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Member
Posts: 11
| Just curious, there are so many different riding styles out there and I wanted to hear what everyone does during a run or tuning, coming into, during, and leaving a turn. Do you try to keep your weight square in the middle and even in the stirrups? Do you ever put slightly more weight to either the inside or outside? What do you do with your core? Do you like to lean back or sit upright, or hunch forward, and why? |
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 Midget Lover
    
Location: Kentucky | I *try* to keep pressure evenly distributed. I feel if I put too much weight on my inside stirrup my horse will drift in that direction.
Here is a picture from 2014. I have been working on my core and found that it's helped me with my balance. You can see a difference from my posture in these three pictures.
And here is one from 2009:
This one is 2010, but my feet placement sucked. Probably because I have a massive gangsta lean going on here.
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I try to keep my heels down at all times to keep myself anchored and balanced.
I have a horse that rates hard that you have to push. If I sit too deep coming in, he shuts down too hard and I get dash-boarded. If I stay up and only sit just a little bit we make it around the turns much better- but I try to stay in line with him.
The only time I sit to one side or the other is if I need to push him one way or the other. I use seat and leg to do that. If he's going to shoulder, I push him off it by sitting slightly deeper to the inside, close inside leg, open outside leg. If I need to get him closer to the barrel, I'll sit a little harder to the outside and open inside leg, close outside. I push, I don't pull. The smaller the adjustments, the better.
I try to back up out of my seat as I'm leaving so I don't get as far behind.
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 Unknown Drip
Posts: 5624
Location: Back in MT BABY!!! | I try to stay even with my weight in my stirrups. I think once you start putting more weight in one stirrup over the other that is when you will start loosing your stirrups.
I also try to stay as centered as possible with my upper body but not stick straight...I prefer push style horses so I will be a little hunched forward but not as far forward as I have seen others...more of a "C" shape with my upper body. |
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | I ride heavy in my stirrups. The current horse I ride was taught to run straight to the second and then step out on the outside stirrup. Don't care for it but that is how he was trained. |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | Sit square, even and light weight in my stirrups. I also rode HJ's for awhile so I'm used to short stirrups and prefer my barrel stirrups shorter as well. Engage my core to hold my body down, and sit upright as best I can. I aim for that otherwise I feel like I throw my horse off if I'm doing much other than that.
I will lean back going into a barrel if my horse is coming in a little hot but lets be honest I can't get out of my own way long enough to have a fast go 'round ;)
Edited by Crowned Image 2015-02-04 2:26 PM
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 Go For It!
Location: Texas |
I am actually really light in my stirrups when I ride. I have found that when people ride heavy in their stirrups it makes a horse a bit rougher, especially around the barrels. I use my stirrups as an "aid" to help me balance, but I ride more with my thighs and seat.
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 More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | I "think" I'm heavy in the stirrups. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 365
| I'm pretty light in my stirrups. I keep my weight in my seat and use my stirrups only for balance. |
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 I don't want to screw up!
Posts: 3881
Location: North Dakota -> Colorado | I'm pretty light in my stirrups, I rely more on my core and on my legs. This does sometime cause an issue as you may sometimes blow stirrups, but I double band and have never had a problem. I've rode under quite a few different disciplines and you just learn to adapt your riding style to fit the discipline. I feel when I am light in the stirrups I have more ability to ride with my legs, as I feel being too heavy in the stirrups greatly diminishes freedom of movement. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I have no idea what I'm doing with my stirrups in a run. I try to stay in the middle of my horse, push down on the horn, shape him with my inside leg going into the turn, and keep driving his hip with my outside. That doesn't leave time for "are my heels down? How much weight do I have on my feet?" LOL. Just riding around, I'm thinking of how I'm sitting and how I'm using my legs, and my legs are always softly against the horse's side, never stuck out. Still not worried about stirrups other than are my feet in them? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 356
| I ride with my weight mostly in my stirrups. There's definitely still some weight in my seat - I'd say like a 75/25 split? I run an extremely setty horse, and I feel a lot more secure keeping my weight distributed lower and around his body! I try shift to being heavier in the outside stirrup when I start my turn for a few reasons - allows me to shape with my inside leg, keeps me from leaning in/dropping my inside shoulder, and my horse seems to stand up in the turn a little better rather than dropping in. I'm a little hunched whether I'm riding forward between the barrels or sitting in a turn - kind of like how a reiner rides. |
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What do you do with your weight in the stirrups?