Riding troubles- Can’t keep heels down

[furlong47]

@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?

My heels physically don’t go down - I have zero ankle dorsiflexion, whether on or off a horse. Level is the best they get. But I can still sink my weight down into the back of my foot and keep my leg where it needs to be. On a rare occasion I may lose a stirrup but it doesn’t happen as much as you might think. I have no plans to show in anything where equitation counts, so as long as I’m effective I’m happy. The base of support is the important part. OP has already received a lot of great ideas on how to work on that.