RIDER Biomechanics

Story & Photos By Stephany Fish Crossman

Accredited RWYM coach, Stephany Fish Crossman reviews a rider to help the team improve their ride!

For this issue I veered off the traditional Dressage rider analysis and went with some pictures of a young lady I worked with while on Maui. There are approximately 500 horses on the island of Maui, so many of them have an extremely varied resume, from being cow ponies to dressage horses to barrel racers and more! This young lady had the good fortune to ride this lovely mare, who is one of her trainer’s personal mounts. She is learning to do ranch horse stuff and some barrel racing, and her trainer thought it would be a great idea to make sure she was balanced from the start! One important thing to know when working with riders in Western saddles is the differences in the basic make up of the saddles. As there is either more speed or more slack in a western rider’s discipline (from cow work to pleasure riding, for example), there is more of a tendency to build saddles that encourage riders to sit in the back of the saddle. A major part of this is the positioning of the stirrup bars; they tend to be more forward on a Western saddle than on an English saddle, so creating a balanced line up can be challenging. The square shape of the seat, combined with no real place to put the thigh/knee into can also lead riders to fall into the back of their body, cushioned comfortably in the back of the seat but not in a great place to help balance the horse’s body. One more thing to consider when working with Western riders – you need to know what their basic discipline is. The balance that we put a Dressage rider or a Hunter/Jumper rider is going to be too far forward for the quick stops and starts on a working cow horse, for example. However, no rider is always doing the same thing, so we gave this young lady a good balanced place to sit for when she is working on the flat or on a trail.

In our first picture, you can see that she is a long-legged teenager, with a really lovely length of thigh, a shorter torso and a good length of arm – perfect rider body! When I start with the basic idea of “if I magically pulled the horse out from underneath her, would she land on her face, her feet or her fanny?” it is easy to see that she would land on her fanny, and that her body is going backwards as she asks the horse to go forwards. Note the different length of her torso front to back – if you used 2 equal pieces of string from the base of her throat to her pubic bone in front and from the knobble where her neck meets her back down to her tailbone, it is easy to see that her back line is significantly longer and more in use than her front line. To compensate for the torso being long behind and shorter in front, her legs are the opposite – with her toe down in the stirrup, you can see that the front line of her leg is longer than the back line of her leg. This compensation pattern will, when the horse moves off, put her farther back into the saddle, which will cause her to brace in the stirrups and the reins in order to stay on the horse – a not good scenario. It is interesting to note that her hands are open and her fingers “soft”; this is the result of having been told not to pull, but having no real understanding of how to set herself up so that she doesn’t need to pull.

Because I believe the position of the leg is in part compensation for the upper body and in part stirrup bar position, we go to the top half to start our fix. To get the torso in the best possible alignment, we want to position the collarbone over the sternum, then the sternum over the belly button, then the belly button over the pubic bone; this will get her front line and her back line matching. Looking at our rider, you can see that she will need to bring her collarbone and her sternum pretty significantly forward to get over the belly button, but then we will also need to bring the belly button back and the pubic bone up. These last two corrections can be achieved by thinking of your pelvis like a bowl. When the belly button is out, the bowl is tipping forward, down onto the pubic bone. When we think about drawing the belly button back toward the spine, it automatically brings the pubic bone up and the pelvis into a more neutral balance. To get the collarbone over the sternum and the sternum over the belly button, think about pushing into a force, like the wind, which is pushing you back. If you look down the front of you and you can see your belly button or your belt buckle, you haven’t gotten your collarbone and sternum in line enough yet! Maintaining this position is going to take a lot of focus, as it probably does not feel right (maybe more like falling off the front of the horse!) I had her note the feeling (good or bad) that the correct alignment created in her – our rider said that she felt hunched over when she was in the proper position! It is always interesting to see how proprioception can be faulty.

