The Light Seat: a friend of your horse’s back
When a horse’s back builds up excess tension, whether from strength or discomfort, it leads to altered muscle activation patterns. Muscles will fire either too early, too late, or too long. The horse’s gait will be negatively effected, sometimes to the point of detection by our naked eye but just as often not.
An antidote for the tight back is for a rider to sit in a light seat, or two-point position, taking her weight down in to her legs and feet while holding her pelvis up out of the saddle in a hovering position. This is prescribed in nearly all of the rehabilitation and physical therapy research I have studied. Basically, by unburdening the horse’s superficial back muscles we invite them to unclamp, and activate without excess workload. This helps restore blood flow and oxygen delivery, which allow the muscles to loosen within their contraction cycles.
The light seat: a rider holds her backside a couple of inches out of the saddle, allowing her upper body to incline slightly forward.
The light seat also has the added benefit of removing the rider’s asymmetries and potential uneven pressure on the horse’s back muscles. By holding her weight out of the saddle, the rider has to distribute forces evenly down through both of her legs. The natural crookedness of a rider is often masked when she sits fully in the saddle; she can imperceptibly collapse one hip or sit more heavily on one side of her pelvis. Removing one’s backside from the saddle nearly always creates a straighter alignment.
In my own training, I had to learn over time the value of the light seat. As a dressage rider, I figured that a ‘dressage seat’— as described in the classical texts— was the sole way to ride your horse. It was the epitome of a balanced rider, no? So what could be better for the horse? About a decade ago, I began posting the trot a lot more often than I previously did because I was noticing that my horses seemed to have freer movement when I gave them breaks from sitting down so deeply in to their backs. The horses’ back muscling responded over time by becoming more fluffy/elastic to the touch instead of feeling stringy and hard. Likewise, the horses became much more agreeable to carry their bodies with good posture. They felt like pliable, easily shaped clay under me.
A few moments of light seat is good for both horse and rider!
As I dove more in to equine exercise physiology studies, I learned how often horses’ back muscles become spasmodic, either from direct pressures or by tension referred from locomotion efforts. Despite what I had been led to believe, sitting in my ‘dressage seat’ was not going to relieve spasmodic, tight muscles. A light seat became an important tool in my toolbox. Minimizing weight on the horse’s back while riding him energetically forward restores and maintains function of critical locomotion muscles.
For some horses, a light seat can be used beneficially for a few moments during a ride. For example, riding the horse in a brisk canter while in a two-point position for a minute or two in the middle of your session can help loosen up his movement. With young horses or those in rehab situation, it can be helpful to ride the entire session in a light seat. Occasionally a horse will need to be ridden this way for a prescribed period of time such as a month or so. This applies to horse’s whose gaits have become compromised due to injury or poor lifestyle.
For riders who are dubious about the positive effects of an occasional light seat or are unsure how to proceed, I recommend Exercise #43 from my book 101 Western Dressage Exercises for Horse and Rider. It’s called the 4x4x4 and asks riders to alternate between executing 4 strides of sitting trot, posting trot, and then a light seat. As riders continue the exercise for a few moments, I ask them to observe any changes in the horse’s movement or posture. Nearly always, the horse begins to relax and stretch outward with is neck while developing an overall feel of springiness through his body.
