This weekend was a lot more pleasant than last weekend and it showed with Max. Saturday found us doing the usual "loop around the lake"- a relatively sedate ride. The reason for the easy course was because a friend was riding with us who hadn't been riding in awhile and her horse hasn't been out much in awhile. Basically, this was meant as more of a training exercise for her horse than anything else. Everything seemed to work out and we returned to the stable before it became very hot.
Sunday was every interesting- today I began to train on the two-point seat. This is an interesting seat in that you have to really use your calve muscles and be careful to NOT put all your weight into the stirrups (or else your center of gravity gets higher and you become unstable).
We worked on this for about 20 minutes and let me tell you, my calves (and legs in general) were sore as can be! However, it was interesting in that I had to constantly force my legs back to attain the correct profile and not jam my feet in the stirrups. What was even more interesting was doing the two-point seat at the canter- you're locked on the horse and basically your whole body rises and falls with the horse's motion. It's different than the normal three-point seat at the canter. It's hard to describe but it was a comfortable ride- so long as I could hold it!
It seems this this is the basis for hunt seat riding. Very interesting stuff and I hope to develop greater proficiency in this area. I'm also told that Hussars also used this seat on the charge...
Here's some more on the hunt seat.
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