Articles
Seat depth, hip mobility, sitting trot, and moving with the horse.
A tight or unsettled seat is not always solved by stretching more. Often the body also needs support, control, and usable movement so the pelvis can follow the horse without gripping or bracing.
hip freedom · pelvis control · adductor tension · seat bones · lower back support · sitting trot · moving with the horse
60 articles found
A blocked seat is rarely solved by trying to sit heavier or push deeper. For many riders, the answer begins with creating more freedom, support, and organisation through the hips, pelvis, spine, and core.
Suppleness and strength are not separate goals. Suppleness creates more freedom, while strength teaches your body to support and trust that new range. Together, they help riders become stable without gripping, strong without hardness and soft without collapsing.
There’s a certain feeling riders are always trying to create.
You understand the cues and keep trying to sit deeper, yet your seat still feels slightly lifted from the saddle. The problem may not be effort. A deeper seat develops when your hips have enough freedom and your body has enough support to stop holding on.
If your hands feel busy, uneven or difficult to keep steady, the answer may not be in your hands at all. Steady contact often begins with better support through the seat, trunk and shoulders.
A busy lower leg is often your body’s attempt to create stability. Learn how your hips, pelvis, trunk and left-to-right balance influence leg position—and why a quieter leg develops through better support rather than being held still.
Feeling crooked in the saddle is rarely just a position problem. It is often a familiar stability pattern involving your hips, pelvis, ribcage and trunk. Discover why forcing yourself straight does not last—and how greater movement, strength and awareness allow symmetry to develop more naturally.
There’s a moment every rider knows. You ask for sitting trot… and instead of feeling connected, you feel like you’re being gently — or sometimes not so gently — bounced out of the saddle.
When riders talk about having “tight hips,” what they’re often feeling is something slightly different.
Discover why dressage riders have tight hips and what you can do to create more freedom and support in the saddle.
Why Riders Often Feel Tight — and What’s Really Happening One of the things riders rarely realise is this: Your hips are constantly listening to your nervous system.
When we think about riding posture, it’s easy to focus on our core or upper body — shoulders back, sit tall, engage your abdominals… But there’s a powerhouse working quietly behind
If you’re a dressage rider over 40, chances are you’ve been told to stretch more, do more core work, or simply “ride more” to get stronger in the saddle.
Learn why your legs slide forward in the saddle and how to fix it so you have a more balanced and stable seat in the saddle.
Learn what's limiting you and how to fix so that mounting your horse becomes easier and much smoother every time you ride.
Why do dressage riders have tight hamstrings? Learn why and get stretches to improve your hamstrings today to help overall hip suppleness.
Learn how to create a soft independent seat in the saddle by learning more about the structure and balance of your pelvis Everything in riding is about balance, working with gravit
The deep six are a small but important group of muscles that help rotate and stabilise the hip. For dressage riders, they can influence thigh alignment, seat-bone pressure, toe position and how evenly the pelvis responds to the horse.
The Corset Of Your Abdominals : Your TVA, learn its role in your dressage position and how you can begin to strengthen it today.
Learn what muscles horseback riding uses and discover the key muscles involved for creating a good dressage rider posture and how to improve.
Learn all about strength building for equestrians. Get workout ideas and discover the best sort of training to do as a rider.
Understanding how your body adapts to your environment is a fundamental element in helping you improve your position in the saddle, and maintaining the overall health and longevity
Learn about lower cross syndrome and how this can affect your position in the saddle. Discover exercises you can do today to help.
Here are 14 stretches for dressage riders to help improve overall posture by focusing on their flexor chain to help lengthen their body.
Here are a selection of glute strengthening exercises for dressage riders to help strengthening and improve your seat while riding.
Yoga For Dressage Riders - Improve Your Hip Mobility And Suppleness
Yoga For Dressage Riders - 5 Minute Warm Up Routine To Help Your Riding
Here is a great 5 minute yoga routine for you to try.
This beginners yoga is a routine to help improve your posture.
This beginners yoga for dressage riders is designed to help open up your hips and loosen your lower back so that you can create that nice deep seat in the saddle.
Maintaining a healthy range of movement throughout our entire body is one of the key’s to aging well.
Dressage Stretches that every rider should do. Improve suppleness and mobility in the saddle to help you move freely with your horse.
Here I explain how you can improve your dressage position and give you insights as to how it should feel when you are both in and out of the saddle.
Here are my top 6 dressage exercises that you can do at home to help improve your position and posture in the saddle. Including step by step video to follow
Here are 5 dressage leg stretches to help improve the length and position of your legs in the saddle. Gain a deeper seat and improve alignment.
Why pilates for equestrian athletes can improve your core and overall stability in the saddle. A must for dressage riders. Including exercises you can try.
Flexibility is crucial to making mounting your horse much easier.
Here is a series of stretches to help improve tight shoulders and upper back in riders.
Sciatica can be common in horse riders. This article will show you stretches to reduce your sciatica pain for good.
Yoga is a really powerful tool to help you become more supple in the saddle.
Hip mobility in dressage is a crucial element to creating a deep seat. Here are some great mobility routines you can start today.
Learn how to stretch piriformis, where it is and why it is an important area for dressage riders to keep healthy. With a step by step guide to stretching.
Try these rider back stretches to relieve lower back and hip pain in riders with a specific target to dressage riders. Video breakdown.
When it comes to dressage one of the aims is about improving the balance of the horse.
Here are six hip stretches for horse riders with a focus on dressage. Improve your mobility and suppleness so you can feel morse stable in the saddle.
What Is Foam Roller And How Can It Help My Dressage ( Plus 8 Ways To Use It)
How to create a quiet seat in Dressage? In order to create a quiet seat it requires strength of your core, flexibility of your spine and proper balance. It is a balance between strength and relaxation.
Dressage position – what is alignment and why is it important to understand as dressage riders. Get the exercises to improve yours today
Ever since being a little girl bouncing around on my welsh pony "Smokey" at pony club, the words heels down have been drummed into my ears as I am sure you can relate.
Healthy rider hips need more than flexibility. They require enough suppleness to move, enough strength to support the pelvis and enough control to respond to the horse without gripping, bracing or compensating.
I’m sure you’ve experienced the feeling of tight shoulders, lower back pain and stiff hips after sitting for a period of time at your desk.
When you’re in your twenties, it seems you can go a 110 percent at the gym, a charity run, or a boot camp with ease.
Here are some great dressage exercises for toe position when you are in the saddle. Improve how your leg sits by adding these exercises to your regime.
Establishing balanced seat bones and a strong core is vital for dressage riders to move freely with their horse.
Relaxation is often a word misunderstood in dressage. In this article I explain my interpretation of it and how it applies to staying calm, supported and available—using enough strength to remain balanced while releasing the tension that blocks your horse’s movement.
Bouncing is not always a sign that you need to try harder. Often, it is a sign that your body is trying to protect, stabilise or catch up.
Do you find sitting trot hard work? Discover how you can improve your sitting trot so it becomes effortless and soft for your horse's back.
A tight or overworked psoas can influence how your pelvis sits, how freely your hips move and how well you absorb your horse’s movement. In this article, we explore the relationship between the psoas, iliacus and pelvic stability—and why a softer, more balanced seat depends on both support and freedom.
Feeling stiff before you ride? This simple five-minute flow combines four useful movements to warm up your hips, spine and legs so your body feels more supple, balanced and ready for the saddle.
5 Yoga Poses To Improve Your Dressage