Riding troubles- Can’t keep heels down

[Kaylaequine]

Hey guys!
So lately I’ve been having some riding troubles and I think the main problem of this is my heels not being down.
Just this month I started my first lease with a horse he’s new to my barn and his last owner let him get away with a lot especially with turning into the middle and it’s a very bad habit for him now.
When I’m cantering him I can’t even get him to canter around the ring because he will suddenly turn into the middle and it’s not just me that has this problem with him everyone does.
When I’m jumping a course with him for a line of jumps he will suddenly turn away before the next jump. My heels not being down causes me to fall forward over jumps and the time it takes me to get back up from two point it’s hard to correct him in time to go to the second jump.
I have tried so many things to keep my heels down- shortening my stirrups, lengthening them, keeping me heels down on stairs etc I have a high arch in my foot and even when I walk I’m always on the ball of my foot.
I will attach a video so you can see what happens. I wanted to be able to show him this summer but I doubt that will happen

In the video I did manage to get over the second jump but that was after like 5 refuses but you can see I fall forward over the jumps and he turns into the middle

FullSizeRender

[findthedistance]

It looks to me like this is less about your heels (which in a perfect world would be lower but it’s not heinous) and more about your whole lower leg. We can’t see your leg on approach to the first jump, but you can see the way it swings way back in the air and on landing. If you can get your lower leg anchored at the girth throughout, you’ll be in better control of your upper body and in a stronger position to ride him straight after the jump. (And your heels will appear more down!)

[Paint_Party]

Your lower leg is the basis or foundation for your position in the saddle and therefore your ability to guide and control your horse. So yes, your heels are up. But they are “up” because your lower leg is too far back. And I think it’s because you’re pinching with your knee and gripping entirely with your thigh to hold yourself in place.

Instead, I suggest you practice relaxing your knee, even if it turns away a little bit from the flap on your saddle. That will allow you to stretch your lower leg down, sinking your weight into your heels. It will also help prevent you from falling forward, onto your horse’s neck. Then you’ll be better able to remain balanced in the saddle after a jump so you can guide your horse to the next one.

Finally, ride away from each jump in a straight line, all the way to the end of the arena. Do not collapse and “give up” as soon as your horse lands. That lets him go into the middle of the arena with his friends.

And I think your horse is cute and looks safe… he’s probably just a little too happy to do his own thing if his rider allows it.

Good luck and don’t get discouraged!

[MadTrotter]

Good advice so far. One thing that’s happening is you’re having to kick him on and it’s just making your base looser.

When you’re working on the flat, really think about getting him to “pop” fwd off your leg. If you can get him moving forward and listening to your leg and seat, you won’t have to work so hard and you can concentrate on balancing and striding over these fences.

So how do you do that: Have you worked with a dressage whip? First you start with a small ask for “forward” and if he responds well, make a big fuss, scratch neck, good boy. If he sucks back, tap tap with the whip. Good boy/scratch if that works. If he STILL won’t give you prompt forward, sharper crack.

This should only take a few sessions if you’re consistent and he has a good base education. Once he’s nice and forward, you’ll have a much easier time doing things like cavaletti or a low gymnastic at these heights to practice your own balance and focus on a nice snug leg and seat.

I see no reason a few weeks of consistent work won’t lead to some shows!!

[OfCourseItsAnAlter]

Like @Paint_Party said, your basic problem is that your lower leg is loose. Because your leg is swinging out behind you, your upper body is pitching forward and you’re falling on your horse’s neck, where you lose any ability you might have to steer and control the horse.

Sit up straight.
Stop pinching with your knees.
Keep your feet under your body.

Take a look at the pictures here and read numbers 8, 9, and 10:

10 Time-Tested Rider Position Fixes

[Equisis]

OP, it’s not about your heels, it’s about your base of support being in your lower legs. Practice standing straight up in your stirrups at all gaits, shifting slowly back and forth between standing and two-point without using your hands, and standing two beats/sitting two beats (versus standing one/sitting one) at the trot. All of these will help you find your base in your lower leg and develop a stronger position. When jumping, use your core and don’t lean on your hands. You don’t need to fold so much over these small jumps; focus on landing in your feet instead.

Also, lifting your legs off the horse’s side to kick is largely a waste of effort- it doesn’t produce a good result and annoys the horse. Work on squeezing at the girth, instead of kicking in the ribs. A well timed squeeze and release will get a much better result than thumping kicks, and it won’t disrupt your balance.

Super cute horse! He looks like a great partner to have fun with!

[dags]

Very cute dude that would probably benefit from some tune-ups with an educated rider.

In addition to the lower leg issues cited above, he’s leaving the ground with some impulsion & landing with absolutely none of it. This sudden loss of forward momentum, while you are already in a somewhat vulnerable position over the top of the jump, would cause anyone to tip forward on landing. A weak lower leg will only exacerbate that.

