How do I teach my legs to work independently from my legs?

Question

When i put a little leg on my horse ive noticed my body tightens as well and I'm not a stiff rider but this makes me stiffen for that moment but how to i teach my legs do work independently?

Answer 1

Strength training for your legs should help you.  Less effort involved to cue a horse.  Also lower back training to  strengthen your lower back.  All of this will help you out.

Edit:  I know what your trying to say...been there too..LOL

Answer 2

I completely understand.  When I learned to leg yield, I'd get stiff in my body because I'd focus on moving my weight to one seat bone and use my leg at the same time.  I got over this by slowing down and working on it in the walk only, sitting back and breathing deeply.  Breathing helps keep you relaxed and supple.  Focus on keeping your body supple and use less leg.  It also helps to visualize what you want the horse to do.  If you have a sensitive horse, they pick up a lot from your discreet body movements that result from your visualization.

Also, practice, practice, practice....

Answer 3

Ummmm.  Is this a trick question?  Maybe transcendental meditation?

In order to use your body parts independently you have to first of all be relaxed, and from there you must just practice using just the muscles you need to communicate to the horse what it is you are asking him to do.  It just takes practice.  Try it when your not on the horse, then you won't have to deal with the consequences of confusing him by inadvertently giving him conflicting signals by tightening other muscles.  The first step is realizing you have the problem, which you've acknowledged.  Good luck.

Answer 4

Well, the way i think about it when riding is my body as too big seperate things, upper body (from hips up) and lower body (including the hips)

I always am thinking about sinking my hips into the saddle, which then brings my theighs into the saddle while still staying relaxed, and the lower leg just follows.

Also, at the begining of ever ride i work on beding my horse and i focus solely on using my ENTIRE calf on his side rather then my heel.. When i just use my heal my upper body gets stiff.

I also can ride my horse "on the buckle" with no rein contact at all, so i'll often do that walk trot canter and just SIT as much as i can (dropping my reins helps since i'm focusing on sitting so that i don't fall off! lol)  It allows you to really stretch down.

I also spent alot of time working solely on my legs, and not worrying as much about my upper body.. although its probably not the greatest thing it allowed me to get my legs to a level where i didn't have to think about them so i could focus on my upperbody.  It probably would have been a better idea to go the other way, upper body first then legs.. but hey! it worked for me!

Answer 5

It happens to me, but not as much because I've been riding 4ever. Your body needs to stiffen to brace itself to use your leg muscle, especially to for riding. It'll happen, until your legs strengthen and your body gets used to the work of putting leg onto your horse. Or you are stiffening to brace yourself for the sudden ''oh no my horse is running away from me and i can't stop him oh no oh no oh no oh no....". lol.

Answer 6

Lots of practice until you get it. Then practice more.

Answer 7

i would say do certain stretches when you have to use your legs and hold your core, lay on the floor, put your legs up in the air and hold under your hips to keep your legs vertical in the air, once you get there try bending your knees and letting them relax and then bring one leg up and leave the other one down and just keep moving your legs in different ways and make sure that your body isnt moving too!!!

i hope i helped!! good luck!

Answer 8

Well I had the same problem when i started out riding, and what helped me was keep riding! The better you get everything starts to feel natural. Just focus on keeping yourself in the middle of the horse and use your legs like reins. When you use reins you whole body doesnt move, just your arms.

Good Luck!

Answer 9

Things like this simply take practice, continue squeezing exersisces until you see immprovment

Answer 10

Hahahahahaha....we all have those moments when our brain isn't cooperating - I understand your question now ;-) Honestly, the trick is in the hip/your ability to open up the angle to create that independence between your body and your legs without your torso following. Don't overthink it. Don't anticipate it. When you first mount, do a few scissor exercises with your legs to loosen up your hip joint. Also, on the ground try some basic yoga to help increase your flexibility in the hip area. They have some nice videos for Equestrian Yoga (Linda Benedik fo one) - have used it myself to help with a hip injury that made me very tight in the ligaments of the joint and disrupted my ability to use my legs independent of my torso. One more, and I almost didn't mention this for obvious reasons. Ugh, this may sound silly, find a good broad couch arm if you can (hee hee), sit on it as best you can like ur in the saddle, and experiment with moving your legs independent of your body. Do one side at a time. Concentrate on what feels tight or immobile, so you know what area to work on to increase mobility. You'll need to start stretching and loosening up that area and over time will see results.