back, you could just touch the ground with the entire soles of your feet. Imagine stretching through your legs into the earth from the sole of your left foot, up through your left leg to your seat bones, down through your right leg, and into the right sole. Imagine balancing your pelvis gently on your seat bones—gently enough so that if your horse moved, your pelvis would simple roll with the movement. Your legs lie softly on your horse’s barrel like damp cloths.
This is the foundation of a secure-seat. No matter what your horse does, your pelvis will automatically adjust, your seat bones and legs softly accommodating and following the movement. No matter what your horse does, you will NOT fall off. You will feel perfectly secure in the saddle because you have a perfectly secure seat.
Here is an example of a secure and flexible seat in trot.
Watch closely as the rider's hips, pelvis, and legs flex freely with the horse's movement. Horse's willingly raise their back up under a seat like this, probably because it feels a bit like getting a gentle back rub with each step. Here is the same secure and flexible seat in canter.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GRIP WITH YOUR KNEES
If instead, you grip anywhere, you restrict your horse’s movement through his entire body. Your horse will brace against your leg or shrink away from it. His movement wll become stiffer and jerkier, which will put your more off-balance, causing you to grip more. You won't develop a secure-seat this way. You will instead develop a wobbly, off-balance seat that will be very uncomfortable for you and your horse.
HERE'S WHY: If you grip with your thighs, your horse’s back will become “cold”—frozen in movement, stiff and hollow. You may be able to force him to arch his neck so that he appears to be “on the bit”. But there will be no real “throughness” there—the seamless energetic connection from the horse’s powerful hindquarters through his back and into your hands. When you take the saddle off your horse’s back, it will appear hollow (sway backed).
If you grip with your knees, your horse also will hollow his back to avoid this noxious digging into his muscle. And he will raise his head and neck (as this horse is doing in the photo). Then you will fight with his mouth to try to force him to “come onto the bit”. I always feel sorry for horses that are ridden this way. They are plainly uncomfortable. Some will fight their riders every step of the way. Others will resign themselves to the pain and become dull in their work. Either way, you will fail to develop a truly secure-seat. (Photo credit: Wikimedia)
If instead, you grip anywhere, you restrict your horse’s movement through his entire body. Your horse will brace against your leg or shrink away from it. His movement wll become stiffer and jerkier, which will put your more off-balance, causing you to grip more. You won't develop a secure-seat this way. You will instead develop a wobbly, off-balance seat that will be very uncomfortable for you and your horse.
HERE'S WHY: If you grip with your thighs, your horse’s back will become “cold”—frozen in movement, stiff and hollow. You may be able to force him to arch his neck so that he appears to be “on the bit”. But there will be no real “throughness” there—the seamless energetic connection from the horse’s powerful hindquarters through his back and into your hands. When you take the saddle off your horse’s back, it will appear hollow (sway backed).
If you grip with your knees, your horse also will hollow his back to avoid this noxious digging into his muscle. And he will raise his head and neck (as this horse is doing in the photo). Then you will fight with his mouth to try to force him to “come onto the bit”. I always feel sorry for horses that are ridden this way. They are plainly uncomfortable. Some will fight their riders every step of the way. Others will resign themselves to the pain and become dull in their work. Either way, you will fail to develop a truly secure-seat. (Photo credit: Wikimedia)
2. THE SECOND SECRET TO A SECURE-SEAT: DO NOT SIT ON YOUR CROTCH!
I know, “crotch” isn’t a pretty term. But nothing else will do. A secure seat requires that you sit lightly on your seat bones, lightly enough that your pelvis is free to flex and roll with your horse’s movement. Your crotch and pubic bone should NOT be in strong contact with the saddle. If they are, either your back is hollow (thrusting your seat bones back behind you and tipping your pelvis forward), or your saddle is too small for you. In the photo to the left (from Essential Somatics ), notice that the woman's pelvis is tilted back (her tailbone is thrust back behind her) so that she is sitting on her crotch, and her back is very arched.
You may have hear the term "three point seat". Some trainers will tell you that means sitting on both seat bones and the pubic bone. THEY ARE WRONG. If you do this, you will be in incredible pain. If you sit on your crotch during sitting trot so that your pubic bone rests heavily on the saddle, you will rub or bounce on your crotch with each step. When you get off the horse, you will be VERY sore. Using the bathroom or sex will be be very unpleasant because you will be very raw “down there”. You will then want to avoid riding (or at least avoid sitting the trot).
If you are a guy and you try to sit this way, well...you just won't do it. Even with an athletic supporter (jock strap), this will be so painful that you will decide riding must only be for women. Read more about that here.
SO WHAT IS A THREE-POINT SECURE SEAT?
A three point seat refers to the seat plus both legs. When you jump, you raise the third point (the seat) out of the saddle. That is why the two-point seat is called the two-point seat. Neither term has anything to do with the pubic bone.
I know, “crotch” isn’t a pretty term. But nothing else will do. A secure seat requires that you sit lightly on your seat bones, lightly enough that your pelvis is free to flex and roll with your horse’s movement. Your crotch and pubic bone should NOT be in strong contact with the saddle. If they are, either your back is hollow (thrusting your seat bones back behind you and tipping your pelvis forward), or your saddle is too small for you. In the photo to the left (from Essential Somatics ), notice that the woman's pelvis is tilted back (her tailbone is thrust back behind her) so that she is sitting on her crotch, and her back is very arched.
