Wrapping Your Legs Around a Horse

This is a phrase that I’m sure many people will be familiar with. The bane of my early riding career was being instructed to “wrap your leg around the horse, and keep your toes pointed forward”. Unless you have a very rare and unique physiology (hypermobility and hyperlaxity) this is physically impossible.

A horse’s body is round. My leg is straight - with one point of bend in the middle (the knee). The Femur and Tibia of your leg do not bend. So you have two straight lines with a joint in the middle. Visualise trying to to wrap two chopsticks around a basketball, having a close point of contact all the way around - it is not going to happen..

To wrap my leg around my horse, my leg would have to travel outwards from my hip to the middle point of my horse’s barrel, bend at the knee and turn back in. The idea of keeping your toes pointing forward whilst attempting this is impossible. For the purpose of riding your toes will always be pointing in the direction of your knee. You can turn your foot a little bit outwards - away from the direction that your knee is pointing - but you will find this impossible to do turning your foot inwards - unless you twist your ankle so that you are standing on the very outside edge of your foot. (If you are sore on the outside of your foot after riding this may be indicative that your leg position should be adjusted).

Because of this in order to have my leg lay along or around a horse’s barrel I will need to point my feet outwards in order for my knee to bend in the required way. It will look odd, and without going into too much detail it will compromise my stance and ability to move with my horse or rise and fall correctly. And it will put my spur firmly into the sides of my horse at nearly all times.

So, in order to have my feet facing forward in an open (thigh off) stance, trying to wrap my legs around my horse whilst having my toes pointed forward, I would need to turn my ankle in such a way that my weight will be on the outside of my foot. This will be very uncomfortable and offer a poor base of support for my riding.

The solution is that in order to maintain a correct and functional classical seat we should dispense with the idea of wrapping our legs around a horse. In fact I do not want constant contact made with my horse’s side with my lower leg for a number of reasons.

I do not want to be continually cuing my horse with my lower leg every time I rise and fall. My horse will get dull to the constant sensation of my leg bumping his side and will require a greater degree of pressure from my leg when I actually do want to cue for a change. If my leg is default to be always off, when I do put that leg on, my horse will respond readily to what will be perceived as a contextually unique sensation.

Secondly it is worth saying that if I am having to rise and fall, or stand in my stirrups having my knee pointed outwards will ensure that I will be inconsistent with the position of my lower leg. My lower leg will pull in and swing out as I rise and fall. I see many riders who appear to be constantly squeezing their horse every step in rising trot. However If I keep my knee (and foot) facing what is naturally forward for me, the shape of the space between my legs will remain consistent. This is important as the space between my legs is occupied by my horse’s barrel.

In order to have a good stable leg position in the saddle we should have our knees facing naturally forward, and we should be gently pressing our inner thigh into our saddle. Gently pressing the thigh (not gripping the knee) will give us the benefit of transferring our body weight across a larger surface area of our saddle, creating a more balanced feel for the way the saddle interacts with the back of our horse.

We should not be trying to wrap our legs around our horse in the classical seat. The lower leg should remain away from our horse's side. Doing this with a secure thigh connection to the saddle will help our riding become more stable and consistent - whilst also providing a more comfortable connection between our horse’s back and the saddle.