Biomechanically Correct Riding (BKR) – for more harmony and giving the horse a say!

By Dr Corinna Gerling

We all have a natural sense of aesthetics.

It is precisely this aesthetic that makes a harmonious horse-and-rider partnership so fascinating – a pair moving in unison as if guided by magic.

But how can you work towards this ideal?

Having fun together and becoming a real team – but how can I achieve this magic? Seat training based on BKR can be one way. Always important: perfect, highly functional equipment, such as well-fitting saddle pads, so that the horse feels comfortable at all times.

Horses that move in a functionally correct way develop harmonious, ‘rounded’ muscles. Their movements become lighter and more fluid. Overall they look strong and proud. Such horses are able to listen to and trust their riders; they are relaxed and work with motivation.

However, for us to come ever closer to this ideal, the horse needs a rider with a good seat and optimally fitted equipment: only then will the horse be disturbed as little as possible and its well-being restricted as little as possible.

What does a good rider’s seat mean for the horse?

Riding means that we should become a load that is as easy as possible for our horse to carry. This allows us to communicate subtly and to give the horse, as a flight animal, the security it needs through good balance.

And what are the benefits for the rider?

A well segmentally stabilised seat brings many positive effects to light:

• Riding becomes healthier
• Riding becomes safer
• Riding becomes more effective
• Success makes both us and our horse more motivated

How exactly does BKR seat training help?

Every rider and every horse has their own individual posture and movement pattern. During a BKR seat training session, this individual pattern is analysed and then changed with various exercises, both on the ground and on the horse.

Many riders have heard the same corrections in their lessons for years without being able to solve their problems effectively. This is because the correction is usually made ‘where it wobbles’, while the underlying cause is often not recognised and resolved. Correcting in the ‘wrong place’ often leads the rider to develop a further compensatory posture, which can then cause new problems. The result is a vicious circle that stops us from making progress.

After a while, all the horses we ride then often show the same rideability problems, because the horse also has to compensate for our seat patterns. Sometimes it can only do this by seemingly ‘working against us’. This creates conflicts that many riders try to solve with ‘aids’ such as sharper spurs, bits or training aids.

The horse’s health can also suffer as a result, because its body is constantly loaded incorrectly.

If the rider sits in true balance and is therefore easy for the horse to carry, it will be able to listen to us better. The aids become clearer, movements become easier, the contact becomes softer, and straightness and rhythm are decisively improved.

Riders who can sit correctly also get an extremely healthy workout, as all joints are loaded in a physiologically correct way, the muscles of the whole body are trained and core stability is significantly improved.

Riding also becomes safer in general: greater balance and stability mean you are less easily unseated, and the better you sit, the more calmly your horse will carry you.

During a lesson, three points are worked on systematically:

1. Pelvic position: the pelvis is the base of our seat. The aim is a neutral pelvic position in which the seat bones point straight down. Because we often walk and stand with a hollow back in everyday life, we take this posture into the saddle too. Our seat bones then point backwards and prevent the horse’s hind legs from stepping under. With a rounded back, on the other hand, the seat bones point forwards and push the horse onto the forehand.
2. Balance: can you draw a vertical line through ear – shoulder – hip – ankle? Or, to picture it even more simply: if I could ‘magic away’ the horse from under the rider at any moment, would the rider land safely on their feet? If so, he or she is balanced. Often, however, this is not the case. The demand for a leg placed ‘at the girth’, for example, often leads to the leg being too far forward. Here, old literature was translated incorrectly and diligently adopted into the guidelines of the FN (German Equestrian Federation). Modern saddles also differ considerably from the army saddles of the past and often have a major influence on our seat.
3. Crookedness: like horses, riders also have a natural crookedness that has to be counteracted again and again. We transfer this crookedness to our horse, so every rider should always critically ask how much of the crookedness comes from themselves and how much from the horse.