Come out of the corner, get straight to the jump, and then shift all your focus to riding away from the jump. Forget about the take-off, picture yourself landing and g a l l o p i n g away Hi-Ho Silver style. It’s not uncommon for beginners to “stop riding” once the horse leaves the ground, but this one’s not gonna allow that. He’s using that as an excuse to cut power to the engines.

Good news is that this is generally an easy fix with an educated leg & possibly some landing rails, which is why a few tune-ups would probably go a long way to help you understand where the problem is actually occurring.

To tidy up the lower leg, I would probably prescribe a lot of lengthenings & shortenings in the two-point. You can’t take your leg off and kick while two-pointing, so you’ll have to figure out proper leg position to get him to lengthen his stride/go faster without dropping your bum into the saddle and kicking.

[endlessclimb]

You guys look super. Nice pair.

I agree with all above that have mentioned pinching with your knees being the main cause of the problem. Couple that with your balance being too far forward, and here we are.

For me: I imagine pointing my toes out to the sides. That will put your calf on, and release your knees. Next, pretend you’re trying to show the soles of your boots to the jump. Bring your chest back by opening your hip angle, leg on, knees off, relax and follow. Teeny weeny jumps should require almost no effort from you. Just stay out of the way.

Again, you guys are looking great, keep working at it!

[Jackie_Cochran]

After years of my riding teacher yelling at me because my lower leg was too far back I finally found a solution, by re-reading a book I had read for decades in minute detail.

It turned out that my problem came from me keeping my Rectus femoris muscle, the one going down the front of the thigh, too relaxed.

When I keep some tension on this muscle my riding teacher stops yelling at me about my lower leg and she has started praising my lower leg, until I forget to keep that muscle tense.

You may have to “play” with how tense to keep this muscle. If I keep it too tense I end up plopping back into the saddle. If I keep it too relaxed my lower leg goes back, stays back and I topple forward. There is a happy medium that works well for the horse and rider.

As an added bonus I have been able to alter my driving aids so that they do not de-stabilize my seat. If my lower leg is properly forward I can give a leg aid by relaxing this muscle, letting my lower legs move back a little bit until they meet the swell of the horse’s rib cage, and I release my leg aid immediately by making the Rectus femoris thigh muscle tense again.

And when my lower leg is properly forward my heels are much further down without any extra effort on my part.

All of this takes practice, of course.

[Angela_Freda]

I would add lots more flatwork; cavaletti, riding in two point, then full seat then two point around the arena, riding without stirrups fullseat and two point…
Too many lessons only offer 15 minutes of a lesson of flatwork. That’s not enough to get or stay in shape, especially if you only ride once a week.
Imo the race to jump comes at the sacrifice of a good foundation of flatwork which is required yo create a sound foundation in the rider.

I definitely think your instructor should get a rider on this horse regularly to tune him up and clean up his habits he gets away with under beginner riders

[Bristol_Bay]

Regarding the turning in, I would just add to always hold your crop on the inside and don’t be afraid to tap him on the shoulder to remind him to listen to your inside leg. Get tough with him. Have a ride where your only goal is to make him go straight. And praise him when he obeys you.

It also helps to leverage your knee to control his shoulder by weighting the ball of your foot on that inside leg. Your foot will come off his side as your calf, knee and thigh hold him to the rail. You control him by controlling his shoulder.

[mroades]

your heel is behind your hip, start there

[OfCourseItsAnAlter]

@Jackie_Cochran

It turned out that my problem came from me keeping my Rectus femoris muscle, the one going down the front of the thigh, too relaxed.

When I keep some tension on this muscle my riding teacher stops yelling at me about my lower leg and she has started praising my lower leg, until I forget to keep that muscle tense.

This is really interesting. A number of years ago, I was having trouble with my lower leg sliding back when jumping. I finally fixed it by thinking, as I approached the fence, “push your feet forward.” I never thought about the mechanics of what that was doing, but one of the consequences of thinking “push my feet forward” would be to tighten the rectus femoris.

[pony_grandma]

Another saying to think about landing is ‘Land in your heel’ to keep your leg under you.

And vs heel down think toe up.

[Mander]

Everyone else seems to have nailed the why. Here are my favorite exercises to do regularly no matter how big of fences you’re jumping. You don’t have to fit every single one in every day, but you should be doing at least 2-3 of them every ride. You can even do most of them in your warmup anyways, so there aren’t any excuses to not do them!

