Fun ways to improve your riding position

Having a picture-perfect riding position’s super-important, as it’ll help you stay balanced, straight and secure in the saddle. The more correct you are, the more your pony will be, too! We’ve got some quick fixes for you to try that’ll help your position become spot on in no time!

    1. Keep your chin up

Looking up and ahead’s useful for your pony, as it’ll help him know where he needs to go next. Plus, it prevents all your weight from going onto his shoulders. We’ve got a cool method that’ll encourage you to look up.

As you ride around the arena, let your imagination run wild! Try to picture something flying about 5m in front of you. It could be a floating tennis ball, golden snitch, or even a little pixie!

Keep your eyes on the object and, as it turns a corner, follow it with your head. This’ll help prepare your pony perfectly for where he’ll be going next.

      2. On the level

Do you tend to lift one hand higher than the other, or move your hands around a lot while riding? This can feel a bit confusing for your pony, so here’s a great way to help keep those hands in check!

Hold a short jumping whip longways across your hands, as if you’re carrying a tray.

Place your thumbs over the whip, so you can still control the reins with your lower fingers.

Have a go at riding like this in walk first, then once you feel more confident, move up to trot and even canter.

Top tip

Make sure you only try out these exercises on a calm, reliable pony, and you have someone with you.

      3. No seat? No stirrups!

If you struggle to sit to your pony’s paces, and find yourself bobbing up and down in canter, it’s time to take your stirrups away!

Cross your stirrups in front of your saddle and let your legs hang down by your pony’s sides.

Start in walk to get the feel for riding without stirrups, and hold the saddle or neckstrap for extra support if you need to.

Try some short bursts of trot, before coming back to walk. You can increase the time you spend trotting as your balance improves.

Top tip

To help stop you bouncing out of the saddle in sitting trot or canter, imagine there’s a £50 note under your bottom that you don’t want to fly away!

      4. Stand tall

We all know there should be an imaginary line that runs from our ear, to our hip, to our heel when we’re riding, but it can be hard to get right! We’ve got a trick to help keep your lower legs in the perfect position, so the rest of your body follows suit.

In walk, stand up in your stirrups.

Stand for three strides, then return to sitting again, pushing yourself to stand for a bit longer each time. If you’re really wobbly, your legs may be too far forward or too far back, so you’ll need to make some adjustments.

If you practise this regularly, your lower leg will become super-secure!

Up the challenge

When you can stand in your stirrups for a whole lap of the arena in walk, why not test your balance further and have a go in trot then, eventually, in canter?