Steering a horse using your seat

As I have written in previous posts, I can’t get why I need to try to push a 600kg beast with my lower leg and pull the reign towards the same direction. I can’t do it and it feels abnormal to me. At home, I began to learn to use my body, in general, to make the horse go where I want him to go.And if I needed to use my leg as well, I would use it when I wanted to steer a bit sharply. The sharper the turn, the sharper the push, which would be made with the leg which is on the side I want to travel towards. So, if I want to turn left, I would push my left leg towards the horse’s belly. When I began to gain more confidence, I began to use all my body, in a relaxed way in order to steer the horse; I try to align my body to the horse’s body and my movement will show the horse what I want him to do. And despite it doesn’t look like that sometimes, at least, this is the type of riding I aim to master. It’s natural, comfortable, effortless and without too much pulling.

But in Britain, most instructors I’ve met think that this is wrong. So, I checked it on YouTube, to make sure that at least I’m not that crazy. And so I found the videos made by a young instructor in the USA, covering exactly that topic. She uses her seat and her upper body to steer the horse. And it’s so natural and effortless! This is how I want to get to! And I’ll definitely try to use the same technique with getting the horse to move forward, as she shows. Superb!