Communicating Through the Seat Aids

As you ride your horse your seat should be following the horse's motion. The horse is your dance partner. If he has to constantly drag you around the arena, he will no longer want to dance (i.e. communicate) with you anymore. A poor seat will make all of your other aides ineffective.

You can increase the length of your horse's stride by increasing the range of motion in your seat without increasing the speed of the motion. When you want to change from a walk to a trot you decrease the range of motion in your seat and increase the speed. When you want to canter your horse you must make a big increase in both your speed and range of motion. Many instructors have described the action of your seat in the canter transition as dropping and swinging your inside hip with the same scooping motion as you would use your wrist when taking a big scoop of ice cream. When we want to stop our horse we slow the motion and restrict the range of motion until we come to a halt.

One of the most useful tools we have for slowing our horse down, collecting his stride, or focusing his attention on us is the half-halt. The half halt is when we tell the horse with our seat to stop, then when we feel him start to obey the command, we tell him (again with our seat) oh, that's okay. . .carry on. This type of command can be very challenging to learn for both the horse and rider, but it is a necessity for good communication. The biggest mistake that riders make in using this command is not timing it properly. The half-halt is only effective for one stride. If the horse does not respond in that stride, you must wait 2 or 3 stride to ask it again. Before attempting the half-halt the horse and rider should be able to walk, trot, canter, as well as vary the speed of each gait and come to a halt using only the seat aid.

Till next time? Sit tall and square in the saddle and always listen to what your horse is saying.

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