How do you hold your feet correctly in the stirrups?

Hi! 🙂

1️⃣ Focusing too hard on pushing the heel down sends the lower leg forward, which tips the pelvis back and drops you into a chair seat. In a chair seat the horse has to carry all of your weight, so you become a burden rather than staying in your own balance and taking weight off the horse.

2️⃣ Once you have pushed the heel down and the lower leg has slid forward, your feet sit ahead of your centre of gravity. To jump from there, you have to find other ways to get up into a forward seat, and a common one is to grip with the knees or use the rein for balance.

3️⃣ A forced heel-down creates tension through the whole leg, and you lose the ability to give through the hip and ankle. These joints need to stay relaxed so they can absorb the movement in trot and canter.

❓So how should you do it?❓

The best way to build a secure balance in the saddle, so you can stay in your own balance without burdening the horse, is to find that balance with relaxed legs hanging down into the stirrups.

This takes practice, and it means not putting yourself in situations that make you tense up. When you tense, your legs become "shorter" and you lose your footing in the stirrups.

That footing comes from the weight of the leg hanging down into the stirrup. An important part of this is that the stirrup leather can hang straight when the foot is directly under the pelvis.

Good luck, and do ask more if there is anything you are wondering about!