A short transcript segment from a Mary Wanless dressage training video arguing that traditional "weight aids" (e.g., pressing into a stirrup or shifting weight onto one seat bone) are counterproductive and tend to collapse or contort the rider. Wanless guides simple off-horse exercises (pushing a leg down; pressing one seat bone) to demonstrate how these actions disrupt the rider’s balance and stack. The clip also includes a brief promotional endorsement for the Fleck carbon composite whip used by the presenters.
In Ride of the Mind, we really do not teach about weight aids. And you know, personally, I think weight aids and descriptions that people give for using weight aids really do end up contorting riders an awful lot. So one of the ways I've had people describe to me about weight aids is putting more weight in a stirrup. So presumably you're sat in front of a computer right now on your chair. So here's a little exercise you can try. You're sat on your chair and what I want you to do now is to push on one leg. So push one leg down as if you're pushing into stirrup. Try and create extra weight. Now what happens to your body when you do press down into that particular one leg? With me, I find I collapse. If I'm pressing down with my right leg, I collapse to the right. My right seat bone comes up, my left seat bone drops down. All kinds of things go wrong with my stack up the moment I start pressing into the stirrup. And again, you're simply straightening your joints when you press into the stirrup and probably causing your leg to swing forwards. So, you know, we don't teach any weighting of the stirrup or doing any extra thing like that. The other way I've heard people describing using weight aids, apart from the kind of crude lean with your body, is to press more down on one seat bone. And again, if you're sat in front of your computer, you can try this. You can press one seat bone down, press the other seat bone down, and all I find that does is it lifts the other seat bone up, it collapses one side of the body. You know, you lose your course ability and stack up over the horse.
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