So, some riders appear to sit perfectly still in the canter, while others have a small (or large) rock to their upper body. What is your theory on the cause of the rocking? Stiff hips, tight knees, sitting behind the vertical, all of the above?
Not relaxing in the hips and not giving with the elbows.
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Have struggled with this personally:yes: I work on engaging my core, while relaxing hips and thighs/knees to keep my butt in saddle. you have to ādetachā somewhere around your waist to keep upper still and lower moving.
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For me, it is core. I did a lot of free-lunge type lessons on an FEI schoolmaster, focusing on better core engagement to get past the first hurdle. Instead of rocking with the horse, I imagine engaging my upper core UP (during the swinging back phase). It really helps, though sometimes my body forgets its job.
And in case it wasnāt already obvious, I will need a lot of pilates for LIFE. This should just be a given at this point.
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dotneko, I agree with you on the hips thing, but why would the stiff elbows make you rock?
Not make you rock, but if you do not allow with your elbows you rock your upper body in an effort to follow motion. Instead, still your upper body and follow with the arms - the same way you follow at the walk.
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I agree with things said, but Iāll offer another point of view.
Giving too much with elbows depending on your rein length and with your hips encourages the horse to put weight on the forehand and create the rocking motion with the gait. Giving less with the elbows and teaching the horse to hold himself more (not even collection) with your core and back teaches the horse to carry himself more. Any horse can carry himself, itās up to the rider to ask for it by setting boundaries according to the horseās level of training and way of going.
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An issue near (and not dear) to my heart.
Some of this is also going to be rider conformation - people with especially short trunks may have an issue with isolating body parts (which is done through a relaxed, independent hip, a giving hand, and a soft back) in this issue especially.
A few riders may also āpumpā their upper body in the canter (drop their shoulders or lean at their horse) in an attempt to stay with the movement. The same statement as above (and other posters) holds true though: thatās often a result of tightness or tension in arm, back, hip, or seat.
Iāve been observing at a show this weekend, mostly lower level riders. It seems to me that tightness in the hips is the major cause of rockingāI saw it much more in āmatureā riders, who were also stiff in their lower backs, and often riding with their pelvis rotated so their butt was out behind them.
I donāt think its impossible to overcome, but I think you have to develop a good enough seat that 1) you can have a giving hand, and 2) you can open your thighs to deepen your seat, and ride from balance, not gripping
Not an easy thing to develop, especially if you take up dressage when middle aged, as a lot of riders doā¦
(I was never addressing the riders who intentionally pump their upper bodies, only those that unintentionally do it.)
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If your elbows are stiff at the canter, the horse will slightly pull you out of position with each canter stride. And many riders just get even tighter to try to resist being pulled out of their seat, making it somewhat of a vicious circle.
And the rider rocking at the canter problem can definitely be caused from tightness in the riderās hips or lower back as well.
Or as an attempt to keep a horse going forward? Rather than a horse being light to the leg, or a rider using their leg and their body to lift the horse, a horse that is ādullā and not forwards might be something a rider tries to fix, or encourage forwards by āpumpingā?
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I think some people absolutely do this - it could be a similar instinct to ducking into/throwing shoulders into up transitions? That said, I donāt have much experience with seeing that in dressage riding (I see more of the pumping in HJ riders who donāt have a well developed seat). What I see more often in my area are people who are getting left behind in the canter and then almost overcorrecting for it (and not being supple enough in their own body to follow, and instead end up ducking their chest/closing hip to try to keep with the movement).
I found riding in front of mirrors is really helpful for this. For the longest time my trainer kept telling me to engage my core because Iām moving too much. So there I am, squeezing my abdominals as hard as I can like Iām about to take a punch to the gut and I am still rocking my upper body.
Once I moved to a facility with mirrors, I could see that I was allowing my body to fold in the middle like an accordion. Just by seeing it I was suddenly able to fix it very easily because I knew exactly what muscles I needed to engage. It required way less effort than what I had been doing originally.
It also helps when I think of rolling on with my thighs and thinking of lifting the horseās shoulders up as the front end comes up.
There are a lot of things you could be doing so the fix for your issue really depends on exactly what youāre doing, which can be hard to explain in words.
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I think most less experienced riders get into trouble when someone tells them to sit still. Sitting still relative to the observer does not mean sitting still relative to the horse. Even for people who can follow the gait, rather than freezing up and flexing every muscle they can find in an attempt to sit quietly, you need to do something with the motion and energy from the horse. I think it just takes experience and a trainer who can help you find a verticle dynamic rather than a back and forth one.
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