Riders in hunting events should have a entire range of positions in their repertory to be sure they get their horses successfully and safely through the course. A hunter rider needs a highly advanced sense of balance, fluidity and rhythm. He should make the ride seem to be totally effortless, and he should make it seem like he had no role to play in it at all, except sit in the saddle for decoration purposes. The rider blows it if he keeps shifting from 2 to 3 point when a jump’s comes up. He should be able to simply nurse his horse thru turns, however tight, and over slippery ground.

What the rider needs is control over the half seat.

The 3 seating positions are described below.

1. 3 point/full seat: While seated so, the rider’s seat and inner thighs make up the 3 point. The upper part of the body should be erect, with an imaginary straight line thru the ears, the shoulders, the hips and the heels. This seat is used for flat work.

2) 2 point/jumping seat: The rider sits with hips lifted, pushing back a bit toward the saddle’s cantle. The rider’s seat isn’t in touch with his saddle. He’s connected to the saddle through his inner thighs, and this makes for the 2 points. The rider’s weight is centred over his saddle such that he’s not supporting his upper body with his hands or losing his leg support. This seat is meant for jumping.

3) Half seat: The rider closes his hip angle a touch and raises his seat slightly, though not to the extent he loses full contact with his saddle. He’s at the half way point between a 3 point position and a 2 point one.

Plenty of riders have difficulty with staying in a half seat. They become unstable and tend to balance themselves on the hands so that they can support the upper body weight. This is definitely not recommended, since it does nothing for building up a leg-based support structure.

What have you got to do to line up this structure of support while staying balanced?

When supporting yourself with your hands, you are almost certainly pinching at the knees, which implies you are imitating a wobble totter. You need to try the exercise described below if you can get a buddy (ideally your coach) to lunge or lead your pony while you are in the saddle.

Get your pony to stand still (when necessary use your mate or coach to help), drop the reins, lift your hip a little and push it towards your saddle’s cantle to take up a half seat or forward position. By doing this, you’ll find your hip angle closing and the shoulders lowering. Raise your arms until they are level with the shoulders and maintain this position for a count of approximately 10. You can stay balanced only if you keep your leg under and softly wrapped around your horse’s barrel. Make sure your knee isn’t pinching, because if it does your lower leg will get pushed off the barrel, making you pivot. Make sure you do not draw up your heels, as that would ‘goose’ your pony into going forward. The whole of your leg must stay supple and soft as it softly hugs your horse’s barrel. Let your knees open and the toes turn out naturally to point away at about 45 degrees from the horse’s barrel. Your ankles, knees and hips must be relaxed and soft because they function as shock absorbers. Try and release all strain in your legs, right from the joint with the torso to the toes.

Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers visit HorseHorses