Once we lined up the front and back of her torso, it was time to address the legs. Remember that the thighs are part of the seat, and therefore need to have the ability to bend at both the knee and the hip to remain mobile yet stabilizing. To accomplish this, we shortened her stirrup up TWO holes – it felt crazy short to her at first, but she adjusted quickly and realized how much more accessible her legs and the stirrups were! The shorter stirrup gave her a better bend at the back of her knee, which allowed her to bend and flex her hip, knee and ankle joints more effectively. The ability to bend and flex your lower joints creates a suspension effect in your body, much like the suspensions system in your car or truck. Without the ability to flex and band the lower joints, the upper body has no chance of maintaining its balance without bracing. I adjusted her leg to hang slightly further back than she had been positioned, so that her shoulder-point of hip-ankle line is on point.

When driving through an open fence gate, the gooseneck trailer axles must move past the gate posts before turning, you will be looking at purchasing a new fender.

ILLUSTRATION 2: Gooseneck turning common misconception about goosenecks is that the truck and trailer can turn 90 degrees (which is true) and thus make sharper turns. However, there is a point when turning that the wheels are no longer rolling forward and start dragging sideways. This places tremendous pressure the tire and wheel and you’re apt to pop the outer portion of the wheel off the inner rim or at the very least, damage the tire. Never turn so sharply that the gooseneck wheels stop rolling forward.

ILLUSTRATION 3: Sharp Gooseneck Turn

There are two more things to observe in the before and after pictures of our rider this month, one good and one a work in progress. The work in progress is her foot. While her leg position is better, you may notice that her toe is still somewhat pointed down. This is something that is going to take more time – if I asked her to put her heel down now, she would brace the foot in the stirrup and open the knee angle too much, pushing herself back into the saddle. When making biomechanics changes in a rider, we search for Causes and Symptoms, with causes being our main focus to change. As she learns to draw her foot back underneath her to improve her balance, her ankles do not have the habit of flexing without bracing, and her hamstrings are working hard to keep her leg back more and her knee flexed. As the hamstrings become more familiar with this movement, our rider will be able to let her ankles flex without the loss of engagement in her hamstrings. The second thing to notice is her hands…remember when I said that her hands were open in the first picture? Note how her hands are more closed in the second picture! Hands are generally a symptom, not a cause. Think of the extremities of the body like the ripples of a pebble going into a pond – the hands and feet are usually the farthest out ripple, therefore not the creating factor. After moving our rider into a better alignment, her body no longer feels the need to let go of the reins, as she is riding more toward the bit instead of away from the bit – magic!

Backs left Backs Right BACKING

When backing a bumper-pull or a gooseneck, it can be confusing which way the trailer will go when you turn the steering wheel. An easy way to solve this is to place your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel. When you move your hand to the right, the trailer will back to the right; move your hand to the left, and it will back to the left

I hope you enjoyed our rider biomechanics review for this issue, and that you picked up some helpful hints from it! If you would like to be one of our reviewed riders, drop me a line at stephany@serendipitydressage.net. Happy riding!

Besides how they drive, there are other benefits to owning one or the other. A bumper-pull is shorter if space is a problem, it’s less money, a bit easier to jack up and down, and it can hook up to an SUV or a truck, giving you more tow vehicle options.

A gooseneck has additional space in the gooseneck area for extra gear or for sleeping. It weighs more, which provides a better ride for your horses if your truck is extra heavy-duty.

Tom Scheve, with wife Neva have been advocating horse trailer safety since 1984. Both have given safety clinics at many hose expos around the country and have written numerous articles for articles for national magazines, bout horse trailer safety. Their nationally acclaimed textbook, The Complete Guide to Buying, Maintaining and Servicing a Horse Trailer and Equine Emergencies on the Road (with Jim Hamilton DVM have been adopted by most National Horse organizations. Tom is also owner of EquiSpirit Trailer Company with corporate offices in Southern Pines, NC. For more information on horse trailer safety, visit their website equispirit.com or email Tom at tom@equispirit.com. Toll Free number is 1-877-575-1771.

ILLUSTRATION 4: Steering Wheel