From: "Kimberly Y. Kim"
Dear Jessica,
Glad you're back with us again! We really miss you when you're gone...
Got a question for you. I switched trainers (again! this time because
my former trainer wanted to go back to amateur status) and I am now training
with a former dressage-rider-turned-hunter. We have been working on keeping
my upper thighs loose and open when I ride, order to "give my gelding's
back somewhere to go". This has worked wonderfully on the flat, for
the most part, but when I start to jump, one of two things happen:
1) My thighs close around him
2) My open thigh doesn't stabilize me; consequently, I either fall back
or fall forward.
All the books I've ever read say that a strong, tight leg keeps you on
your horse during cross-country riding/jumping. How can I keep on my horse
if he bobbles, yet still give his back some room to round in? I'm very
confused. My instructor says that it is your lower leg and heel that keeps
you on your horse, but with some of the fences I've seen, you would need
a death grip (which the horse would interpret as a "GO!!!" command
- not what I want for control purposes!) or a blessing from the Pope himself.
What can I do? Helpppp!
Thanks for your time,
Kim
Hi Kim -- you need to relax and let your weight sink down through your legs into your heels when you're riding cross-country, just as you do when you're riding your stadium course.
Riding cross-country does require strong legs, but not tight, gripping legs! Riding cross-country makes demands on your leg muscles, and you need to prepare for those demands by exercising and strengthening your legs (ankles, calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings) and your back and your abdominal muscles. I know you have my book -- you'll find special exercises in the fitness chapter, under cross-country riding.
If you spend a little of every day's ride working in your two-point position, that will help a lot. It's also a nice way to start the ride -- let the horse walk and trot gently on a long rein to warm up HIS body, while you two-point and relax into position.
Some of your confusion may come from the term "grip." For riding purposes, leg "grip" is NOT an active, tensing-the-legs process, it's a FRICTION grip, which is something else entirely. You achieve a good friction grip by sitting correctly and letting your legs stretch down the horse's sides, so that all of your inner thigh, inner knee, and inner calf is in soft contact with your saddle and horse. SOFT contact -- NOT SQUEEZING! You have to ride by balance, not by force, and you may need those legs to give signals to your horse! How can you possibly give your horse a soft squeeze with your calves to signal "jump coming, alert!" if your legs are already squeezing the horse nonstop? And how long do you think you COULD keep squeezing actively? Not long enough to jump an entire course...
When you try to grip hard with your legs, two things generally happen. Most often, you will find that you are doing most of your gripping with your knees, and this makes the knees into pivot points and sends your lower legs flopping back or forward -- in either case, they aren't helping your stability or your balance. Sometimes, you will find that your entire lower body becomes rigid because you are gripping so hard -- this locks your ankles, your knees, and your hips, and THAT means that you are completely unable to balance over your horse and sink softly into and around your saddle. If you try to gallop or jump -- particularly downhill -- in either of these positions, you will undoubtedly come off.
Your lower leg and heel DO help to keep you on, but not because you are holding tightly with them! They keep you on because they are directly under your weight, and you are carrying as much weight as possible in your thighs, calves, and heels, allowing your relaxed legs to stretch down with each stride. If your body is tense and rigid, and you are perched above your pommel, no amount of lower-leg grip will keep you on your horse for very long. If, on the other hand, you can achieve a position that depends on balance and controlled relaxation, you can sink softly into your saddle and wrap your legs SOFTLY around the horse. Active grip only comes into play occasionally, for an instant, in an emergency. And the better your balance and your ability to follow the movements of your horse, the fewer emergencies you will have. ;-)
If you do have to hold with your leg for a moment, think of how you would like to hold, and with which part of your leg! The upper leg? No... that's holding the upper, round portion of the horse, and gripping with that part of your leg will just push you up out of your saddle! But if you have to hold for an instant with the LOWER leg, that's another story. Your low heels and long, relaxed lower leg can wrap around the LOWER part of the horse, below his widest point, and a momentary hold with this part of your legs can pull you down closer to your saddle. The key, always, is to be correctly balanced over your legs, and not to be pinching with any part of the leg.
I would guess that your instructor doesn't really want you to keep your thighs loose -- she is probably just trying to break you of the habit of using them to grip the saddle, and trying to help you stay flexible in the hips. Your eventual cross-country position will NOT be the same as the position you would assume in a hunt-seat equitation class; cross-country means just that: across the country, over changing terrain and different footings. You will be more secure on the cross-country course if you are slightly behind the motion, and if you are accustomed to riding in balance with the horse at all times, at all gaits, uphill and downhill as well as on the flat.
Ask your instructor to help by setting up some low grids that you can jump through without reins or stirrups. This will help you learn exactly when to rock forward with the horse and fold over his back as he jumps, and it will teach you (in self-defense!) to keep your legs long, your heels down, your back flat, and your eyes up.
You can work on this alone, too, by setting up a "course" to ride -- not jumps, but pairs of standards to ride between as though you were jumping. Make it interesting, with twists and turns, and then practice going through it at walk, trot, and canter, focusing on your body position throughout. Since you won't have to worry about actual jumps, you can work on your timing, and go from sitting or two-point to jumping position (your bottom shifts backward and your upper body folds down as your hip angle closes, which keeps you in balance over your legs). Once you're used to this, add rails between the standards, and when your instructor comes out for a lesson, she'll be able to make you an actual small course so that you can try out your new skills.
As a beginning eventer, you'll spend the first year or two jumping low courses -- the jumps won't even be 3' tall, and they may be a good deal smaller. So don't worry about needing a deathgrip at any point -- if your position is good and you're in balance with your horse, you'll be fine. This is where you have to rely on your instructor (a) to prepare you properly, and (b) not to take you to a competition until you are quite, quite ready. With any luck, you won't have to involve the Pope until you're doing three-day Prelim and your horse stumbles at a gallop ....
Have fun!
Jessica
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