Any home exercises to help toes not turn out when riding?

[JB]

@ThreeWishes

Does human conformation have a role also?

I was just coming back here to talk about this:

The goal should NOT be to have toes pointed forward. Toes are a by-product of what the leg is doing and what it CAN do

Fix the leg. Your feet point where they point. In Dressage, you’re riding off your leg, not your feet. Your feet are there to hold and use spurs when necessary LOL

That said, if your conformation is such that feet really do point out, to the point you can’t keep your heel off the horse without taking your leg off, then that’s a separate issue that would to be worked on individually.

[shall]

@PetraRiedel

I read this recently: If you have trouble keeping your leg on the horse and your leg turns out at the knee or further down at the ankle - think about sitting as if you were doing a “snowplow” while skiiing. You will have to think about this all the time while riding until you have re-trained your body.
Not sure how well it works as I don’t have this particular problem.
Good luck!

A version of this worked for me. Trainer said to sit as if you could vault off using your stirrups at any moment. It now feels natural. (Next, stop raising my hands asking for halt.)

[CindyCRNA]

Speaking of No.Stirrups…my leg looks good with no stirrups!

[Snowdenfarm]

90/90 Hip Mobility Flow Routine (Open Up Your Hips)

[Mutlu1]

I know I’m late to the party, but here’s a few suggestions which worked for me in and out the saddle. Try to identify where your tightness is coming from. It is easy to say “turn your toes in” but it is more impactful to know that you may have tightness in your upper back, hamstrings, ankles and even calves and work on resolving that to gain more flexibility.

FYI: I have naturally turned out toes and I carry my weight more on the outside of my right foot when walking.

In the saddle, my thigh is in the correct position except from the knee down, with the right toe being the really bad culprit of the two.

1. Pull your calf away from the saddle and rinse and repeat. Best to do on a saintly horse so you can focus on your position and learning how the correct position feels. Do this as often as possible.

2. Out of the saddle. Correct squats made a massive difference. Combine them with lots of yoga to target specific parts. If you use the Peloton app, go to the focus flow section under yoga and there are a lot of helpful hip/hamstring exercises that have made a difference. Don’t neglect your upper back muscles. I can sit in a “V” and try to stretch towards my toes, but don’t get very far unless I round my back. This prevents me from truly stretching activating my hamstrings b/c of the restriction.

2.5 Get a massage if you can. Drink plenty of water and have a professional deep tissue massage to help jumpstart your flexibility and loosen you up. Sometimes you may feel tighter after a yoga or riding session because you’re activating new body parts. A good deep tissue massage and light yoga session can work wonders as well.

3. Be patient, it will come!

[Rhinelanders]

Get a narrow twist saddle, a wide twist for a narrow hipped person, there’s no way to get your toes right if the horse or saddle are to wide for your hip/pelvic width. It’s a matter of physics.

[CindyCRNA]

See and I think this may be a good portion of the problem. I am looking at getting out of my Albion .

[JB]

The twist of the saddle absolutely plays a role, which is why a good saddle fitter who understand not just how to fit the horse, but also the RIDER, and doing that fitting under the eye of your trainer (if possible) to see how the saddle helps or hinders your position, is so important

A lot of people (I’d say most) don’t at all consider how a saddle that will fit their horse will affect THEM before they even buy the horse. There’s only so much narrowing of a twist that can be done for a horse who needs an open A frame, let alone a hoop tree, and if you’ve got a narrow pelvis.

[CanteringCarrot]

I came across an article that basically explained that a narrow twist can be detrimental to the horses comfort and saddle fitting needs. Which, makes since, especially if it is narrower than the rails (I think I am saying this correctly). So while twist does play a role, don’t buy a horse too wide for your body shape

[JB]

IIRC there is, or used to be, a brand of saddle that came out years ago that said it was a two-stage saddle - the underlying tree to fit the horse, and the seat part to fit the rider. Insanely $$$ since it was all custom. So it CAN be done, but I don’t know if that saddle is still around, but it’s certainly not affordable for most people.

[Rhinelanders]

Proper foot position, toes not pointing out does tend to help make the horse a bit more forward, but trying to make a short let hang down in natural proper position like a long leg is very hard to accomplish if not impossible, and a riding instructor who harps about it constantly is just a bully in my opinion. There are lots of other things to work on.

[JB]

@Rhinelanders

trying to make a short let hang down in natural proper position like a long leg is very hard to accomplish if not impossible, and a riding instructor who harps about it constantly is just a bully in my opinion. There are lots of other things to work on.

All legs should hang properly for that rider’s conformation. The end look may be different, but all legs have a natural proper position that allow for most effective use without a lot of energy expenditure.

Leg and seat position are the foundation of good riding, so is one of the very first things that should be addressed - every ride, every time.

[Rhinelanders]

I beg to differ, going back to the German master Wilhelm Müseler, in his famous book Riding Logic. A deep seat, a deep relaxed position, sitting on the seat bones and knowing how to influence the horse with your seat and not your legs is what’s more important. I remember a riding instructor years ago would make me stop and only make the horse go forward with my seat and not my legs, she’d become very angry if she had any inkling my legs had anything to do with the horse moving forward. Having a proper parallel foot position will not a deep seat make.

[JB]

Legs aren’t just for hanging there to keep stirrups from flopping around. They serve a purpose in aids.

Your comment was confusing in that is made it seem like any trainer focusing on how a leg hangs, isn’t doing their job.

How a leg hangs is very important, and is also a function of how well the rider is sitting.

Legs are a symptom, but that doesn’t mean they themselves can’t be worked on - we’ve already talked about how the leg has to hang properly from the hip socket, often requiring a hands-on approach to physically rotating it inward from the hips in order to lie where it belongs. That’s critical. You can’t have an effective seat of your hip abductors are tight as a rail and keeping your entire leg turned out.

I am not talking about forcing the rider’s foot to go anywhere - I’ve made that pretty clear that foot position is a by-product of leg position.

But without good LEG position, there is no good seat functionality. That is not the same as saying the leg is doing all the work.

[Rhinelanders]

Bareback riding will certainly prove it’s the seat that is the thing. The toes pointing out a little or not is down the list, while mastering the seat will keep the rider atop the horse, rather than eating dirt.

[JB]

Nobody should care where the toes end up pointing - they are a by-product.

Everyone should care how the leg is hanging.

Bareback and no-stirrup riding is a great way to lead to gripping with the leg in an effort to stay on, whether pinching with the knees, or turning the leg out and gripping with the calves and back of the thighs, unless under the eye of someone who is seeing what’s happening, and telling the rider to correct things. There are lots of ways to stay on with poor leg habits.

[Rhinelanders]

lots of poor riding with peicture perfect little toes pointing to the front also, all sorts of bad habits, from hanging onto the horses mouth with the reins, a tight bouncing bum, but my my, those little toes must be pointing right.

[JB]

Yaaasssssss!

Putting a body part into a position without the first clue what that actually means, is a guaranteed recipe for disaster

[Rhinelanders]

worrying about toe position rather than a deep seat is a sure recipe for falling off the horse.