Page 44 - Demo

With your feet and lower leg still aheadof the vertical, try to get your seat out ofthe saddle. You will find that it is all butimpossible to do. If you are on a runaway,this is exactly the position you want to bein. This is the classic full defensive seatand it is an important debugging tool thatyou will rely on many times in your ridingcareer.Still in this position, with your lowerleg %u201cahead of the vertical%u201d and your upperbody %u201cbehind the vertical,%u201d try to makeyour horse walk forward. You will noticethat it is very hard to do. That is becausethe buttons for the gas pedal are put onmost horses on the vertical line so thatyour lower leg can easily access them during normal riding. With your lower legahead of the vertical, you are severalinches away from the normal gas pedaland this is exactly the position you wantto be in if you are on a runaway. In otherwords, by taking this position, there is nopossible way that you could inadvertentlybe asking your horse to run away withyou, and much of debugging is based oneliminating any reason for the horse tomisbehave.Using the reverse, again stand up inyour stirrups on the vertical line. Thistime, push your foot and lower leg %u201cbehind the vertical line.%u201d Immediately youwill notice that your upper body collapsedon the horse%u2019s neck, well %u201cahead of thevertical.%u201d With your upper body still%u201cahead of the vertical%u201d and your lower legbehind the vertical, try to balance yourupper body off the horse%u2019s neck withoutusing your hands. You will find this to bean impossible request, because you havenothing underneath you for support. Theresult is that you must use your hands tosupport your upper body and if they arebusy doing that, there is no way they canbe steering or applying the brakes at thesame time.In order to support your upper body inthe position it is in and have your handsfree to steer and brake, you have to moveyour lower leg back onto the vertical andgrip. This means you are laying on the gaspedal and your body weight is off thehorse%u2019s back completely, making it easyfor your horse to runaway with you, especially when your legs are actually asking the horse to do it! Unless you want thehorse to run or you are trying to climb avery steep hill, this is not the position tobe in.In more advanced riding, a modifieddefensive seat is used to slow down thehorse by executing a %u201chalf halt.%u201d In simpleterms, the rider moves their upper body%u201cbehind the vertical%u201d while thrusting forward with their hips and setting theirhands. The result is a horse that eitherslows down or stops, depending on howstrong the half halt is. By leaning back inthe saddle, the horse rocks back on hishindquarters and with the forward thrustof your seat, he moves into the bit whichis set like a solid wall by the rider%u2019s hands.If all of this half halt lingo is hard to understand, don%u2019t worry. The half halt isconsidered a more advanced riding technique that is easiest learned in a riding lesson environment, but it is a very effectiveaddition to your debugging tools and thatis why I have mentioned it here. The halfhalt will work on both English and Western horses and because it is so subtle, it isa real asset if you are riding in the showring.As you can see, falling off your horse isa rare occurrence indeed if you are planning ahead, aware of the warning signs ofa problem and most of all, providing yourhorse with a chance to get the bats out ofhis belfry, before you saddle-up. o44 Arizona Horse Connection July, 2026Ijust want to rant a bit about jeans because I hate them. Myentire life, it has been a trip into hell to shop for a pair thatfit my physique and also flattered it. I'd find a pair thatdid the former but not the latter. And, of course, to stay up todate with trends, my jeans had to sport the correct pocket stitching. The stress of knowing that my derriere was required tofunction as a billboard for some faceless company has followedme into the world of %u201cHorse Show Jeans.%u201d I had no idea therewere so many brands in so many styles (who comes up with allthese girls' names for jeans?) and so many variations on rise,width of leg opening, amount of stretch and, of course, pocketstitching. Surely I could find a pair that fit and would also impress thehorse show crowd, right? Recently, I went to the closest BootBarn and carried so many blue jeans into the dressing room thatI looked like a sherpa. I swear I could hear one of the youngstore clerks turn to her co-worker and say, \there a while.\Which brings me to an aside: Are the horse show judges reallylooking at the pocket stitching of my jeans when I jog past themin a halter class? Does anyone really notice what brand I'm wearing under my chaps? Does it matter?This really isn't an unusual consideration. During my yearsjudging hunters and equitation, a question I was often asked bycompetitors was, \I was never sure how to respond.With all that's going on while I'm judging, did any sane person really imagine I was thinking to myself, \been an 85, but I noticed she's wearing those cheap nylon knockoff breeches in that weird pea soup khaki color, so... nope. Downto a 70 she goes!\I guess I should keep this in mind when choosing jeans towear, both at home and at shows. There are countless otherthings to scrutinize and mock me for, far beyond my choice ofjeans. Yet let me be abundantly clear: I still hate them.Cindy Hale is a lifelong horsewoman who spent half a century training and showing hunters. She and her family bred Warmbloodsport horses in California, where she enjoyed a career in equine publications and book projects. She now lives in Prescott, Arizonaand competes in ranch riding and reining. She rides with Carla Cline Show Horses in Chino Valley. From The Musings Of Cindy Hale...Denim Damnation