Horse-man-ship Mentality - Do you know what this is?
Message From Dennis;
What is your "ischial tuberosity tuberosity?"
This is a part of your body known as your sitz bones, which is a part of rounded bones that extend from the bottom of the pelvis. They are the bones that we sit on.
What does that have to do with horsemanship? I believe that these bones are the best tool that we have to communicate our "thoughts" to our horse when we are riding.
I have found that if my upper body is doing what it needs to do to engage these bones effectively, my other aids become much less important and often unnecessary.
These bones are integral in creating drive from behind and proper forward motion.
They are essential to effective hip communication. They are responsible largely for correct lead departure and flying lead changes. They are absolutely involved in proper turnarounds, rollbacks and of course, stopping.
The latter might be different than you might think. Why would it be different? Because in stopping getting those sitz bones off the horse allows for a good stop. Oftentimes I see people leaning back trying to push the sitz bones down and this is actually telling the horse to go forward (drive from behind).
So it is a conflicting signal in that particular instance. Therefore, using the prior example and there are many others as well, learning how to properly implement the sitz bones is essential to great horsemanship!
Whoa there, if that was confusing, be sure and read my next blog - Riding the stop!
Mindful Riding,
Dennis Cappel - Master Horseman
Cappel Training and Shoeing
D/C
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February 24-25th
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Yes! makes sense. Where we distribute the weight in those bones of our seat communicates with our horse. Great article