[sweeetrose]

I think that once you are in the saddle you aren't squeezing with your inner thighs. When bareback you do. Try riding without stirrups and post and 2-point. Then pick the stirrups up and remember to keep your heels down. Also check your stirrup length, they may be too long. Also, put all of your weight in your heels. One more thing is to try this at a trot. Sit two and stand in the stirrups for three trotting strides. It makes you find the horse's center of gravity which you need to be over. Hope that helps, saddleseat is much different because your legs are in front of you. When I rode saddleseat the first time I thought I was going to die. The horse is moving at a fast pace and I just felt like a goof sitting there.

[PoochtheMighty]

I think it is a combination of two things-

1. Incorrect use of the legs- from what you're telling me, you are fine bareback, with no stirrups, but with stirrups, your feet sneak out of them- that means that your sneaking into the fetal position and drawing your legs upward to 'grip' with. Let your legs drape down on his side like wet towels, don't grab with your knee or pinch with your calves- just let all the weight below your hip joint fall down, with your heels sinking down and out.

2. You're trying too hard!! Relax, breathe, think about your legs dripping down off his sides, and enjoy the ride!

I think lunge lessons would be perfect, but no stirrup work is not a good idea right now, it may only help you to grip with your legs. Ride on the lunge, WITH stirrups, and if you feel yourself losing balance- GRAB leather! Nothing wrong with that, it's much easier on yourself and the horse!

Do you take lessons?

[SaddleUp158]

I feel your pain! This summer my friend's mom told me to get on their classic pleasure horse, i had never ridden in a cutback saddle before, I am also a person who really uses her legs when I ride. On this particular horse you cannot have any leg on him, which is common with saddleseat horses because they are normally much more sensitive. she told me to sit with my legs forward and grip with my thigh and knee, (i also have very long heel cords so my heels are constantly down without me even thinking about it) and to not put my heel down, but instead to put my weight on the ball of my foot in the stirrup. Ok I know this goes against everything we have been taught about riding, after all we are suppose to have our legs back with heels down, and not grip with ur knees but with your calf. If you go to some saddlebred, morgan or arab shows with the english pleasure horses (saddleseat) you will find that for the most part unless the class is an equitation class the riders will all have their legs in a more forward position, and the will be gripping with their knees and thighs with the leg off the horse. Also you will need to sit back on your butt more and do not lean forward at all.

When you are riding bareback what does your position look like? do your legs come forward or do they stay back like huntseat and western riders? Do you sit back naturally or lean forward?

If you dont know have someone video you riding bareback. THen have a lunge lesson and just try to immitate how you normally ride bareback but with a saddle. Once you have gotten that down you can develop more as a saddleseat rider. If a lunge lesson is not possible still just try to immitate your normal way of riding and get comfy in the pancake saddle first! To tell you the truth I still grab a little main when picking up the canter when riding saddleseat cause I dont have complete balance in that saddle yet and the horse goes straight UP when picking up his leads, he is a very big mover.

[cowgirlnat]

I do think I have a tendency to lean forward bareback, but I think that stems from the fact that my horse is a walker. His cue to lope include me leaning forward a bit and kissing. B/c he is a walker he almost rears up when he takes off so that is kinda a bracer for me. I've almost rolled off backwards before when I wasn't ready for it. I don't lean forward severely, but if you watch most walking horse riders, they all tend to lean forward a bit.

Other than that, I kind of have a natural saddleseat leg position b/c I am knock kneed so I sit more on the back of my thighs instead of the inside. I'll try to post a pic. I stay centered over the horse with my seat muscles and at faster speeds or situations that require more balance, I will close in my calves for more support. I can post bareback and stay in 2-point fairly easily, especially with my grippy bareback pad and our coach makes us do it in practice all the time. Sit for 5 steps, raise for 5...at the walk and jog.

At first I thought that I had particularly so much trouble with the flat saddle b/c well...it's flat. It doesn't mimic the shape of the horses back very much. My horse's withers has saved me on more than one occasion. But after riding a fat, flat backed mare bareback from the back pasture, I realized that I don't depend on it as much as I thought b/c I remembered that I am normally the only one out of my friends that can stick to that type of horse. I just really lose my feel for the horse when I get in the saddle. I also think the fact that the seat is smooth and slick makes things worse. I do know that I need to sit back more, but I have been working on it. But after years of riding gaited horses and sitting a western jog...posting is a totally new thing to me too, especially with having my legs out in front of me.

I ride again tomorrow...I'll let you guys know how it goes!!

