One foot always at home position

[Zeidant2]

So it truly feels as though I’ve tried everything to keep my heels down but for some reason my left foot always slides all the way into home position. I’ve tried trotting around in two point, cantering in two point, trotting two up one down and so on, but that left foot jams in every time we get half way through a lesson. It is so frustrating and discouraging! I’ve tried different stirrup irons which obviously doesn’t correct poor position but thought it would help my foot from sliding but nothing.

My right leg is completely fine. Stays puts, nobody notices that leg/foot at all. But every lesson “fix your left stirrup. Ball of your foot”. I’ve sprained it once really bad a year ago and I’m not sure if that’s why it’s my weaker leg but it doesn’t bother me much anymore just can’t keep my weight in my heel. Even when I try to relax and make sure im not pinching with my knee, it just slides forward. Not so much losing my stirrup—just goes to all the way to my heel

Are there any any great exercises that help with strengthening leg position so my weight stays over my heels? Just feeling hopeless after trying different exercises but I’m feeling very little progress in the left leg.

[tbchick84]

Are you sure your left seat bone is plugged in? Is your left hip slightly out of alignment with your right? This is most likely more a body symmetry thing than a heel thing. I have the exact same issue and it was not in my heel. The exercise where you take each leg away from the saddle independently and the one where you put both legs forward over the pommel helped me plug in better. Also yoga on horseback.

[bip]

One of my trainers says everyone does this and it’s almost always the left, even for left handed people. I think she would say you need to wake up your right ankle. What helps me is to make sure I can never see my left toe, and also to really pay attention to it at certain times like changing direction or asking for canter. It also helps to switch back and forth from sitting to two point, sitting, two point over and over, not letting that left leg shoot out every time you rise into two point. Keep it farther back than feels right, farther back than the right one feels (which will probably put them even and eventually it will feel right).

[Zeidant2]

It is so upsetting because o can trot around with perfect heels all day. My legs stay locked into place and heels are both down. But then we canter and there goes that hideous foot way deep in the stirrup. It’s so deep that if I️ didn’t have heel on my boot, my leg would slip in. Ha. It’s so pathetic.

Someone once told me our brain brain doesn’t always register the difference in opposite sides of our body. For instance my old trainer used to carry one hand higher than the other and never knew until someone pointed it out. She said she had to feel like she was overcompensating by “thinking” she is raising the one hand WAY higher than the other but really it’s the same. Our brain doesn’t register what we feel.

Im wondering if no stirrup work really helps or if that won’t do much for a steady foot/heel? That’s one thing I’ve not been doing so much of. Super guilty of avoiding that exercise. Anybody think that e revise really helps with lower leg/heel?

[alibi_18]

No stirrup work won’t work.

Put your weight in your knee. Like you would kneel on the ground. Like you’d want your thight to place itself as perpendicular to the ground as possible : knee pointing down. Forget about the rest of your leg; it will put itself in the right place.

When you canter, on the left hand, pretend you would take a step forward; like walking.*
At every canter stride (when the horse lands its left front leg)
And put some more weight in your left knee.

*You don’t walk putting a stretched straight leg out forward. I’m really talking about « normal » walking with a nice bend at the knee that absorb the shock.

[Zeidant2]

@alibi_18

No stirrup work won’t work.

Put your weight in your knee. Like you would kneel on the ground. Like you’d want your thight to place itself as perpendicular to the ground as possible : knee pointing down. Forget about the rest of your leg; it will put itself in the right place.

When you canter, on the left hand, pretend you would take a step forward; like walking.*
At every canter stride (when the horse lands its left front leg)
And put some more weight in your left knee.

*You don’t walk putting a stretched straight leg out forward. I’m really talking about « normal » walking with a nice bend at the knee that absorb the shock.

Very interesting you talk talk about knee because most people I’ve spoken to ignore what the knee does (unless your pinching with them) and insist on jamming heels down and toes up and so on and so forth. I’ll have to remember this when I’ll ride tomorrow—knees down like I’m kneeling.

[alibi_18]

@Zeidant2

Very interesting you talk talk about knee because most people I’ve spoken to ignore what the knee does (unless your pinching with them) and insist on jamming heels down and toes up and so on and so forth. I’ll have to remember this when I’ll ride tomorrow—knees down like I’m kneeling.

Read this from the German Federation : pay attention to the deep knee parts in all 3 styles of riding : https://www.usdf.org/EduDocs/Training/seatpositions.pdf

And I hope it was clear that I meant kneeling with both knees at same time. Try it first in two point. at walk and trot. Then you can weight one or the other.

If you dare to read a little on rider positioning, there’s a lot more in dressage and it does apply to jumping position, you’ll see that it’s not so uncommon.

[StormyDay]

I agree the problem is probably farther up in the knee or the thigh. Have you tried shortening your stirrups? Sometimes that fixes the issue. I would also try cantering around with only your left stirrup. So drop your right stirrup and hopefully this will cause you to rely more on your left leg and teach it to be correct.

[Zeidant2]

Thanks guys I’ll have to keep that in mind today. One of my first trainers ever once said “point your knees down” and had no idea how to do that. Ha.

I️ like the idea of dropping my right iron.

[Gamma]

Probably nothing to do with your heels. You don’t have enough weight on that stirrup to keep it from sliding. Look at some dressage videos, they usually have the heel level or maybe slightly lower than the toe, and manage to keep their stirrups from moving.

In addition to just one stirrup (so hard), try putting your stirrups on backwards, so that ONLY your heels are in your stirrups (don’t get them caught over the heel of your boot). When they’re like that then any time your weight goes out of your stirrup, it will fall off, and you will notice right away.

[Zeidant2]

[QUOTE=alibi_18;n9932164]

Read this from the German Federation : pay attention to the deep knee parts in all 3 styles of riding : https://www.usdf.org/EduDocs/Training/seatpositions.pdf

And I hope it was clear that I meant kneeling with both knees at same time. Try it first in two point. at walk and trot. Then you can weight one or the other.

If you dare to read a little on rider positioning, there’s a lot more in dressage and it does apply to jumping position, you’ll see that it’s not so uncommon.[/QUOT

ii had such a hard time thinking “kneel down”.
It felt like when ii was focusing on pushing/pointing my knees down, my leg just kind of went back and under my as if I’d actually be kneeling lol. Maybe ii was having the wrong picture in my head.

[mdp9]

Things I go to when I have a student with this problem:

1. heels aren’t down (sounds like this is not the problem)
2. rider is leaning to one direction (maybe this? try stepping into the left more. Or have your instructor watch you from the back to see if you are leaning.)
3. Leg is swinging (fix this by pushing down and in with your heel, make sure you’re not pinching with your knee, driving your foot more forward every step, etc)
4. Heel is down and everything is good BUT if you’re sitting the canter more you may be lifting up with your foot, not putting all your weight in your stirrup. To fix this I have the rider stand up at the canter to put weight evenly in both stirrups.

Keep us posted!

[sittingextendedtrot]

I read this exercise a while ago but it’s stuck with me.

Sit down either on the couch or hair with your legs up (90 degrees from your hip). Point your toes up to the ceiling and then close your eyes and turn both feet out sideways so your heel is making contact with the chair but your toes are pointed away from each other. Then, with your eyes still closed, slowly bring your toes back up so they’re parallel with each other. The first time I did this my left foot was not pointed up at the ceiling, but my right foot was. This exercise is all about body awareness, which will improve the more you do it

It also helps me to have someone yelling at me to stretch my knee down and not bunch up with my legs/not use my heel.