Sitting in a chair-seat position is a common rider-position error. Instead of riders being balanced on their seat bones with their legs underneath them, they have their legs camped out in front of them as if they are sitting in a chair. Here, Stephany Fish Crossman, a LEVEL 3 Ride With Your Mind Accredited coach, biomechanics expert and Team Prac dressage trainer, provides helpful examples of how riders can adjust their positions to get out of a chair seat and into a balanced seat on their horses.

Q&A

Q: What can riders can do to keep their legs underneath them and not out in front of them in a chair-seat position?

Vivian M., Virginia

A: Awesome question, Vivian! First, think about your hip, knee and ankle joints as the suspension system of your seat. Just like your truck that hauls your horse trailer, it has a suspension system underneath its framework. The ability of that suspension system to rise and lower is what keeps the ride smoother in the cab of the truck. With that in mind, learning how to let your ankle, knee and hip joints bend and flex is the first part of you not getting your feet stuck out in front of you, which will put you in the chair-seat position.

Think about how your foot meets the stirrup more as if you are standing on a trampoline rather than on a hard floor. Can someone stand on a trampoline? You can, but you’re always keeping your joints slightly mobile, bouncing and taking up that unstable surface. That’s how rider biomechanic coaches want you to use your joints in the saddle. The stirrup should be in a place where you rebound your balance—not where you push down into your balance.

As another example, if you sit on a hard chair, you can put both feet equally on the floor and push your feet down into the floor. You will feel how that kind of braces you up and out of the chair. If you push hard enough in a desk chair with wheels, your chair is going to shoot backwards, which puts you in a chair-seat position. However, if you lift your feet and you take some of that weight up into your thigh instead, you should feel how your feet are no longer getting pushed out in front of you.

So, riders can use their joints as a suspension system and use their stirrups as a trampoline—not as a hard floor—to avoid putting themselves in a chair-seat position.

For More:

This Q&A is an excerpt from our Dressage Today+ Members-Only VIP Webinar: Rider Biomechanics 101.

Dressage Today+ members can watch the full recording of the webinar here. To sign up for Dressage Today+, click here.

For more articles with Fish Crossman, click here.

About Our Expert: Stephany Fish Crossman

Stephany Fish Crossman, who co-hosts the Dressage Today Podcast, began riding as a young girl in Maine, and hasn’t gotten off a horse since. Besides a brief stint in the hotel industry, Fish Crossman has worked for and with trainers at all levels, from grass roots Pony Clubs to several different Olympians. She attended the former International Academy of Equestrian Studies in Warendorf, Germany, where she graduated with her National Trainer Certificate. She’s also a USDF bronze and silver medalist as well as one of only two LEVEL 3 coaches worldwide for Mary Wanless’ Ride With Your Mind Biomechanics System. She teaches clinics all around the country and runs a small training business, Serendipity Dressage, in Okeechobee, Florida.