The Evils of Hunt Seat

By Kathryn King Johnson, M.Ed.

Students should begin riding in a dressage or balanced seat. I doubt that hunt seat has its merits, especially for beginners and certainly not for anyone advanced past the trot. I don't need to build up dressage. Dressage is natural, it's riding, it's the ends and means of good horsemanship. What needs to become clear are the evils of hunt seat.

"Push your heels down!" A hunt seat instructor screams at the frightened five -year -old perched on Old Pepper.

"Push your heels down!" Another instructor screams at a terrified teenager cantering a line of fences at an "A" show.

There is no feeling, no function, just form, form, form. Hunt seat riders equitate, they don't ride.

Pumpety, pumpety, kick!

Yes, jumping position is necessary over fences and when galloping. Any dressage rider can assume this position and jump safely. Hunt seat is not a style or an art or a system. A perched 2-point is simply a position. The reason they call it hunt seat is because they never find it.