Correct Seat and Leg Position

Nope sorry, but I would be interested to read the replies to this, as I too am still trying to figure the answer to this out! :D
 
This may be too basic for you but my daughters RI says as soon as you mount stand up in the stirrups then lower you bottom very carefully into the saddle without moving your leg. You should feel as if, if someone whisked the pony away you would land on your feet. It does create the perfect ear, hip, ankle bone straight line. We took a photo so we could compare regulary.:D
 
Try and not tense up as this will make you stiff throughout your whole body. Don't try to push your heels down, this will make you grip up with calves and thighs. Just try to think - weight down into heels instead. Don't look down as this will round your shoulders and back. Just try and relax and look between your horse's ears rather than down. It's tempting to try and grip too hard instead of using balance to stay in the saddle.
 
I dont know how long you have been riding?
But there are different schools of thought on this.
Sitting on a horse so you look like a picture in a text book is not the main goal in riding nor the most important thing to learn.
And for many of us it is simply not realisable - very hard to find a perfect rider, perfect body, perfect horse.

So whereas some RIs stand in the school and shout at you to put your heels down, (which for some people is impossible) others get on with the real business of teaching you to ride.

How you sit on the horse is far more important and enlightening than position. You should sit on your seat bones and be able to feel them move up and down as the horse walks. When the horse lifts a hind leg off the ground, your seat bone that side dips and when he puts it back on the ground and pushes off on it your seat bone that side rises.
You need to sit upright and allow your seat to move with the horse. Dont lean one way or the other. Not to either side, nor backwards nor forwards.
Let your legs hang down, dont fight gravity - and dont grip the horse. Spread your toes out inside your boots.
Riding a horse isnt about fitting yourself into an ideal pattern, straining and stiffening in your effort to match the picture. It is about being balanced and sensitive to the horse moving under you.
If position is worrying you, perhaps you should find another teacher?
 
learning the position without a horse

You may look silly doing this, but it will help.

Tie 2 pieces of string to the back of a chair for the reins and hold them.

Standing behind the chair with your feetdirectly underneath you, wider than hip width bend from your knees and ankles so you are squatting a little.

If you can do this by a full length mirror (or get someone to help)

There should be a straight line going from your ear, through your shoulders down through your hips down to your heels.

If your practice your rising trot this way as well you can get your body accustomed to the movement and can then do it on the horse.

When you are riding, also imagine a magician makes the horse disappear from underneath you and you should land on your feet and remain upright.

As for the heels, as long as they aren't higher than your toes, don't worry about it. Forcing them downwards when they can't go any further only pushes your leg fowards.

Also, if your stirrups are long enought for flat work it is harder to get the heels down. Put them up for jumping and you will find it easier
 
Ditto Skib - I would say that effectiveness is the most important thing to learn. This coincides with a good position a lot of the time, but you can work, and fight on your position for ages and it won't make that much of a difference.

(At home I school with mirrors. I spent *hours* trying to keep my legs in the right place, and finally got it. When I had my next lesson, as soon as we trotted on my instructor's first words were "stop just sitting there and looking pretty, get into him and RIDE him")

I would rather see a rider that is stable but not tense, flexible and able to adapt to the horses movement than one that sits more rigidly in a textbook position.
 
A good position can be adversely affected by the saddle. Many saddles have the stirrup bars set too far forwards so to achieve a 'good' position you will have to actively pull your legs back.

Have a look at some of THESE articles which give a good explanation of the problems that some saddles cause us and also why it's important to work towards a good, effective and balanced position. They also talk about how to work towards a good position and how to absorb the movement.

I come from the school of thought that to be a truly effective rider you need to be working towards a good position. I'm not talking about just looking pretty but being secure and effective with the correct position for the discipline that you're doing. It's all too easy to impede the horse's movement if you just sit any old how no matter how much stickability you have.
 
My instructor tells me to think of keeping the inside of my calves along the barrel of the horse, so that I can feel the warmth of their body on my leg. This image in particular helped me get my legs right.
 
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