Sometimes riding is like a mystery... you start noticing things that don't seem quite right, and then they start adding up, and you eventually have a eureka moment when you realize what the problem is. Hindsight is ever 20/20 and you wonder how you didn't figure it out sooner because it's just so damn obvious.
That's me and my inability to sit straight in the saddle.
It started a couple of months ago when I noticed uneven wear marks on my saddle's seat. In the last year I've started wearing full seats more often, so for the first time I get wear marks.
Oddly uneven. Like, REALLY uneven.
Then there's this little matter of leg yields. See, Paddy tends to travel with his hind end to the right, all the time. This makes leg yields right easy, and left hard. Strangely, now that I've been riding Taran and Brego (who both travel straight, btw), I notice that they also struggle with leg yield left but are brilliant to the right. This is especially odd given that going right is usually harder for Taran.
Finally, I've been watching vids of me and Paddy this year (because you do that when your horse is lame). I look straight from the side view, but from the front or back, I'm clearly not.
I'm more like the leaning tower of Pisa, actually.
All this evidence adds up to me sitting in the middle of the saddle, but with significantly more weight on my right seatbone and stirrup. And because horses reflect their riders, it's easier for every horse I ride to follow my weight to the right for things like leg yields and such. Paddy's just better at faking it left because he's more used to my unevenness than Taran and Brego. Supposedly, most right-handed people tend to sit left and draw up their right leg, but because I can't do something that normal, I sit right and draw up my left leg. And turn my left toe out too, apparently.
I clearly need to figure out how to address this problem, because it's really affecting my poor horses. Several sites recommend riding without stirrups, which I already do quite a lot. The funny thing is, I can WTC both ways no problem - I've manage to compensate that well. I'm wondering if riding with no stirrup on the right might encourage me to sit more left? Having mirrors when riding would help too, but those aren't a possibility. I'm VERY strongly right-handed, and I've started doing a lot more things with my left hand - everything from opening doors to grabbing my chai to mousing left-handed. The idea is to strengthen the weaker side (my left) and stretch the stronger side (my right). Sounds kind of like what we do to help our horses be more even too, doesn't it? I do think that what will help me most is a constant reminder (like keeping my hands down) to weight left and really focus on that. I just need to practice being even at home in front of a mirror so that I know what even feels like!
Do you struggle with straightness? If so, what helps you sit more evenly?
