Centre of gravity in the horse rider - its all just a bit of balance yee hah

How many times have you heard 'Centre of gravity' mentioned when it comes to riding? Does your instructor hallow it at times in your lesson?  You have heard of it but aren't sure what it really means in easy to understand terms?

What is it?

It's all a matter of balance!!Seriously, it is just a balancing act x

Here I will define it for you........

A good example of balance in canter

The centre of gravity regarding horse riders is describing the mass and the force of gravity. How they work together and how they act together  mmmm, what does that mean exactly? Picture your bottom on the deepest (middle) part of the saddle as the mass, then, picture your horses' back and movement as the gravity pull underneath. They work along side one another to create that centre of gravity. This is the downwards force of your seat and the upwards force of the horses' movement. The horse too has to find their centre of gravity to deal with your mass. Think of a magnet pulling one another close, its an upward and downward force. (your bottom and the horses back). Harmony and balance aaaaahhhhhh what a nice picture.

Have you ever heard instructors shout "sticky bum or glue your bum to the saddle or even, sit deep" etc?

This is so you keep your balance in the deepest (middle) part of the saddle to maintain your balance and posture to encourage the correct gravity mass and force working aligned.

Where, anatomically are they talking about when it comes to 'Centre of gravity'?

This is simply your lower waist area. Anatomically the centre of gravity focuses between your 5th Lumbar Vertabrae and 1st Sacral Vetebrae areas of your lower waist/ hips area.

Back muscles have to work harder in horse riding and deal with more shocks, but luckily, due to our vertebrae , intevertabrae discs , facet joint , in general, how our spine is made,we have quite a bit of flexibility to aid us in this area. This is the part of your body your instructor is relating to when they shout anything to do with balance and centre of gravity talk lol.

The balancing act here depends on your seat bones. Its all a matter of maintaining the position through your weight bearing hips working with your horses' movement and keeping the flexibility in your hips.

Picture yourself in an anterior view (this is frontal). Our body anatomically is described in planes when discussing weight bearing and balancing regarding posture for riders. We need to be looking at a 'Sagital' Plane in some lessons. This means we draw one straight line from head to the ground down the middle of your body, as if splitting it in half.


Sagital Plane below ; this allows an instructor or practitioner to see an alignment of balance for a good centre of gravity achievement. Your left now split from your right. An instructor will be able to see easily how your weight is distributing on your seat bones looking at you under saddle in this way. Weight on your seat bones may be distributed un -evenly so that in turn disturbs your centre of gravity.

An example of an Anterior (front) Sagital plane (split) view

Have you ever heard that saying  “learning postures is easy, changing them is hard” 

If health permits

Before you go for your lesson; here is a little exercise to help the correct muscle alignment. Please warm your muscles up first. Lie down on a flat surface at home, pull your knees up towards your chin as far as they will go,hold for a few seconds then lay your body flat on the floor. Pull your left knee up heading towards your chin and rotate across your hip to the right, hold again then lay flat again, do the same with your other knee. Now stand tall raise both your arms above your head with your hands and wrists facing one another as if going to clap above your head. Hold your arms there a few seconds then lower, do these a few times. This will help align your muscles for balance work.

For more in depth technical stuff, you can also try looking up kineosiology this will give you a better depth of knowledge through the mechanics of movement if this is a topic you are keen on, good luck all.

Enjoy your next lesson!!