Things make up a post

[mme_hardy]

1. Happy birthday, oursin !
2. I realized last month, after only forty (gasp) years of reading Georgette Heyer, what a "light seat" means in riding. Check me: a rider with a "light seat" is supporting their weight on their legs and/or leaping-horn, transmitting their weight down to the stirrups and allowing their legs to act as shock-absorbers, rather than resting their weight on the saddle and bumping up and down on the horse's back. Right?
3. I called my husband "darling" in the supermarket Sunday. Am I right in thinking that outside the U.S. (and, for that matter, the Midwestern/Southern parts of the Midwest, for all I know) this would be weird or indecorous?
4. Oh God, oh Montreal. My medical marijuana provider is no longer veiling its features with the scanty voile of medicine.
   What better way to start your weekend than a cannabis-themed brunch?
   This week we're putting our favorite brunch items on sale - infused coffee and tea mixes, honey, granola, almond butter, jam. Order by Thursday to take advantage of the sale price and have yours in time for next weekend!

I shudder to think of the guests at a marijuana brunch driving home.  The nasty thing about edibles is that (A) you can't predict when they'll hit and (B) you can't be confident of the dose and (C) you tend to eat too much because it hasn't hit yet.  Lather, rinse, repeat.   Pot in honey, almond butter, and jam, sounds especially prone to "Oh, just one more croissant" and then disaster.

Comments

[clanwilliam]

A light seat is a bit more than that. It's whole-body control, and a lot of it is your torso and especially your stomach muscles. It's how you put your bum in the saddle and transferring weight to your legs would just change the strain point on the saddle. Stirrups are semi-irrelevant, since your thighs are more important than your lower legs. As are your buttocks - you can tell a horse a lot with a buttock twitch astride.

Biggest riding compliment I ever got was "I reckon you ride two stone lighter than you weigh." And since it was from people at a racing stable, I was really flattered.

ETA: definitely not the leaping horn on a sidesaddle. That's security for jumping - you only ram your leg up there properly when you need a more secure seat.

[mme_hardy]

Thank you. So a lady on a sidesaddle can't grip with her thighs -- how is she holding on and communicating?

That's a lovely compliment indeed.

[clanwilliam]

Also, no leaping head in the period Heyer rides about.

Sidesaddles are very flat, and you hook your leg around the fixed head. You also need longer reins as you're much higher up. It's actually a very secure seat - so secure that pre-quick release stirrups, your biggest danger was not being able to abandon ship. Most riders carry a cane to give aids on the offside, with your leg on the near side providing them there.

However, most impulsion comes from your right leg, which is stretched along the saddle and also along the horse's spine. Again, as with astride, your upper body is far more important than your legs.

There was a big surge in side-saddle sales post WWI, with saddles being made with the horns on the offside, as it meant amputees could ride and hunt again. In that case, the whole leg hooked over the fixed horn, as that's the leg that gives control.

Grip can only keep you on a horse so long - balance is far more
Important. However, it's easier to keep on a bucking horse sidesaddle (use the leaping head) than it is astride.

[malkingrey]

it's easier to keep on a bucking horse sidesaddle (use the leaping head) than it is astride

I had a memorable moment of linguistic confusion there, as my Texan brain tried to read "bucking horse" not as "a horse that is bucking" but as "a horse meant to be ridden in the bronc-riding event at a rodeo." (Such as the famed, never-ridden Midnight.)

[mme_hardy]

Thank you for that wonderful link.

[clanwilliam]

That is a wonderful link and I do wonder if Midnight could have been tamed in a sidesaddle. Horsebreakers used to use sidesaddles specifically to tame buckers in England.

But I'm glad Midnight always won.

[malkingrey]

I'm told that one of my Texan great-grandmothers used to tame horses for ladies to ride -- presumably, this meant training them to be accustomed to a sidesaddle.