Activate Your Seat

Activate Your Seat Activate Your Seat is a physiotherapy designed and led online exercise programme for horse riders.
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⁣🌟 Client Focus Friday 🌟 ⁣⁣⁣“I have used the bungi for about four months and I’m so amazed how much it helps to improve ...
29/05/2026

⁣🌟 Client Focus Friday 🌟 ⁣
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“I have used the bungi for about four months and I’m so amazed how much it helps to improve my seat.⁣
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I have an Icelandic horse who’s sensitive to the rider’s balance and within three weeks of using the bungi I noticed a huge difference with his gaits. Now we can keep tolt longer and more steady in different speeds much better than before. ⁣
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We are a way more happy and confident team now that I’m also working on myself a bit more!”⁣
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Stephanie Sidenmark, Sweden⁣
Facebook review⁣
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This is a fantastic review, thank you! It is brilliant to hear you are feeling such benefits in the saddle already, and that your horse is noticing the benefits! ⁣
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🤩 There are now over 250 five star reviews on my page, thank you!!⁣
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As a very small business, your reviews, shares, comments and recommendations really do mean the world to me so thank you so much 🥰⁣
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To purchase your own bungi and access to the online exercise video head to my website www.activateyourseat.com, the link is in my bio.⁣
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Happy Friday!!⁣
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💙 Breathe better, move better, ride better⁣
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Maeve ⁣
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27/05/2026

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - your pelvis needs to MOVE when you are in the saddle.⁣
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True “neutral pelvis” is a snapshot in time - it refers to when two bony points on your pelvis line up on the horizontal plane. So when you can draw a straight line on the horizontal between your posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) and your anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS). And it doesn’t take into account the normal variations in pelvis and hip anatomy of individuals…⁣ ⁣
(See Monday’s post for more info.)⁣
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When we are walking, our pelvis moves through all three planes of movement: forward and back, side to side, and rotation. During riding when the horse moves under us, our pelvis needs to move through all three planes of movement as well. The type and speed of the horse’s gait, as well as the individual anatomy of our pelvis, will influence the exact pelvic biomechanics during riding.⁣
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You don’t want your pelvis to be tipped into anterior or posterior tilt, but neither do you want it to be fixed in a neutral position. All of these positions mean you can’t move your pelvis and hips fully, you can’t access your diaphragm effectively, and you can’t rotate your thoracic spine easily. And that means you can’t move with your horse and you will limit his movement. ⁣
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So yes, ideally you want to start in a “neutral pelvis” position - but you need to be able to move through range, and have control of that range. You need to be able to access anterior and posterior tilt, and control when you need them. Yesterday I posted a test you can use to assess your pelvis movement, control, and symmetry. ⁣
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In order to allow that pelvis movement you need suppleness, control, and endurance through your psoas and gluteals. This allows you to move with your horse and absorb his movement.⁣
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That’s why I designed the Activate Your Seat exercise programme against the resistance of the bungi. All the exercises target psoas and gluteals through range in all three planes of movement, improving symmetry, strength, suppleness, and balance in the saddle.⁣
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💙 Breathe better, move better, ride better⁣
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Maeve⁣

26/05/2026

I use this pelvis mobility test on every rider I assess, every time I assess them. This lets me see how much range of movement they have, and how much control of that movement they have.⁣
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It is an excellent test for picking up any movement restriction or pain, and any asymmetry from one side to the other. ⁣
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We want our pelvis and hips to move AND to absorb the movement of the horse. If your pelvis is fixed into one position, even a neutral position, you will brace against the horse, restricting his movement and your own. Sitting trot will become an impossibility!⁣
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We want to be able to dissociate our pelvis movement from our upper spinal movement. That way our pelvis can move to absorb the movement of the horse whilst the rest of our body looks like it’s not moving too much.⁣
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Bracing our abdominals, fixing our belly button in and up, planks, sit ups, dead bugs, etc will not help allow us to control our pelvis to move through it’s available range.⁣
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We need suppleness, control, and muscular endurance through our psoas and gluteals to allow that movement through our pelvis and hips, and allow us to absorb the horses movement.⁣
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That’s why I designed the Activate Your Seat exercise programme against the resistance of the bungi. All the exercises target psoas and gluteals through range improving strength, suppleness and balance in the saddle.⁣
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The video shows a body awareness exercise to see how your pelvic dissociation is, and compare left to right. Restrictions in movement can signal weakness in psoas, collapse to one side usually signals weakness in gluteus medius. It’s a good exercise to allow us to be aware of how we are moving and can be done in a chair at home or at work, on a gym ball, and also in the saddle.⁣
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If you have the bungi try doing this, then do a few sets of the level 1 exercises, and then retest. How does it feel?⁣
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Remember our pelvises are different shapes and sizes and can change after injury or childbirth so just see what’s normal for you.⁣
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Small steps of improving pelvic movement and control will lead to bigger changes in how you sit and move in the saddle. ⁣
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How is you

⁣I’ll be honest, I’m not sold on the term “neutral pelvis”. As riders we want a balanced pelvis, and a pelvis that can m...
25/05/2026

