A successful response from the horse doesn't necessarily mean the rider's position, aids or movement were correct. We spend a lot of time assessing the outcome of riding - whether the horse performed the movement we wanted and how well it performed it - but considerably less time establishing how the rider actually achieved that result. If the horse responds correctly, we often assume the rider must have applied the aids correctly, yet the horse may be responding to learnt si

“Ride lighter.” “Take your weight out of the saddle.” “Don't sit so heavily.” These are all familiar phrases in riding, and most of us probably understand what somebody is trying to achieve when they use them. Sometimes they are simply coaching imagery - an instruction intended to create a particular response rather than a literal description of what is happening to the rider. But looking at these instructions through rider biomechanics and basic physics raises an interesting