# Feet sliding through stirrups at canter and trot?



## WinstonH123 (Oct 11, 2013)

When I trot, Charlie has a choppy fast trot most of the time. His pretty and floaty trot only happens when he is excited..and I only want him to walk... anyhow, when he trots, his trot is so bouncy that it throws me all around in the saddle and alot of times my feet slide through the stirrups, causing me to stop to fix them. The same thing happens when we canter. What am I doing wrong?


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Shorten your stirrup leathers, wear boots with a good heel (at least 1 1/2"), possibly get smaller stirrups, put more weight on the balls of your feet, and practice keeping your heels down.


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## Gossalyn (Sep 12, 2013)

if you're bouncing, you're probably using extra leg muscle to grip and stay on (it's natural). Gripping will stop your weight from flowing down into the bottom of your leg, which will stop your heels from going down. Understand that physically - your leg is longer than your stirrup (or at least it should be, if not shorten!  so you should have no trouble *in theory* pushing you weight down into your stirrup and letting it flow down into your heel. If your weight is down there, the stirrup will not slip. 

I remember once I told my instructor "I lost my stirrup!" (it was on my foot, but my foot wasn't pressed against it - it was slipping) and then i realize it was illogical that i couldn't just reach my leg down and get the contact i needed. 

easier visualized than done though. Many times my instructor would yell "relax!" as I was bouncing all over the place. I always felt that i bounced more when i relaxed, lol.. but what she was trying to do was get me to wiggle my hips like a belly dancer a long with the horse so I could keep my butt in the saddle and not bouncing. 

If I could keep my butt in the saddle, i could stretch me legs down and keep my stirrups. It just took me a bit of practice to learn the rhythm.. nothing really but time can do that - although if you remove your stirrups completely (and are comfy doing that) - gravity will help you real fast in meshing with the horse.


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## TXhorseman (May 29, 2014)

WinstonH123 said:


> When I trot, Charlie has a choppy fast trot most of the time. His pretty and floaty trot only happens when he is excited..and I only want him to walk... anyhow, when he trots, his trot is so bouncy that it throws me all around in the saddle and alot of times my feet slide through the stirrups, causing me to stop to fix them. The same thing happens when we canter. What am I doing wrong?


A general rule for flat riding is to adjust the stirrups straps so the stirrups hand around your ankles when your feet are not in the stirrups. This should be long enough to even allow you to rise out of the saddle while keeping your heels down. If your feet are actually sliding through the stirrups, the length of your stirrups straps are probably OK. Your feet sliding through the stirrups, however, is very dangerous.

Your feet cannot fall through the stirrups if your heels are lower than the balls of your feet. Therefore, you are evidently raising your heels. This is probably a result of trying to hold on with your heels as you feel your horse propel your body upward. The first thing to do is relax. I realize, of course, that this is often easier said than done.

When assuming your seat at a standstill, think of standing with your legs apart, legs slightly bent, and a horse just happens to be between them. Alternately, you may think of straddling a stool. Either image is very different from sitting in a chair. You want to sit on both your crotch and your seat bones with your pelvic bone upright. Think of balancing your head over your spine as opposed to holding it there by muscular force. If you release any tension in the muscles of your trunk, the bones of your spine should stack naturally, one above another, allowing the spine to assume its natural shock absorbing curves. In addition, if you relax any tension in your legs and around your pelvis, your weight should drop naturally because of the pull of gravity. The stirrups will support the balls of your feet as your heels drop lower. This is not a pushing down of your heels which would cause muscular tension. It is simply letting gravity do its job.

As you do what is described above, your legs should wrap naturally around the body of your horse. Think of a cooked noodle wrapped around a bottle laying on its side on your kitchen counter. There is no pressure, just natural adhesion. Sitting as described, you are very stable, and it is nearly impossible to fall off the horse. There is no need to hold on with your legs.

Practice this at a walk and allow your body to move with the movement of your horse. Let this movement become natural before you progress to the trot.

When trotting -- especially on a horse with a rough trot -- we have a tendency to tighten the muscles of our crotch so the muscles rather than the bones might absorb any impact. Resist this urge. Tightening these muscles will raise your seat and cause the throwing around in the saddle your describe. Instead, you want to release this tension so your seat can sink deeply into the saddle.

Let the horse raise your seat as its back rises. You actually have no choice here. But as your horse begins to lower its back, you must counteract the momentum created which might cause your body to continue its upward movement as the horse starts to move downward. You do this by consciously letting the muscles in your legs relax and your knees and ankles bend so you can follow your horse's downward movement.

It will take some practice to achieve this following movement at a trot. On a choppy trotting horse, you may even want to put a little pressure in your stirrups and lighten your seat. At the same time, however, your must keep the muscles in your legs relaxed enough to allow your legs to act like shock absorbers on a dirt motorcycle. Let them flex to follow the movement. 

The true goal is to get your horse to relax its muscles as it moves. Ideally, the horse's muscles and legs should act as shock absorbers making the trot smooth and fluid rather than choppy. But this is another topic.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

TXhorseman said:


> A general rule for flat riding is to adjust the stirrups straps so the stirrups hand around your ankles when your feet are not in the stirrups. This should be long enough to even allow you to rise out of the saddle while keeping your heels down. If your feet are actually sliding through the stirrups, the length of your stirrups straps are probably OK. Your feet sliding through the stirrups, however, is very dangerous.
> 
> Your feet cannot fall through the stirrups if your heels are lower than the balls of your feet. Therefore, you are evidently raising your heels. This is probably a result of trying to hold on with your heels as you feel your horse propel your body upward. The first thing to do is relax. I realize, of course, that this is often easier said than done.
> 
> ...


that's a very good description. the way that a person can think of this:
*counteract the momentum created which might cause your body to continue its upward movement as the horse starts to move downward

* an interesting image for this is almost like absorbing motion on a trampoline. you can either magnify or deaden the rebound. you will be kind of deadening the rebound when you go downward with the horse


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