Sitting in the saddle help

[KFischer]

I had a lesson to help me ride my new paso, he said to relax my hips and to put my weight in my feet.. When my weight is in my feet I don't feel like my hips are relaxed.. Whatever I was doing in the lesson seemed to help because my normally tight, tense boy was relaxed and doing a very nice corto when he usually just wants to run like the wind but now I am home and overthinking it probably.. any tips?

[Cindy]

Do not put your weight in your feet. Put your weight in your seat and just relax your legs.

[ErinC]

LONG stirrups
let your legs go.
and ride in your seat.
my feet can never stay still inthe stirrup it is always falling out, I dont rely on them at all.

ride bare back.
that will get you a great seat.

[motorgypsy]

You only need weight on your feet for two reasons - one - your horse is prone to spinning and jumping sideways with regularity and you're reaction time is not good enough to keep you on if you don't - two - your horse has a very rough gait and you're too old and decrepit to sit the gait. Or if you're running barrels or something of course.

Being at a point in our lives where falling off is not an option we do keep ever so slight amount of pressure on our feet because we do ride hot horses who will jump or spin on occasion but you really shouldn't need to do this as Cindy says. You also shouldn't need to kick or use a lot of leg on a paso fino.

Our biggest initial mistake after growing up riding QH's and rental horses and friends' dead broke horses was to HUGELY OVERCUE. We learned the hard way to be very gentle and subtle. It's like going from our 1985 F150 to a Ferrari. You just don't stomp that gas pedal.

It may be that your instructor has noticed that you are bouncing a bit and the horse doesn't like it and by increasing the pressure on your stirrups you are stopping the bounce which you horse appreciates. Just a thought.

[KFischer]

He probably said that, because my horse is very quick, to save me from spilling off. So I will try to relax more. I rode him this afternoon and he did behave much better, he only tried my balance a couple of times. He doesn't like to be ridden in the yard, he is much happier out on the trails.:grayhorse: