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With your eyes still closed, visualize yourself riding in show-jumping and lift your knees until your helper tells you that you have a 90-degree angle behind your knees. When you open your eyes and look down, the flap's thigh roll (if any) should be in front of-not underneath-your knee and keeping your seat in the balance point should feel easy. Now close your eyes again, imagine you're about to go cross-country, and raise your knees a couple of inches more as you mentally shorten your stirrups another hole or two. When you look down, you want to see that the saddle tree lets your seat bones slide back a little to accommodate your shortened stirrup. If your knee is now poking
out in front of the thigh-roll, the saddle will interfere with your lower-leg position over fences. If it isn't, this is probably a saddle you can ride in for stadium and crosscountry. As a final, inexpensive check on what effect your current saddle is having on your jumping form, ask a friend of about your height and conformation who does your sport in a saddle different from yours to let you try it. For instance, if you've been riding in a heavily-padded "all-purpose" saddle, see if you have a riding buddy who uses a flatter, less padded close contact saddle. Arrange to ride in it for your next jumping lesson and see if you feel more secure.
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