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Here is a recent update on my canter seat "discoveries." While I have gotten a lot better at routinely opening the hip joints and keeping the "perpetual canter" feeling, I was still struggling with making my left canter seat as good as my right. I know that I am stiffer in the left hip and have trouble sliding that hip forward. Changes work was making this extra obvious.

After watching some more Suzanne Von Dietz videos, I realized that my efforts on the left hip were actually misguided. I was trying to "screw" my left sit bone down and into the horse in order to get my left hip forward (I came to this brilliant idea because it is how my right side feels to me). Von Dietz noticed this habit in one of the riders and advised (paraphrasing):

Don't struggle to screw the left sitbone into the horse. Just point the left hip bone (crest of hip) to where you want the next canter stride to be. For added support, let your right sitbone move in towards the center of the horse.

WOW! This is both way easier physically for me and it actually works. And it creates proper alignment in the horse. If any of you relate to having a stiff left hip/absent left sitbone especially with a stiff left horse, this might be a useful tidbit.

Edited to add: Somehow, I knew how to do this "point the hip crest" move in lateral work, like half pass, but I didn't know how to do it in basic work like cantering on the left lead. Dressage, a pastime providing years and years of mystery and discovery opportunities!!

I found this helpful when I rode today. Thanks!

Hey, that's cool Flight.

What's funny is that I found it helpful today just doing smooth transitions of 10 m trot circles from one direction to the other (it was too soggy for much canter out in the fields).

Pointing the hip bone was super helpful my last ride, thanks for the description. I've found that going right my saddle always tends to slip to the outside and I could never figure out what I was doing or not doing to cause it but when I rode with the idea of pointing my hip bone where I wanted my next stride to be I stayed put in both directions.

Piedmont, thank you for posting. As you can tell from my input, I tend to struggle in the canter. There's a difference between riding every stride and driving every stride and I'm trying to figure out what that means for me and my body

I still vote for sitting quietly with an elastic seat and simply moving with the horse with draped legs. Close your eyes for a safe stride or two and focus on feel.

Start be just following the motion, then progress to matching it. Once the co ordination is there you can subtly influence, not just match, but i believe the seat and back should be subtle and elastic. Because the back has no support. It is a suspension and it's too easy to incorrectly influence it to stiffness or hollowing which results in either false lightness or heaviness to the hand.

A horses back needs to be allowed, first priority over everything else.i recommends erring on the side of lightness when in doubt, and stillness too.

I don't disagree with your guidance, Chisamba, but I know that I struggle to do it especially in canter left. My body is not equally flexible or supple on the left and right, nor does it have equal physical history from 5+decades on earth. I'm much better in trot---maybe because it is a symmetrical gait so I can't get too far out of whack without noticing.

Chisamba wrote:Close your eyes for a safe stride or two and focus on feel.

I do this all the time -- on the flat, over jumps, while ice skating (and getting myself all bound up bracing for whatever reason), occasionally while running on the flat, frequently while lifting weights or doing planks or such. It works for me.

It freaks my husband out when he's tried it ice skating (there's no riding happening there ) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

heddylamar wrote: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This thing is so cute!! I tried to make one like it but don’t have key that makes the sideways smiley mouth.

piedmontfields wrote:I don't disagree with your guidance, Chisamba, but I know that I struggle to do it especially in canter left. My body is not equally flexible or supple on the left and right, nor does it have equal physical history from 5+decades on earth. I'm much better in trot---maybe because it is a symmetrical gait so I can't get too far out of whack without noticing.

I am following this thread and think I understand where you’re coming from, piedmont. At my age, my body is much different than it was even 15-20 years ago and I haven’t even had any complications from health issues.

Since childhood, I’ve loved the feeling of power when riding. I used to close my eyes a lot and just imagine I was part of the horse. I loved canter/gallop maybe even more than I loved trot. I didn’t ever even think about how I was doing it, I just did it by feel. NOW, though, I have to pay special attention to what my body is doing, and how it’s doing it. If I don’t think about it carefully, I could easily and inadvertently, send the wrong signals to my horse, slowing down the training and in the case of both my mares, risk getting bucked off.

We’ve all had different experiences due to genetics and environment, among other things, and the older we get, the further our bodies get from “average”. That makes it harder and even sometimes, impossible, to apply something simply because it works for someone else.

I am getting a lot out or reading other’s experience. It causes my to think!

demi wrote:

heddylamar wrote: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This thing is so cute!! I tried to make one like it but don’t have key that makes the sideways smiley mouth.

That's the "tsu": ツ

You can add the shruggie to your auto-replace text. It's a whole lot simpler than tying the Unicode each time or copy and pasting.