An instructor asked me to push my inside hip forward as I was cantering during a lesson a couple of weeks ago. I forgot to ask her the purpose of doing it though!
Can anyone enlighten me?
It is a seat aid used to encourage the horse to canter. The rider should keep the outside seat bone in contact with the saddle at all times while using a very light, "sweeping" motion with the inside seat bone. It should not be a rocking motion or pushing/shoving motion. The rider needs to follow the movement of the horse.
It's also to get the correct lead. You want your horse to lead with its inside front leg to stay balanced. To get the horse to take the correct lead, you want it to have its inside shoulder slightly forward at the time you ask it for the canter. Moving your inside seat bone forward, having the inside leg at the girth, supporting with the outside rein, etc all help the horse choose the correct lead.
Am I the only one whose hip bones don't move independently on each side? If the left side of my hip moves forward, I either twist in the saddle or the right side moves forward too.
I find if a horse is really working nice OR if he cants his hip right over to the inside like a WP horse, then it sets your hips automatically to move with the inside forward........
In honesty, the back injury I got 4+ years ago (thanks, Mia!) may limit the movement in my lower back so much that I can't do what other people do. I guess I visualize it as a movement of 4-6", and it can't be that...but my lower back is only now starting to unlock while riding. Maybe in a few years, I'll be flexible enough for it to have meaning...:-x
Obviously, if you look at human anatomy, it would be impossible to completely isolate one side of the seat bone from the other, as they are attached by a piece of cartilage. If you sit in a chair, however, and keep one butt cheek stable, while allowing the other to move in a tiny forward and up motion, you will have an idea of what the correct movement would be like on a horse. I don't know how a back injury would affect the ability to make that movement. I would imagine, however, that most females would be much more flexible than most males in the pelvic region, generally speaking.
The confusion comes in when people talk about pushing a hip bone forward. This is not the correct movement as you will end up like BSMS described - crooked!
You want to feel instead that you are 'lifting' the inside seat bone/hip. Which basically places more weight on your outside seat bone, it's actually more to do with your core than your actual hip.
Try it on a wooden seat or bench. Sit tall straddling the seat like you are sitting in the saddle. Feel each of your seat bones, weight one, then the other. Once you work out where they are and how they move according to how you engage your core, try 'lifting' one seat. Its a barely imperceptible movement, but it does make a world of difference in the canter strike off.
My own horse will not canter unless you lift the inside hip. Then he will strike off immediately with no leg aid needed.
Your pelvis is three pieces, but they are held together very solidly and can only move as one block. So, you can only rock the inside seatbone by also rocking the outside; they are locked together. however, you can dip the outside of your pelvis lower than the inside, thus have less pressure on the inside seatbone becuse it comes up. YOu can twist your whole pevis left or right, and combine that with raising/lowering one side, you can get what feels like moving one side independently of the other. But, it is NOT independent.
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