• At a halt, stand up straight and sit down slowly in the tack. You should fall neither forwards or backwards. If you fall forwards, your heel is too far behind you and to correct it you need to bring it further forward. If you fall backwards onto your rump, your heel is too far in front of you and you need to bring it back a bit. When you can stand up and sit down slowly and not tip in any direction, make a mental note: this is your ideal position. Refer to this position when you’re tipping forward/falling back in two point during the rest of these exercises too.
• At a walk, practice posting. You have to go slower, and there is no “bounce” from the trot to help you so it really becomes an exercise in control and body awareness.
• Hold two-point at whatever gait you can. Start with a walk and move up to the next gait when you can make it a whole lap around the ring.
• While in two point, gather your reins in your outside hand and extend your inside arm directly in front of you, then to the side, then behind you, then back to the side, the front, etc. You will rotate your torso, but NOT your legs. Then do large arm circles to the front, and then again to the back (make sure your horse is OK with all of this first ) Change directions, and repeat with the other arm now.
• Practice your transitions in two point. Walk-halt-walk. Walk-trot-walk. etc. Use this as an opportunity to practice getting him quicker off your leg as well. You only ever want to have to ask once with just a squeeze.
• Get some of those flat hot pads (like for setting a hot pan down on the counter) and place them between your upper calf and the horse, below the knee. Start riding and try to not lose them! You’ll have to keep steady contact between your leg and the horse, and if you start pinching with your knees, it will pull your calf off and you’ll drop them!

Also, fwiw, I’d lengthen your stirrups at least a hole, probably two, from what’s in this video. While fence height is not the only factor that influences optimal stirrup length, the length they’re at in the video is closer to what I’d expect to see from someone jumping 3’ or so. I think the shorter length is destabilizing you a bit and is making you try to compensate for that by gripping through the knee.

Keep working at it and you’ll be flying in not time!

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

@Mander

Also, fwiw, I’d lengthen your stirrups at least a hole, probably two, from what’s in this video. While fence height is not the only factor that influences optimal stirrup length, the length they’re at in the video is closer to what I’d expect to see from someone jumping 3’ or so.

I’m glad you said this, because I was wondering if my dressage goggles were affecting me. Although the strengthening exercises are helpful, if your stirrups are too short, it’s hard to relax your leg down, which pitches you forward. I think some methods of teaching jumping in the U.S. have students over-exaggerate their two-point and hike up their stirrups to prepare students for jumping higher, but (in my case, speaking personally) this resulted in my getting an overly rigid, hunched position that wasn’t necessary for itty-bitty jumps. He’s a great little guy in that he looks comfortable, though, and doesn’t over-jump (which can be scary when you’re learning).

OP, you might not want to hear this, but I think before jumping, you’d need to work on the turning into the arena. Ideally, fixing stuff on the flat before making it harder with jumping is optimal. It looks/sounds like he’s a lesson horse with the programming not to listen to his rider but to canter a half lap, or jump a few jumps, then time to get back to the end of the line. I might talk with your instructor about varying his routine, asking to work on cantering one or two laps, not permitting him to pull in. Do this before jumping, when you’re more secure in your position. Or trotting jumps, staying upright, and keeping him going over the course before cantering.

[Mander]

@Impractical_Horsewoman

I’m glad you said this, because I was wondering if my dressage goggles were affecting me. Although the strengthening exercises are helpful, if your stirrups are too short, it’s hard to relax your leg down, which pitches you forward. I think some methods of teaching jumping in the U.S. have students over-exaggerate their two-point and hike up their stirrups to prepare students for jumping higher, but (in my case, speaking personally) this resulted in my getting an overly rigid, hunched position that wasn’t necessary for itty-bitty jumps.

Ha no it’s not your dressage goggles!

Just as dressage riders have to “earn” their longer stirrups, I think hunters/jumpers should also have to “earn” their shorter ones lest they become rigid, as you mention (whether trainers encourage this or not is another matter). Without delving too deeply into the topic, rigidity is nearly always an indicator of weakness, and in many ways is the physical equivalent of a horse being “over threshold”. Just as no true progress can be made while a horse is over threshold, a rider cannot improve their position if their body has to resort to rigidity to compensate for their weaknesses and so you’ve got to make it easier, before you can make it harder.

[Kaylaequine]

Thank you for the advice! Remembering to show my soles to the jump definitely helped in my lesson tonight! It made me more balanced and less falling foward!

[Kaylaequine]

Thank you so much for the advice everyone it really helped in tonight’s lesson! I really tried to keep my lower leg at the girth and heels down and it really helped it made me more balanced and less falling forward! Until he messed up the strides and took a long spot lol but one of the best lessons I’ve had on him! It will definitely be a work in progress

[erinmeri]

I have found that I placed far too much stock on the depth of my heels and the angle of my toes. My trainer likes to say “feel the balls of your feet” and I like to think “deep heel, toothpaste leg” and that helps me mechanically get the job done and not care about the rest, I am a good rider and yes my left ankle is arthritic, but I still get the job done! Who cares how deep my heels are or what the angles of my toes are?