[cowgirlnat]

My legs relaxed. I'm obviously leaning forward but I think I wasn't expecting the picture, if I remember right Wyatt wasn't wanting to stand still. I know that my toes are pointed out a lot of the time, but again, I'm knock kneed so it really hurts my knees sometimes to twist my toes in. Could this be part of my problem? When I stand on the ground with my knees together, there is a good 4-6 inch gap between my feet. Here is what I have gathered so far that I need to work on.

Toes in, heels down, don't lean forward, pick up my hands, keep more weight in the stirrups...what else?

[PoochtheMighty]

I don't suggest grabbing with your calves at faster gaits- that will make him go faster, and in the long run, make him dead to the leg because it's ALWAYS on. Let your calves hang down away from his sides unless you're using them for a cue.

If you need to grip, roll your knees inward ( I know your knock-kneed, I am too, I walk funny even...but in time you DO develop the muscles and the conformation even, to do it- and you'll feel most of the stretch in your hip bone if you're doing it right, oddly enough) and use the front part of your thigh as a block almost to keep you from moving around in the saddle.

But above all, relax and sink into the horse's back- I know walking horses are more lateral and they're kind of funky to ride, I rode one once and looked like a flipping IDIOT- but don't try too hard and things will come with time.

[cowgirlnat]

I don't really hold pressure with my calf when I use it as much as I just kinda hold it there to kinda lock my legs on them. There is a definite different between what my horse feels when I am holding on compared to when I am cuing him to go faster. He knows the difference very well...others tend not to so I try to avoid that when riding other horses.Here is kind of a bad picture, but you can kinda see how my leg looks. Mind you, the ankle on that leg doesn't flex much past 90 degrees b/c I injured it badly a few years ago and lost a lot of the flexibility. If you kind of put your heels together and V your toes out then squat a little bit, that is about how I sit on a horse when I ride. I have determined that I most definitely do not have the conformation of a rider! LOL I do know that the reason I ALWAYS lose my right stirrup first and pitch to the right when I get off balance is b/c of that ankle. Instead of flexing down into that stirrup, my ankle pushes me back up and out of it towards the right side. If I ride for a long time the saddle always starts to lean to the right. These are all reasons why I prefer to ride bareback soo much, but unfortunately much of the show and training world frown upon it. Oh well...guess I've got a lot of work ahead of me!

[cowgirlnat]

Okay, so today's ride went much better! It wasn't pretty, but I wasn't almost falling off every couple seconds. My posting isn't very natural feeling/looking when I'm thinking about it. I also had trouble getting the horse to take off in a canter from a stand still or walk...he kept trotting into it. He's lazy and you have to really get after him but i'm still so uneasy in the saddle that I'm not to keen on kicking the **** out of him and yelling to get him going...I'm afraid he might go without me. Also!! I only lost my stirrups twice. I lost my right one once when trying to get the horse to canter in the right lead...I stopped him to pick it up. Then once cantering around in the left lead I lost the same stirrup but continued to canter around the ring while trying to pick it up which resulted in cuing him to go faster and throwing me off balance and losing my other stirrup so I grabbed mane and quickly stopped him. My boss couldn't believe the improvement!! He asked if I had been practicing...lol. I went from flopping all around to looking like a beginner with a few lessons under my belt in 1 day!! You guys rock!! Thanks so much for the help!! Just gotta figure out that post now!!

[EqUeStRiAn]

If it helps any. The cutback saddle is the hardest to learn in as a beginner, so dont feel bad. it took me a fair amount of time before I got ahold of saddleseat. In saddleseat, your main contact to the saddle is through the inner thigh and knee, but not on the lower leg. However, seeing as at this point you just want to stay on, I would add some light lower leg contact to begin with. Also, keep it nice and slow. Just walk for the first couple lessons Also, im not sure if you said this BUT: if you are currently working their saddlebreds in full bridles (likely not but just in case), i would stick to a regular snaffle until you can fully gain your balance under saddle, because obviously they are very severe bridles and wont help you out much in your situation (if anything it will hurt the horse and/or potentially you) Otherwise, I would recommend lunge lessons and just practice Best of luck!

[cowgirlnat]

Equestrian - Don't worry...we've got a really mild bit in his mouth. Part of my problem has been that my boss expects me to be able to do it immediately. I cantered on the first day. He didn't even go over what type of cues the horse responds to. I'm startin to figure things out...slowly. Thanks for the encouragement though!! It's greatly appreciated!