Seat Games - Another Key to Rider Comfort

2012-3 SEAT GAMES PART THREE TERRY WAGNER:Layout 1 12/13/2012 11:56 AM Page 1
Seat Games - Another Key to Rider Comfort
Part Three
By Terry Wagner
I
n past articles we have talked about
various parts of the western saddle
and how they can affect your comfort while headed down the trail.
Stirrups, stirrup leathers, fenders,
and especially saddle seats create your
comfort zone while headed down the trail
on your favorite long eared companion.
Trail riders, (a classification in which I include any mounted rider covering country
outside a confined area) as a rule, when
they step up into the saddle, will be in the
saddle for much longer periods of time than
any other equestrians. The most important
part of the comfort zone, and often times
overlooked by uncomfortable riders, is how
you sit in the saddle. Your interaction with
the saddle while riding, has a long way to
go to letting you win the seat game.
The stirrup leathers, stirrups, fenders, and
seat all must come together in size, design
and location on the tree in order for you to
have a comfortable ride. A properly designed saddle will have the stirrup leathers
and fenders hanging in a place on the tree
that is in the proper relation to the length
and design of the seat. Stirrup leathers that
are hung too far forward will make the rider
feel that he is always “behind” the movements of his mule and seem to always be
slipping off the rear of his mule as they negotiate various obstacles on the trail. Conversely, stirrup leathers and fenders that are
hung too far back on the tree, make a rider
feel as though he has to pull his legs forward in order to keep from falling forward.
The best designed seat won’t help much if
you can’t stay in it because your stirrup
leathers are in the wrong place. With these
thoughts in mind, I personally find it more
comfortable with my stirrup leathers hung
slightly forward.
To prevent ankle and knee pain, it is
mandatory that the stirrup leathers be
turned out so the stirrups do not put pressure on the rider’s ankles and knees. Not
training the stirrup leathers to turn away
from the mule will result in knee and ankle
pain in short order. Finally the stirrup
leathers must be properly adjusted.
When all of the above have been accomplished, the seat of the saddle then becomes
extremely important. The seat has to have
#1 Illustration of centered seat.
a “sweet spot” in the design that allows the
rider to sit comfortably in one place for
long periods of time. If the seat does not
provide this type of comfort, the rider will
be constantly shifting his weight and
changing his position in an effort to find a
comfort zone where he is not gritting his
teeth at every stride. The rider shifting and
placing his weight on one side and the other
will put his weight in less than a balanced
position causing stress on the mule and
contributes to a sore backed mule.
Stirrup length adjustment has a lot to do
with saddle seat comfort. An old cowboy
adage about stirrup adjustment tells us “if
your knees hurt your stirrups are too short.
If your rear end hurts your stirrups are too
long.” This statement goes a long way toward explaining the relationship between
seat and stirrups. I have seen numerous riders going down the trail with their stirrups
obviously too long or too short and all the
time showing signs of discomfort and exclaiming that they were going to invest in a
different saddle. These riders would be uncomfortable no matter what saddle they
ride unless they make a change in the
length of their stirrups. A rider with his
knees up under his chin is terribly out of
balance and sets himself up to be pitched
forward or backwards. When these riders
come off in a wreck, they usually straighten
out their legs during the ejection and launch
themselves to even greater elevations, thus
increasing the force of impact when landing. Ankle and knee pain can be a one two
punch with this kind of seat. This seat usually results in an exaggerated heel down
riding style, or an excessive case of heels
up and toes down, because no matter how
the rider places his feet he is not comfortable.
A person riding with his stirrups so long
he can barely touch his stirrups with his
boots, is especially susceptible to having
his stirrups fly backwards and going over
the mule’s head, plus he lacks side to side
balance in the saddle and his/her legs and
feet are basically useless. This kind of seat
is usually accompanied with a deep seated
pain in the ischial tuberosity….or simply a
pain in your sit down parts. Many times
you will see these people leaning back
while riding, trying to relieve the pressure
on their rear ends. Proper stirrup adjustment
dictates that you should be able to put an
adequate amount of weight in the stirrup,
and easily keep you heels down, without
any leg or knee strain.
Currently the equine gurus in “equispace” have the Internet absolutely covered
with thousands of articles, and videos almost mandating that we should be riding
with a proper “centered seat.” The centered
seat is a posture while riding that when all
the body parts of the rider are utilized properly, will allow us to draw a vertical line
running downward from the riders ear,
through the shoulder and elbow, hip bone,
and heel (photo #1). I have read articles by
more than one author claiming comfort,
balance and safety to be inherent to this
form of sitting in the saddle. This seat is
most often seen in equitation classes in
horse shows from national competition to
the smallest local “punkin’ roller” show.
Photo #2 shows Gen. George A. Custer in
a slightly exaggerated centered seat pose
struck for a Civil War cameraman.
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#2 General Custer demonstrating a
centered or balanced seat, along with
some exaggerated gestures for the camera.
The proponents of this seat posture are
passionate about it and claim that it must be
maintained in the center of your saddle so
as to spread the weight of the rider evenly
on the bars of the saddle; in turn this will
allow the bars to evenly spread the rider’s
weight along the mule’s back. Many instructors teach the “centered seat” and talk
as though this is something new, when in
fact it has been around for hundreds of
years having been referred to as the “classical seat,” equitation seat, or show seat.
