Center of Gravity – Riding Horses in Balance and Harmony
By Chris Bates M.Ost EEBW BHSAI
Riding horses can look effortless and easy when performed by some of the best riders out there. Those of us normal mortals though, understand that riding is far from easy.
When you watch a horse and rider moving together in harmony, the signals given by the rider and the communication between them look almost invisible and there seems to be a psychic link from rider to mount.
Much of the fluidity that we see in the experienced rider and their schoolmaster comes from establishing balance and ease of movement before the aids used to communicate are refined to higher levels.
What Does Center of Gravity Mean?
The centre of gravity is a phrase many of us may have heard from our instructors, not just horse riding requires an awareness and control over the centre of gravity. So, what does it mean?
Well, the idea is actually often misconstrued and poorly understood leaving many people seeking clarification on why it’s so important. Some think that the centre of gravity is where it is and that’s it, you have to feel it and then work around that.
Well, actually the centre of gravity (COG) is not a physical object sitting inside you somewhere, nor is it stationary. COG is a point around which our weight and movement combine to a balance. Confused?... GOOD! Confusion is the best place to start learning from.
Some describe the COG as the “Average location of the weight of an object” (Hall, 2022). We could go on for an entire book's worth of description but this is just an article so I won’t beat around the bush with too much science jargon.
Center of Gravity - Horse Riding
Being the “average” position of the weight of the object, you can imagine that this imaginary point sits as the balance whereby the rider or horse has an equal mass/weight left to right, front to back, above and below that point.
One should look at this point three-dimensionally, many textbooks and riding manuals will depict the image from a lateral (side on) view and it can appear that the point only relates to the gravitational forces between the forehand and hind end.
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The horse’s COG is roughly located level with its heart, below the withers and centrally from a sagittal view. However, this alters with movement and posture. If the horse raises their head, the COG shifts backward and will consequently shift forward when lowering the head.
The COG can be different depending on the type and breed of horse, their muscular development and weight, their conformation and their hoof angles.
Horse Rider Center of Gravity
The rider has a center of gravity roughly located at the level of the naval slightly posterior to it and centrally. There is little point discussing how this may differ when not sitting on the horse as this has no effect on riding.
The rider COG of course will also be affected by the movement and configuration of their body just as the horse is.
Why Does COG Matter in Horse Riding
So why is this point so important to good riding? All disciplines and styles of riding require a combination of the same factors: Balance, Rhythm, impulsion, suppleness, responsiveness, and then other factors to refine specific goals.
If the rider sits with their COG located above the horse’s COG then the horse will not have to alter their way of movement to accommodate unevenness.
Should the horse need to adapt to a rider sitting behind the COG for example, then this could encourage a high head carriage, shifting the horse’s COG back and hollowing the back, this, in turn, makes impulsion much harder to achieve.
Many riders will perch forward in their riding position due to inexperience or apprehension; this shifts their COG towards the horse’s head. In response, the horse needs to lower their head bringing all their forward energy onto the forehand. Horse’s on the forehand will lack hind end engagement and also risk stopping at jumps.
An Example
I used to teach a rider who had an old hip injury that had healed poorly leaving her with more weight distributed into her left seat bone (Ischial tuberosity for you anatomy nerds) when riding.
Her left stirrup was longer by two holes and this felt balanced to her. She had altered herself, unknowingly, to move her COG to the left as her right hip mobility was severely limited.
When we sit in the saddle, there is a certain amount of hip flexibility required to allow for combined flexion, abduction and external rotation of the femur. As this rider’s right hip was very restricted in abduction and external rotation, she was physically forced to a deeper seat on her left.
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This rider’s horse was a very accommodating mount and was well behaved but had to alter his posture to compensate. His COG was noticeably further left to “pick up” her imbalance.
His left lateral shift of COG meant that he needed to hold a right bend constantly to maintain his balance. The right bend caused inability to pick up left canter, lack of impulsion on left rein and even right rein problems such as reduced shoulder protraction and falling out through the shoulder.
In Osteopathy, we also understand Fryette’s laws of spinal motion and the rider fit in with these perfectly. The rider had a right side bend in her spine, this was then combined with left rotation (as per Fryette’s principles).
The left rotation created rein length discrepancy and stiff upper body mechanics (when one plane of movement is engaged, the other planes will be reduced). The horse also had a rotation in the cervical spine to the left as this was a compensation to maintain eye level and inner equilibrium.
So How Do I Help Fix Balance and Harmony?
All of this can make it sound as if it would be far too difficult to ride well as it seems the tiniest of COG shifts can make a whole string of compensations. Well, there is good news and bad news.
- Bad news – YES, riding is very hard to get mastery over.
- Good news – There are some really easy ways to help and things to remember.
Always remember that nothing in the human or horse body is 100% even and equal from side to side, front to back. Even cells have asymmetry in their organelles and shape.
You don’t need to become obsessed with absolute perfection because such a thing doesn’t exist. That is what makes the sport such fun, all people and horses are different and the aim is to just find the most effective, natural, balanced and ethical way to work with the horse.
Easy thing 1:
Get someone to take some photos of you riding. Get photos and or video riding and standing. The idea would be to cover all the basics by getting a view of front and back, left and right and ensure you get all your strides and maybe even jump.
This is a great way to look at your own riding and see for yourself how to alter it for the better. There are even some great products on the market that mean you can film yourself using a phone or camera on a stand that follows your movement around the arena.
If you trust the opinion of the person taking the footage, they may also be able to tell you what they observe in real time.
Easy thing 2:
Hire a good instructor. A teacher who has a good understanding of biomechanics can help with advising on how to alter your position to ride more in balance. British Horse Society (BHS) qualified instructors and accredited coaches are trained in rider balance and recognizing faults.
Many instructors will work closely with your Farrier, Vet, Osteopath and Physiotherapist to ensure that musculoskeletal, hoof health, dental and tack are all adjusted to provide balance and evenness.
Easy thing 3:
Mirrors!
It sounds simple but riding somewhere that has mirrors is an excellent way to see for yourself if you are sitting correctly. Perhaps combine number 2 and 3 and hire your instructor at a location with school mirrors.
Easy thing 4:
Call your Animal Osteopath!
Your qualified Animal Osteopath can do static and dynamic assessments of your horse and ascertain if there are some physical barriers to them keeping their COG where it would be most functional.
Osteopaths can identify a variety of factors that could be affecting your horse’s way of moving and have the skills to work with their system to aim for alignment that is most conducive to healthy, balanced riding.
Don’t forget that seeing an Osteopath yourself can do all of that for you too! The rider is 50% of the relationship.
To learn more about how you can become an Animal Osteopath, click here
Bibliography:
Clayton, H.M., MacKechnie-Guire, R. and Hobbs, S.J. (2023). Riders’ Effects on Horses—Biomechanical Principles with Examples from the Literature. Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI, [online] 13(24), p.3854. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13243854.
Hall, N. (2022). Center of Gravity. [online] Glenn Research Center | NASA. Available at: https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/center-of-gravity/#:~:text=The%20center%20of%20gravity%20is%20the%20average%20location%20of%20the.
Spickard, S. (2022). Rider Biomechanics: Exercises to Correct Asymmetry in the Saddle. [online] NOËLLE FLOYD. Available at: https://www.noellefloyd.com/blogs/sport/part-3-exercises-to-correct-asymmetry-in-the-saddle.
www.equiculture.net. (2021). How to find your (horse riding) Centre of Gravity (CoG). [online] Available at: https://www.equiculture.net/blog/hrm-how-to-get-in-touch-with-your-centre-of-gravity.
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