You may have hear the term "three point seat". Some trainers will tell you that means sitting on both seat bones and the pubic bone. THEY ARE WRONG. If you do this, you will be in incredible pain. If you sit on your crotch during sitting trot so that your pubic bone rests heavily on the saddle, you will rub or bounce on your crotch with each step. When you get off the horse, you will be VERY sore. Using the bathroom or sex will be be very unpleasant because you will be very raw “down there”. You will then want to avoid riding (or at least avoid sitting the trot).
If you are a guy and you try to sit this way, well...you just won't do it. Even with an athletic supporter (jock strap), this will be so painful that you will decide riding must only be for women. Read more about that here.
SO WHAT IS A THREE-POINT SECURE SEAT?
A three point seat refers to the seat plus both legs. When you jump, you raise the third point (the seat) out of the saddle. That is why the two-point seat is called the two-point seat. Neither term has anything to do with the pubic bone.
WHY A THREE-POINT SECURE SEAT IS DIFFICULT FOR WOMEN TO ACHIEVE.
Most women have hollow (arched backs) compared to men. You can test this easily. Stand up against a wall (or lie on the floor). If you can fit a fist between your back and the wall (or floor), your back is arched and hollow, and your seat bone are rotated back. You may notice that when you sit in a chair (or on your horse), you’re sitting on your crotch, not your seat bones. When you sit in the saddle, this will be painful, so you will roll onto your thighs to protect your crotch, and end up in a "perched" seat, not a secure seat. (Men tend to have the opposite problem, sitting on their back pockets, which puts them into a chair seat.)
SIT ON YOUR SEAT BONES
To sit on your seat bones, you have to tuck your pelvis under slightly and engage your abdominal and back muscles. This “engagement” is the power core taught in Pilates, yoga, and martial arts. Without this, you will either be a stiff mannequin, gripping your unfortunate horse, or a floppy rag doll who gets jerked around whenever the horse begins to trot. This is the essence of a seat seat for both men and women. This is what it looks like. (Photo Credit: Happy Horse Training.com)
To sit on your seat bones, you have to tuck your pelvis under slightly and engage your abdominal and back muscles. This “engagement” is the power core taught in Pilates, yoga, and martial arts. Without this, you will either be a stiff mannequin, gripping your unfortunate horse, or a floppy rag doll who gets jerked around whenever the horse begins to trot. This is the essence of a seat seat for both men and women. This is what it looks like. (Photo Credit: Happy Horse Training.com)
THE THIRD SECRET TO A SECURE-SEAT: REALIZE THAT THE HORSE HAS TWO SIDES TO HIS BACK.
Many riders think the trot is an up-and-down movement, and they try to “follow” this movement by “allowing” their seats to go up and down. But the Trot is diagonal gait; the fore and hind legs on opposite sides move together (unless your horse is a pacer). When the horse’s hind leg moves forward, his back will drop on that side. Your seat bone and leg must drop slightly in order to stay in contact with his back and barrel. This means that your pelvis and leg alternate with each stride. Sally Swift likened this to pedaling backward on a bicycle. Sally O’Connor talks about this at length in her classic book Commonsense Dressage. Here is an excellent YouTube video that shows exactly how a horse's body moves in trot and canter. Notice in trot how the ribs expand and contract as the shoulders and hips move. If this were shot from above, you would see that this movement alternates from side to side as the horse reaches forward with each step.
Many riders think the trot is an up-and-down movement, and they try to “follow” this movement by “allowing” their seats to go up and down. But the Trot is diagonal gait; the fore and hind legs on opposite sides move together (unless your horse is a pacer). When the horse’s hind leg moves forward, his back will drop on that side. Your seat bone and leg must drop slightly in order to stay in contact with his back and barrel. This means that your pelvis and leg alternate with each stride. Sally Swift likened this to pedaling backward on a bicycle. Sally O’Connor talks about this at length in her classic book Commonsense Dressage. Here is an excellent YouTube video that shows exactly how a horse's body moves in trot and canter. Notice in trot how the ribs expand and contract as the shoulders and hips move. If this were shot from above, you would see that this movement alternates from side to side as the horse reaches forward with each step.
If this concept seems foreign to you, you will never develop a truly secure-seat. So do this: Try focusing on what you feel in your seat and legs at walk. The horse’s belly will swing gently from side to side with each step, and his back will drop alternately on one side then the other with each hind step.
You'll notice that to avoid interfering with this motion, your pelvis and legs must relax into it. If you simply relax your pelvis and legs, your horse’s barrel and back will move them exactly the way they need to move in order to stay with your horse's motion. You don't have to plan, think, push, pull, tip, or anything. You just need to allow the horse to move your legs and pelvis. When you can do this without thinking at walk, you’re ready to try it at trot. At canter, you will feel the same thing, except that the pelvis will circle slightly as in a hula dance. When you can do this, you will have arrived at your goal--a perfectly secure-seat.
All of these activities will help you develop a soft, following, and perfectly secure-seat. The payoffs to this homework are enormous. Your horse will move more freely and willingly. You and your horse will be more balanced. Your horse’s gaits will show more “brilliance”, and will be much more comfortable for you to ride. And the cherry on top: A strong topline that will allow your horse to be a solid riding companion for many, many years.
As long as you’re here, check these out!
Copyright Denise Cummins, PhD September 17 2015; Updated June 5, 2024
The Thinking Equestrian
Opening Image and horse's back illustration from http://dingosbreakfastclub.net/DingosBreakfastClub/BioMech/BioMechmusc.html
