20/04/2026
The difference in a person's ratio of leg length to their torso length has a profound impact on the ability to balance in the saddle. The rider on the left has legs longer than her torso length. This automatically lowers her center of balance in the saddle compared to the rider on the right who has a longer torso compared to the length of her legs, which results in the rider being "top heavy" in the saddle.
This is a simple interaction of rider body mass placement in the saddle and gravity. The longer legs place more of the rider's body mass below the saddle whereas the longer torso rider proportionally places more body mass above the saddle.
The result often is that the rider with the longer torso on the right will tend to balance more in the seat than in their legs and seat, which is a challenge. In an extreme situation a rider with a longer torso can look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy rolling around on their butt in the saddle while they constantly unbalance their horse.
When teaching riding, the instructor of a longer legged rider only needs to tell the student to relax and let the legs fall naturally down to the stirrups. However, the trainer teaching the short legged, long torso person must tell this student to balance more using their feet in the stirrups.
When I get a student with shorter legs that torso, who is top heavy in the saddle, I temporally shorten their stirrups. This places their feet closer to the stirrups. Once the stirrups are raised and are more available for the rider, students usually begin balance more using their feet in the stirrups. In time, after they are regularly using their feet to balance, I lengthen their stirrups to help them lower their center of balance.
Teaching riding is more than yelling "heels down" to a class of students. Effective teaching includes assessing how a student's body type helps or hurts their ability to balance. We need to help riding students optimize the use of their body.
