A solid and correct base of support is one of the best gifts we can give to students because it’s the foundation of good riding and balance.

Definition

A quick Internet search for “base of support” produced the following from Physiopedia  : The base of support (BOS) refers to the area beneath an object or person that includes every point of contact that the object or person makes with the supporting surface.

All riders have a base of support no matter what seat they ride. Our job as instructors is to give our students the best possible BOS, so they can succeed.

What makes a good two pointBase of support is like the foundation of a building.(See my post on building a foundation) and just like stacking the concrete blocks of a foundation correctly, the body parts of BOS must be trained to stay in line.

I show my students body alignment while I’m standing on the ground,  then I have them try. If you can’t stand in your riding position while on the ground, you aren’t aligned and in balance. Students get a visual and a good feel for BOS when they see and try without the horse. They will find it impossible to stay balanced with the feet out in front of them (chair seat) or the feet too far behind.

Source

The Manual of Horsemanship and Horsemastership, vol. 1 defines the base of support on page 4. The base of support is formed by those parts of the rider’s body in contact with the saddle and horse, from the points of the pelvic bones down along the inside of the thighs, to and including the knees, legs, and stirrups.”

BOS applies to all seats, dressage, hunt seat, stock seat and saddle seat.

Heel or Toe?

Do you draw the straight line from the toe to the knee or the heel to the hip? For me, it’s more accurate to do the heel to hip line because of the variance in foot length. I discuss with students the importance of sitting over your feet. I emphasize sitting over your feet during exercises and every time students return to the saddle.

Evidence

in jumping. Check-out these photos. The only things in contact with the horse are the rider’s knees and calves. The components of BOS change according to what the rider is doing. BOS narrows to the knee, the calves, and stirrups during jumping. Developing an excellent lower leg position is paramount.

These photos of average riders were taken at a recent Grand Prix competition. And as a matter of record, these Grand Prix jumps were higher than equitation fences, all of these riders finished the course without falling off, and one of these riders is the likely winner of the event.

The lower leg and foot are the foundation to the foundation.

Chair Seat

Chair seat occurs when the foot drifts forward, and the rider sits more on his seat bones and less on their crotch, or in more technical terms,the pelvis is rotated back. This messes with the three point contact (the two seat bones and the crotch). It puts the riders weight in his buttocks, behind the horse’s center of gravity, and creates a driving seat, while at the same time weakening rider position because they are no longer in balance.

The chair seat is the coach potato syndrome for the equine world. We need to get our students’ off their tailbones, get their bodies aligned, and teach them to carry their own weight. If we can do this much for our future riders we’ll have given them a foundation worth building on.

Back to the Definition

Returning to our original definition of BOS, we find a conundrum. If, as Physiopedia states—The base of support (BOS) refers to the area beneath an object or person that includes every point of contact that the object or person makes with the supporting surface. And if BOS is as The Manual of Horsemanship describes, “The base of support is formed by those parts of the rider’s body in contact with the saddle and horse, from the points of the pelvic bones down along the inside of the thighs, to and including the knees, legs, and stirrups.” Then what do you have when you add the rider’s hands to two -point in order to support the upper body?

Let me know your definition for a correct base of support. What parts of the body are also part of BOS?

Thanks for joining me at TheRidingInstructor.net . If you have time I’d love to have you visit my author’s web site at BarbaraEllinFox.com  and check out what I’m doing in the world of fiction. Let me know what you think.

Here’s to teaching great riding instruction to fantastic students!
Barbara Ellin Fox

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Barbara Ellin Fox TheRidingInstructor
  • […] Being the “base”, we can say that all the other parts of riding; hands, the ability to use the core, effectiveness of aides, and safety, depend on the strength and stability of the base. It is the foundation of the rider’s entire performance and effectiveness from a good seat, to good hands, to effective use of aides, to staying on the horse when he bucks, shies, or bolts. It is also crucial to developing a rider’s “style” which I’ll cover in another post. For more on foundation, read: Base of Support is the First Layer of Foundation. […]

  • I guess I should have said sitting tilted back toward your tail bone. I think you should sit in the middle of the rocker type area of your sit bones which works for any one I’ve worked with. For myself, to have contact at the crotch I have to arch my back. May be because of the “S” I have in my spine. So, maybe for someone that has a great spine if they sit on their sit bones correctly, they then have contact at the crotch as well.

  • I disagree with the wording that sitting on your seat bones and less on your crotch creates the chair position. I feel that sitting with your pelvis tilted so you’re sitting more towards or on your tail bone creates the chair position and sitting more on your crotch puts your upper body too far forward and causes an undesirable arch in the lower back. I feel if you sit on your sit bones correctly you have a more balanced seat creating a better base of support, no?
    I was hoping to be able to paste in a skeletal picture of the pelvic area showing the tailbone and sit bones, but it won’t paste in. This video link shows it towards the end. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=where+are+your+hip+joints+and+sit+bones

    • Kathy,
      The correct three point contact comes from weight evenly distributed over the seat bones and the crotch. A person can not actually sit on their tailbone. Try it. To actually bring your tailbone in contact with anything while seated you will either fall backward or have an excessively curved spine. Curling to the tailbone is one stage before parting company with the horse. Anytime the rider puts more pressure, weight, on the seat bones than the crotch the seat becomes a driving seat. Thanks for your comment. Barbara

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