Thanks for your comment. I think it is slightly different than your tummy out, like the area between the ribs leading up to the sternum. I have been practicing (separately and alternately) pushing both areas of the belly out. Again, I feel like a belly dancer, who by the way I respect highly.
Isn't riding fun!

All of your work sounds really interesting! And thanks for posting your blogs, they're very helpfull and fun to read. :)

Thanks for your comments. I eventually will get it all together. Due to my MS I have a hard time coordinating 2 or 3 things at a time, so I have learned to practice each movement by itself. Eventually everything starts working together like it should.
The mare I ride has a weak back, when I started riding her it was REALLY weak. Though her back is stronger it still has a ways to go before it is strong enough to take on a rider with a "deeper" seat, so yes, my seat bones are coming somewhat above the saddle when I use my butt muscles. This is on purpose, I am trying to be light enough so she will raise her back somewhat. If my seat is not light her head goes up and her back feels more concave. With the lighter seat at the sitting trot her back is getting stronger as versus staying weakish and inverted when I use the deeper seat.
Maybe in 6 months or so MY muscles will be stronger and more coordinated and HER back will feel better when I sit down fully. Until that time I will practice coordinating my tummy out and my back, and hope that we both will get strong enough so my body can figure it all out.
Thanks again for your help.

Hello there,

no I have not seen that book, it sounds fascinating! I actually made myself a Baroque riding costume and am looking forward to riding more exhibition rides etc. this year, if I can get the time to do more of that stuff apart from just ridng and training my 4 horses, I will look for it, cheers, Ann.

Hi! It's Jackie. I got to try the tummy-out sitting trot today. I did not do it very well, it takes me a while to get the feel and coordination to do a new movement well. The first time I tried it I was having trouble not bouncing, and I rounded my shoulders.
At the end of the lesson I did one circle of the ring using (in turn) tummy-out, the FS, butt muscles, tummy-out and abdomen rectus ab. muscles. I had some trouble the first time tummy-out, I was almost banging her back with my seat. The second time I was better, feeling more coordination between my tummy and back. With the abdomen muscles I was hearing the 'splatting' sound of her front feet landing. I suspect that this sound comes from her putting her heel down first. She also lost impulse. I did not notice much difference in her way of going with the tummy-out, though both the tummy-out and butt muscles had a little less impulse than in the Forward Seat sitting trot. My teacher could not tell that I was changing my seat by that time.
When I first did the tummy out I was 1) pursing my lips, 2) rounding my shoulders, almost bouncing in the saddle, and getting tired pretty quick.
My teacher said she could not see me change my seat after I got my shoulders back in the correct position, though she noticed the loss of impulsion with using just the rec. ab. muscles.
I hope I have explained this clearly enough. If not please tell me and I will try again.

Thanks for your note. Perhaps while you were looking up tent pegging, I was looking up Feldenkrais! It seems like an interesting approach to the art of balanced riding.

Hi...are you Michele from Sit the Trot.com? If so, it's really great to see what you are doing with Centred Riding etc...I think we're on a lot of the same pages.
It might be interesting to chat further offline. I answered your questions to my blog post, with a new post. However, naturally I see so many tributaries to the question, depending on where you're coming from--

I think that with your experience with classical riding Iberian horses, you would really understand what I meant by hands that are not moving all over the place, but are yet soft.....classical dressage being a little more inclined to have you ride with very straightly stacked posture, long legs, and arms at your side yet very light hands. Light might have been a better choice of words for me to use.
Heather

Feldenkrais is fantastic for riders but takes a long time. I teach Pilates and HOW TO apply it in the saddle. It is very effective and very simple. as a physiotherapist i can see so many posture problems with riders that then get transferred to the horse. I have great success with this program and love teaching it. The theme of what you teach is the same Pity we live on opposite sides of the world my blog is horseridingposture.com.
Check my websites Applied posture Riding and Horse riding Equipment

Great blog post, really interesting reading. Thankyou for sharing...