How often to you hear instructors advising pupils to ‘sit deeper’, ‘relax your back’, ‘try to sit still, or ‘go with the movement’, in their efforts to assist the pupil to adhere to the saddle. For the novice rider, such statements are about as clear as mud, because they are not specific instructions as to how to absorb the horse’s movement under the rider.

If the rider is to sit easily in the saddle, as if softly glued to it, then the only way that this can happen is if the rider is totally synchronising his own lower back and pelvis to mirror the undulations of the horse’s back. Sitting on a stool, flex your back in, so that you emphasise the natural slight hollow in your lower back. Feel how your pelvis rocks forwards onto the front edge of your seatbones, which are shaped like the rockers of a rocking chair. Make sure that your upper body stays still, and that it is not also rocking back and forth, it is just the pelvis that should move. Now, return the pelvis to upright, so that the back is flattened again, taking care not to go past the point where it is just flat, and not rounded out the other way, so that the ribcage is collapsed. Practise this a few times, flexing the back in, then flattening, feeling your seatbones acting as a pivot point on the stool.

This is the main movement used in absorbing all of the upwards and downward undulations of the horse’s back. In essence, by flexing and straightening the spine, you are lengthening and shortening your spine by the same amount as the horse’s back is rising and falling - in this way, the seat remains softly on the saddle, neither bouncing, nor gripping. The horse’s back does not only move up and down, but also from side to side. In walk, there is no noticeable up and down movement, only the side to side undulation, which is why even a total beginner can sit on the horse without feeling unsafe. It is in trot and canter that the difficulty arises.

In walk, it is still necessary, however, to synchronise your movements with those of the horse. Allow your seatbones to rise and fall in turn as the horse’s back lowers on one side, simultaneously rising on the other. In trot, this allowing of the seatbones to rise and fall individually must be maintained, together with flexing and flattening the spine in the manner described above, in the one, two, one, two rhythm of the trot. This will keep the seat adhering easily to the saddle, because you will be moving as one unit with the horse, not against him. When students feel this for the first time - and here I am not talking about beginners, but instead, riders who come to me for remedial work, often having ridden for years- they have been known to remark ‘It’s as if the horse’s legs have become my own!’, because they can suddenly feel which hindleg is coming under, which is on the ground, and also relate the feeling of which foreleg is coming back or moving forward.

It is important not to try to achieve too many strides at first. Most riders find it difficult to co-ordinate for more than half a dozen or so strides to start with, so be satisfied with that. Do lots of transitions between walk and trot, which will also greatly benefit your horse, ensuring that the quality of the gait is maintained, therefore making it easier for you to sit to anyway. Gradually build up until you can maintain ten or twelve strides, then fifteen or sixteen, and so on, until, before you know it, you will be able to sit comfortably to the trot for as long as you need to when schooling or in a lesson.

Likewise in canter, the back needs only to flex and flatten in the one, two, three, one, two, three rhythm of the stride. It is the lower back that must absorb the movement, not the upper body by rocking back and forth. Not only does the latter look ugly, the seatbones are pushed down concavely against the horse’s back, which is trying to come up convexly under the rider, if the canter is not to be flat and lifeless. ‘Rowing‘ with the shoulders makes the seat heavy, and ‘squashes’ the canter, making it very much mire difficult for the horse to lift and round his back under the rider. I have another simulator at home, which is purely rider powered, i.e. it acts on springs. If the rider pushes down against the canter, rowing with the shoulders, the machine reacts by ‘bottoming’ on it’s springs and nearly bucking the rider off! The sobering thought is that if it does this to a machine, how much worse must it feel to the horse?

Allowing the lower back to absorb the movement in this way does not prevent the horse from raising his back. The seatbones acting as a pivot, merely mirror the rise and fall of the horse’s back, allowing the canter to rise up under the rider’s seat, and not restricting the back of the horse. The rider also appears to remain very still in the saddle, which is so much more pleasing to the eye, than all of this obtrusive upper body movement that is so often seen in canter.

When the rider is absorbing the movement in the way described above, then he has another very valuable tool at his disposal- the retarding aid of the seat. In all downward transitions, whether form canter to halt, trot to walk, or whatever, if you close your seat by tightening your buttock muscles, and closing together the upper part of the thigh, the horse feels the difference between you moving with him, and deliberately arresting that movement. His reaction is to slow or stop, according to the strength of the aid used. This must still be used in conjunction with the lower leg lightly closed around the horse to keep the hindquarters stepping through into the transition. All horse will react to this, whether they have been trained to or not. It is a biomechanical reaction, not a conditioned response, although the more that it is practised the more sensitive the horse will become to the varying strengths of the aid used. For instance, my own stallion will go canter-halt, with a strong squeeze of the seat, canter-walk with slightly less squeeze, and canter-trot with a lighter squeeze still.

This is the secret of smooth transitions, whereby the hand does not predominate, and so the neck is not shortened and compressed. How many times do you see on dressage test sheets ‘Horse short in the neck’? This is because the hand is pulling back to slow the horse or attempt to collect him. When the seat is used as a slowing, (or collecting aid, an advanced and subtle use of the seat aid which differs from the slowing version, which we have not space to explain here- perhaps another time!) the horse can step forward into transitions, not be pulled into them.

You will be surprised at how much your ‘feel’ and timing of the aids develops as you become more aware of what is going on under you. It can add a new dimension to your riding, and increase your ability to be able to school your horse without producing the resistance and evasion that ‘unfeeling’ riding inevitably causes. Always remember, that if you do not have a clear understanding of what you are asking your horse to perform, how can he be expected to understand? Above all, listen to your horse, because he is the best teacher of all.