Originally Posted by RichardAustin
i'll give it an honest try.
if your feet/stirrups are sitting below you with your weight in them bracing, a hard stop will use the force like a pendalum and push you forward up and out of the seat. if you're "sitting" by tucking your butt underneath yourself, you melt into the horse with the stop and are riding him thru it instead of getting in his way.
someone mentioned they couldn't trot a horse without standing in their stirrups. if you have a seat and post to the inside leg not only will you be much more comfortable and less tired end of a long day, when those wild ones get to spinning in 1/2 a second you'll still be seated.

OK. I understand that.

I'm not and don't advocate *all* one's weight in the stirrups (generally) nor do I believe any of the "stirrup-weighted" guys are advocating that. I balance my weight between stirrups and seat. For my riding, and while pulling a pack string into camp or hunting, having no weight in the stirrups, I see as a disaster waiting to happen.

In the pic you put up, Buster has his feet in the stirrups. If he had no weight in them, every time the horse changed direction, he would be out of balance laterally.

Every situation changes the weight distribution. ever see comp trail riders or endurance riders? They are standing in the stirrups most/all the way.

while we will disagree, I appreciate your response.


If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.
--Pat Parelli

American by birth; Alaskan by choice.
--ironbender