Why does not racehorse jockeys never sit down?

Question

When a jockey is racing he never seems to sit down on the saddle but stands half way up in the stirrups.

Answer 1

And keeps his butt from bouncing off of the saddle.  Truthfully

Answer 2

It is always better on the horse if the rider is up off the saddle and somewhat leaning forward as this helps to distribute the weight more on the withers and less on the back.

Answer 3

so they dont hurt their balls

Answer 4

And its a physics thing.

Nest time your in a car, stick your hand out the window. When your hand is turned perpendicular (at 90 degrees) to the ground,  your hand feels a lot of resistance against the air.

    When its parallel (sideways to the ground) your hand slices through the air.

   SO for the jockey, if he's sitting, he's going to go slower then if he can make his body parallel to the ground.

Note: Finally. After being out of high school for 20 years, I get to use the words "perpendicular" and "parallel". LOL.

Answer 5

so they don't put as much weight on the horse

Answer 6

to keep the weight of that part of the horse :)

Answer 7

Keeps the weight forward and keeps the horse going forward.

Answer 8

Don't you do that when you're riding a bike and go over a bump/hole in the road? Well the bump in this case is the horse's backside.