I have been riding horses since June. When I canter my trainer tells me that I need to sqeeze with my legs in order to stay on. I am fine until the horse starts going a little too fast for me. I have read that you are only supposed to sqeeze when you want to go faster. Am I confusing the horse and making her speed up by trying to sqeeze or am I supposed to do that? I am confused, I just want to know how to stay on comfortably without getting all discombobulated (sp?)! Thanks!

To stay on, you shouldn't be squeezing that much with your legs. Squeezing with your lower leg is the aid for the horse to speed up, while pressure in the upper thigh (which the horse can feel and a well trained one would respond to) means to slow down. But these aren't the basis for staying on. You need to keep the weight down in your heels, legs and seat.

You should keep your heels down (different from just lifting your toe and forcing your heel down). Pretend that someone is pulling down on your heel. And put the weight down through your knees as if you were abut to kneel on the ground. And keep the weight in your seat by keeping your upper body tall. Sit up straight, let your shoulders drop, feel like there's a taughtness, but not tighness, in your core, and follow the horses's motion with your seat, but keep you upper body still. Pretend that you have a string coming out of the top of your head that's holding you up like a puppet; it keeps you upright and tall, but you can feel like the rest of your body is just dangling from it. Another good image is to think of your legs like a wet towel draped over the horse's back. So your base of support stays with the horse, but it has to come through balance rather than gripping. It's very important not to grip with your knees.

I know some of those images seem very abstract, maybe weird, but they're from Sally Swift's book Centered Riding, and can be very effective. You should look into maybe purchasing the book. It's great!

Respnse to comment below: No, I said DON'T squeeze with your knees! That'll act like a pivot, causing your lower leg to slide back too far and you'll be unbalanced.

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