Spiral Seat

[doctordarling]

The Schusdziarras - H. and V. authors of An Anatomy of Riding, [later titled An Anatomy of Dressage] go to insanely precise lengths to describe the spiral seat. They describe pulling forward the pelvic girdle on the inside with the internal oblique abdominal muscle. pps 67-81 ! For dressage riders who aren’t also anatomists I’m sure there are more intuitive descriptions out there. But I’ve attached their diagram. I’ve just written an article on the importance of diagrams in learning dressage, so happened to have the book to hand. ddx

[dressagegirl123]

I think, perhaps, you have to be of a certain age to have heard of the spiral seat. It is not referred to that commonly now (hence lots of people’s confusion, here), but its a translation of the German idea. Anatomy of Riding (as above) has the best description I’ve seen. (I love it when people claim something doesn’t exist because they, personally, have never heard of it…!)

[Denali6298]

OP I’ve always been told to use my body to guide the horse. So if I want to do a spiral I shift my weight. If I want to be straight I stay straight. So if I am spiraling in I’ll have more weight on my inside seat bones. Same thing if I’m spiraling out. It’s a weight shift as I understand it. Does that help?

[lorilu]

WHen I first heard of this years ago, it really confused me. I wound up riding haunches in too often especially in canter. It’s so much more subtle, especially for larger figures, and that was not explained. It relies on a good inside leg and outside rein also, and that was not explained either. Once I learned SI and realized it was just shoulders mirroring shoulders and hips mirroring hips, it became much more clear.
SO, as a student, I’d caution instructors to adress the subtlty of it…

[SillyHorse]

I’m reading Beth Baumert’s book “When Two Spines Align,” where the spiral seat (she calls it the “spiral powerline”) is one of the three basic ways a rider used her body. It’s a good read.

[SillyHorse]

@friendlyhands

Nostirrups - Beth Baumert includes a beautiful description of the spiral seat in her book “When Two Spines Align: Dressage Dynamics”. She says that is German textbooks it is referred to as the “twisted seat”. Basically it is the way you described it - hips parallel the horse’s hips, shoulders turn inwards around the spine. This causes the inside leg to create a connection with the outside rein, which turns the horses shoulder’s around the turn. Baumert’s book is wonderful and should appeal to your student!!

This!

[atlatl]

@no.stirrups

… Often referred to as a Spiral Seat.

Apparently not.

In addition to the comment already provided, I’ve heard the canter seat referred to as doing the Hula so I guess that could be described as spiral.

YMMV

[lorilu]

The old USBB had spiral seat discussions, that’s where I first heard it.