Video: 5 Cross-Country Rider Positions

Learn these essential positions to finesse any cross-country situation and have a safer, smoother, more efficient ride.

If you’re like most eventers, you LIVE for cross-country! But if you’re like many Novice, Training or sometimes even Preliminary eventers, you still canter around from fence to fence carrying a nice little two-point position and having a good time.

? Amy Katherine Dragoo | Practical Horseman

I’m all for enjoying our sport, but, and this is a big BUT, at the end of the day, the name of the eventing game is safety and effectiveness. If you want to maximize your eventing experience now and move up the levels to longer courses, faster gallops, bigger jumps and more complex, technical questions, you have to do more than canter nicely?you have to adjust your horse, balance him effectively and carry your weight efficiently so he can gallop easily.

And you can only add and develop these skills?what I call “buttons on your remote control”?by learning how to tailor your rider position to the almost endless variety of cross-country questions you’re going to encounter. Sound overwhelming? Not to worry! Each and every on-course question can be answered with one of five basic positions.

Videography and editing by Amy Katherine Dragoo

To learn more, read “5 Cross-Country Rider Positions” in the May 2011 issue of Practical Horseman magazine.

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