Rider Position
The Hunt seat is also sometimes called the "forward seat." Ideally, a hunt seat rider has a very secure position. This includes proper leg position, weight in heels, soft hands, good posture, balanced seat, eyes up and, when working over fences, looking ahead towards the next fence.
Riders usually employ a "two-point" position while jumping fences, depending on the type of course and height of fences. The position is so named because the rider has "two points" (both legs) in contact with the saddle. The rider supports his or her body using leg and stirrup, keeping the heels down, closing the hip angle, and lifting the buttocks out of the saddle while keeping the head and shoulders up.
On the flat, or when used on course between jumps, the two-point position allows the horse to have a great deal of freedom of movement because the rider's weight is lifted off its back.
Position in two-point varies according to the task. Hunter riders generally have a very upright two-point, as they usually show on very level footing and at slower speed. Eventers may have a more crouched position, usually with the heel slightly more forward while riding cross-country, to provide more security as they ride over varying terrain at a fast gallop.
Read more about this topic: Hunt Seat
Famous quotes containing the words rider and/or position:
“I sit astride life like a bad rider on a horse. I only owe it to the horse’s good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“You do not become a “dissident” just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)