Hardcore proponents of the centered seat
have let the concept acquire a life of its
own, claiming it is the only seat to use
while riding and that any other posture will
be detrimental to the rider and result in untold and permanent damage to the backs of
our equine trail partners. These folks instruct that it must be maintained in order to
properly communicate the leg aids to the
mule or horse.
Some unknowing folks call this “centered riding,” which is a misnomer. Centered Riding was developed by a lady
named Sally Swift, but goes way beyond
just riding properly to become a complete
equestrian discipline encompassing body,
mind, spirit and the horse/mule into a single
unit of equine harmony.
Over the years I have observed only a
handful of trail and pleasure riders displaying a centered seat while going down the
trail. There are custom saddle makers turning out saddles that are designed to make
riders naturally assume the centered seat
riding posture. The centered seat is without
question, most often seen in the show ring
and most certainly has a deserved and necessary place in the equine world.
My personal observations are that the
centered seat is seldom used by trail riders
#3 General Alfred Pleasonton riding
in the chair seat posture.
or when a mule is performing at speed or
off of level ground. Whether the centered
seat posture is your cup of tea, only a few
miles down the trail with it will tell for sure.
The centered seat is not easy to maintain for
very long without a determined effort.
Maintaining the centered seat is similar to
trying to sit up straight in a chair. Eventually you will change the position either
from unconscious slouching, or some outside influence.
The hard-core centered seat crowd refers
to any style of riding where the legs are extended in front of the rider’s body, as the
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#4 Example of the military seat.
“lounge chair seat,” or “chair seat (photo
#3).” Detractors of the chair seat claim the
rider is completely out of balance and causing strain on the mules back, because the
legs and thighs are not properly supporting
the rider’s weight. However, it is safe to say
that the chair seat or some form of it is
more commonly used by trail riders than
any other.
If you look at pictures of cavalry soldiers
you will more often than not see them riding in a modified chair seat posture, called
the “military seat.” The military seat illustrated in photo #4 was determined by the
cavalry to be the most advantageous seat to
maintain balance while deploying weapons
from horse back. Numerous equine endeavors employ the chair seat, including polo
players, rodeo contestants, barrel racers,
and cutting horse riders, just to name a few.
The Australian horsemen, using Australian
saddles, typically ride with their legs in
front and pushing themselves back in the
saddle and it certainly didn’t interfere with
the heroic ride of the Man from Snowy
River.
I have sold a lot of saddles over the years,
and the two most often asked questions are
“what size is the seat,” and secondly, “can
I get my legs in front of me in this saddle.”
When going downhill, being able to get
one’s legs in front may be mandatory in
order to prevent falling over the mule’s
neck (photo #5). There is a ton of evidence
to safely say that a modified form of chair
seat may be the best compromise between
the two extremes and is probably the most
used saddle seat in the country, and certainly the one most used by trail riders. I
think it’s safe to say that every equine discipline has a seat posture that best suits the
#5 Author, Terry Wagner riding Jones
down a steep hill in Blue River. A riders
legs naturally go forward to prevent
going over the front of the mule.
particular endeavor. The activity may not
have started out with any particular seat
style in mind, but necessity created it, and
in the practical sense should not be considered poor mulemanship.
Because there is a considerable lack of
mounted cavalry on the American horizons,
I like to think of the military seat, because
of it prevalent use by pleasure riders, as the
“trail seat.” Does it harm a mule’s back for
the rider to have his legs slightly forward
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#6 A member of the Australian Light
Horse mounted infantry and the
chair seat.
#7 Arizona cowboy Monk Maxwell and
the trail seat.
#8 Janie Besel riding Apache Spirit
Dancer and the trail seat.
when riding? I am going to say absolutely
not. As long as a rider is using a saddle that
properly fits his/her mule and the saddle
has a seat, which does not cause the rider
to constantly shift his weight, the chance of
this seat posture causing harm to the mule
is negligible. If it wasn’t the vast majority
of trail mules in the country today would be
crippled and that’s just not the case.
There are saddles available that are made
to allow the rider to move his legs forward.
#9 Author, Terry Wagner, left on Jones and
Rick Bousfield on Dixie, somewhere in the
Ozarks and the trail seat.
#10 Arizona mule rider Lin Mealey
riding the trail seat.
The Fallis Balanced Ride saddle is one
of them. This often copied system was designed by Slim Fallis and Monte Foreman
in the late forties and early fifties, the stirrups can be set two or four inches forward
of the normal stirrup leather position.
Monte Foreman had been a riding instructor in the U.S. Cavalry and realized that a
rider had to be forward in his seat, especially when a horse performed at a lope and
gallop due to the center of gravity of the
horse moving forward in these gaits. The
forward stirrup leather position allows the
rider to stand in the stirrups with better balance and prevents the stirrup leathers and
fenders from flying backwards and sending
the rider over the mule’s head. We are talking about real equine gaits here, not the
dead headed, peanut roller performances,
trainers spend so much time perfecting
today.
Your riding comfort will be greatly enhanced when your equipment and riding
posture come together in such a fashion that
you are automatically in a comfortable seat
when you first mount up. Look over the additional photos I have included that are
from recent trail rides. The “trail seat” is
certainly the seat of choice. If you’re not
comfortable when you first get in the saddle, you sure won’t be, six hours down the
trail.
In the final installment of the Seat Games
(April, 2012) we will explore one man’s
quest for comfort.
To contact Terry Wagner for
information on this
article or prior articles, e-mail:
[email protected]
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