re: riding downhill

[Marie M McRae <mmmcrae@juno.com>]

Kirsten wrote :

>>seems like I try to remain in a semi-normal riding position with
respect
>>to the horse (as opposed to with respect to the hill).

This is the classic position for downhill riding.  Weight is carried on
the inside of the thighs, seat is deep with knees well down.

Ray quoted  Black's  Manual of Horsemanship, thus : "In going down, rider
is still flexed forward but all weight is in the heels"....." A brief
analysis
will show that the forward-inclined rider at the descent has his centre
of
gravity over the horse's mass."
Because the *feeling* is of leaning forward, I would interpret this  (in
the context of the rest of the quote) to mean  maintaining the position
of being perpendicular to the horse.   The well respected Waldemar Seunig
(Horsemanship) addresses this directly :  "Basicly the rider's upper body
takes a position that is at least perpendicular to the back of the horse,
that is, it leans forward more or less."  I do, however, disagree with
Black's stipulation of weight in the heels, as this tends to encourage
the rider to put the feet forward and tighten the leg to push down into
the heel.  That may be a matter of semantics, but I prefer to think of
the exercise as putting the knee down and lifting the toe, which uses a
different set of muscles.

One of my favorite photos is of a German olympic rider with his horse on
what seems like an impossibly steep slide. The horse's butt is against
the hill  yet his back cannot be horizontal because of the steepness.  If
one tips the picture so that the  horse's back appears horizontal,  the
rider appears in perfectly balanced position. 

Marie McRae

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