Satori Center

That may sound like a silly question!  It turns out, though, that a lot of the times, we've been given some false information about where those hip sockets are and as a result are misusing our body.

Many times as riders we've been told: Straight line from ears to shoulders to hips to heels.  

And it turns out that's almost correct! But not quite.  And the small sliver of incorrectness can lead to a very sore back.  Both yours and your horses.

One misinterpretation that I often see is folks trying to straighten out their spine.  You don't want to do this.  The spine has curves in it.  The plumb line is straight, but the spine is not.

The other thing I see is folks (mistakenly) thinking that their hip sockets are in alignment with the plumb line.  They're not.  They're just in front of the plumb line.

So there are five steps to this: 

(a) find your hip sockets 

The easiest way to find your hip sockets is to feel the front of them in the crease between your torso and your leg.  There's very little padding there and if you lift your leg you can usually feel the front of the socket.  

(b) draw an imaginary line between them (green here)

(c) find your curves (represented in black)

(d) get your curves on a plumb line (purple)

(e) place your green line just in front of the plumb line

front	side	light seat front	light seat side

When you do this, whether you're simply sitting, in light seat, or even in a very deep jumping position (not shown), your hips will articulate without impacting your spine and your seat will soften.  It makes it a lot easier to keep a soft contact with both your hands and your legs.

Check it out!  Let me know how it goes!

Lynn

(And If you'd like a more in depth understanding about your own body, in workshops, lessons, and clinics, I help you to find them and understand how the ball is articulating inside the socket.  April 19th I'll be doing a four hour workshop on this topic!)

P.S. - o, did you go online and find an anatomically correct picture with a plumb line in it that passes through the hip socket?  if so, you'll notice that that plumb line passes in front of the spine, where as this purple plumb line passes through the center of the vertebra.  The purple plumb line here is further back and is centered so that half the spine mass is in front of the plumb line and half is behind.  
Also, don't get me started about the other stuff going on in pictures on line!