3 Basic Riding Positions To Help Your Gaited Horse Gait

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Gaye DeRusso The Majestic Rider - Gaited Horses

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3 Basic Riding Positions To Help Your Gaited Horse Gait
By Gaye DeRusso
Did you know that where and how you sit in the saddle can affect how your horse gaits? Well, it can. It is one of the only riding disciplines that has 3 riding positions, but our horses also have many more gears compared to the trotting horse breeds.
If you have been an English or Western rider and took lessons on proper riding position, you might look at the gaited owners and think why they are sitting like that, it looks so weird. Well, there is a reason, the weight transfer helps these horses change their gait.
Certain gaits require the gaited horse to relax its body and certain gaits require the horse to tense up certain areas of their body. By changing your body and hand position, it can help your horse to relax its muscles or tense them up to get the gait you are looking for.
So, let's get started.
1. Straight Position. (Normal Balanced Riding Position)
This is what most of us have been taught over the years. Your weight is behind the horses wither where he is most balanced and the strongest. Sitting up straight with your legs underneath you, so a straight line could be drawn from your ear to your shoulder to your hip to your heel. You are sitting directly on your seat bones with a slight bend in your knee and your ankle, heels slightly down. Your hands are waist level, so a straight line can be drawn from the horse's mouth up to your elbow.
In this position you can ride most gaited horses in their correct gait. Flat Walk, Running Walk, Saddle Gait, Fox Trot.
2. Chair Position.
This puts the rider's weight behind the balance point of the horse. The rider will be sitting back, more on the back of their butt, with their seat closer to the back of the saddle. They will lean back and put their feet out in front of them toward the horse's shoulders. There is usually not much bend to their knee or ankle, and it looks like their feet are pointed with their toes down instead of their heels. Their hands will be held higher above the hips to raise the horses head and neck to change the tension in his muscles.
In this position the rider is usually trying to rack and by riding in this position, encourages the horse to tighten his back muscles and move in a more inverted position. It is also used in horses that tend to hard trot. If a horse is on the pacey side, this position will encourage the pace and makes the horse more lateral (pacey).
3. Forward Position.
In this position, the rider is similar to the straight position except the rider's shoulders are in front of the hips, and the hips are tilted slightly forward, with more of the rider's weight in the thigh and crotch area. You will see this position when an English rider is jumping. Hands are held just below waist level.
This position helps a horse to balance himself more forward and to stretch out. It helps a gaited horse go more toward a trot (square going) so is helpful to use on pacey horses but using this position in a horse that tends to be trotty will just make them go into a hard trot.
You will see exaggerations to all these positions and not so pretty ones. I like to keep these positions in mind but mostly use my pelvis and hands to adjust the horse and slightly shift my weight.
So, I use a straight position with my weight on my seat bones with a horse that is set in his gaits.
I use a tilted back pelvis and higher hand to help a horse rack or do another gait if it is trotty.
I tilt my pelvis slightly forward and lower my hand to help a pacey horse.
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