⁣I’ll be honest, I’m not sold on the term “neutral pelvis”. As riders we want a balanced pelvis, and a pelvis that can move. Yes ideally we want to start in our mid range position, BUT we want control through full available range of movement so we can move with our horse.⁣
⁣
“Neutral pelvis” is a snapshot in time - it refers to when two bony points on your pelvis line up on the horizontal plane. So when you could draw a straight line on the horizontal between your posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) and your anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS). And it doesn’t take into account the normal variations in pelvis and hip anatomy of individuals…⁣
⁣
When we are walking, our pelvis moves through all three planes of movement: forward and back, side to side, and rotation. During riding when the horse moves under us, our pelvis needs to move through all three planes of movement as well. The type and speed of the horse’s gait, as well as the individual anatomy of our pelvis, will influence the exact pelvic biomechanics during riding.⁣
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When I see social media posts targeted at horse riders about holding neutral pelvis during an exercise class, or maintaining neutral pelvis during a full dressage test it makes me cringe.⁣
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Not only is it a complete physical impossibility, it also encourages riders to brace through their abdominals, try to fix their pelvis into “neutral” and not breathe using their diaphragm.⁣
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We want our pelvis and hips to move, AND to absorb the movement of the horse. If your pelvis is fixed into one position, even a neutral position, you will brace against the horse, restricting his movement and your own. Sitting trot will become an impossibility!!⁣
⁣
We need suppleness, control, and endurance through our psoas and gluteals to allow that movement through our pelvis and hips, and allow us to absorb the horses movement.⁣
⁣
That’s why I designed the Activate Your Seat exercise programme against the resistance of the bungi. All the exercises target psoas and gluteals through range in all three planes of movement, improving symmetry, strength, suppleness, and balance in the saddle.⁣
⁣
💙 Breathe better, move better, ride better⁣
⁣
Maeve⁣

⁣🌟 Client Focus Friday 🌟 ⁣⁣“I am only at the start of the programme but already I feel that my balance has improved as w...
22/05/2026

⁣🌟 Client Focus Friday 🌟 ⁣
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“I am only at the start of the programme but already I feel that my balance has improved as well as a reduction in lower back/ hip pain which I have on a daily basis.⁣
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I feel that I can sit up better in the saddle without having a hollow back.⁣
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I am definitely going to continue, the programme is easy to follow and only takes a few minutes to do.⁣
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Highly recommend.”⁣
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Linda Desoer-Forster, UK⁣
Facebook Review ⁣
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Thank you Linda for this lovely review. I am delighted to hear you are already feeling the benefits both in and out of the saddle. ⁣
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🤩 There are now over 250 five star reviews on my page, thank you! ⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣As a very small business, your reviews, shares, comments and recommendations really do mean the world to me so thank you so much 🥰⁣
⁣
⁣To purchase your own bungi and access to the online exercise video head to my website www.activateyourseat.com, link in my bio.⁣
🌎 I post worldwide ⁣
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⁣
Happy Friday!! ⁣
⁣
⁣
💙 Breathe better, move better, ride better⁣
⁣
Maeve ⁣
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21/05/2026

I assessed a new patient this week who hadn’t been able to feel her right seat bone in the saddle for at least 7 years.⁣
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No pain, no injury, no discomfort, but a constant feeling of loading her left seat bone and unable to locate her right seat bone - no matter what horse she was on.⁣
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She had a few sessions on a mechanical horse and it was noted that she gripped up with her right leg and leaned her trunk to the right. They were unable to change this within her sessions.⁣
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She had been doing online rider Pilates sessions four days a week for the last few months, with no real difference.⁣
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On testing she was extremely weak and tight in her right side psoas (main hip flexor), and lacked control of her right side gluteus medius. We did some manual therapy to help this, put her in the bungi, and by the end of the session, when I put her back in the saddle stool, she could feel and move her right seat bone.⁣
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I discussed her right side psoas tightness and weakness with her and she told me in her online Pilates classes she had been cued to do her leg lifts only using her abdominal muscles and not allowing her hip flexors to work and she said she found this really difficult…⁣
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Well, that is because it is physically IMPOSSIBLE!! I thought this cue died years ago 😑⁣
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Your abdominal muscles do not cross the front of your hip - they cannot flex your hip or lift your legs. Your abdominal muscles flex your spine, and yes they will work during the leg lift exercise to hold your spine against the mat and not allowing your spine to extend. BUT you cannot do hip flexion without using your hip flexors!! ⁣
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And as riders we need our hip flexors to be strong into a leg lengthened position. Due to psoas’ attachment onto the front of our spine, it controls the forward and backward movement of our pelvis and lumbar spine when the hip is relatively fixed like it is in the saddle. ⁣
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Strengthening hip flexors into a lengthened position can be a total game changer for riders. ⁣
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And this is one of the main reasons I started the Activate Your Seat programme - targeted strengthening for your pelvis and hips, including your hip flexors.

Rant over!! Thanks for listening!!

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