The Seat Bone's Connected To The...

DRESAGING.

Saddle.

One would hope.

After reading Austen's amazing and ridiculously-intense post about seatbone contact the other day, I have been thinking a lot about it during my rides.

And in doing so, I have unlocked a piece of the Dino Doesn't Like Bending Right puzzle:

My right seatbone is, often, not in contact with the saddle.

I am not actively asking Dino to weight his right hind leg, which is pretty instrumental in the whole "bending right" thing.

The other night during our dark and snowy ride, I really focused on keeping that right seatbone in line, and BOY did it make a huge difference in my pony's ability to move off of my right leg! Almost magic. Even in the canter transition, I started to realize that it's more of a "swapping seatbones" move than a constant contact with my outside seatbone. Inside seatbone to bend and move the pony out slightly, then SWAP, outside seatbone to ask the outside hind to come forward into canter. Back onto the inside seatbone to weight the inside hind once we're in canter. Neat stuff, but it's going to take a while to commit to muscle memory!

I also picked up a french-link eggbutt bit the other day just for funsies, and D seems to dig it. He was nice and soft in the bridle, and I feel a little better about the french-link than the single-joint I had him in, since it doesn't make a pointy shape in his mouth. The rings are also not obscenely large for his face, so that's a win right there.

Stay tuned for an exciting weekend recap - full of blogger friends, fun, and RIDING IN AN INDOOR.