Look
at how you ride when you're sticking the heels into the belly of the horse
too hold yourself. The knees bulge away from the saddle, and the
outcome is that there is in fact no contact with the surface of the horse/saddle,
exept with the heels and with your butt. The result is that you are
in fact more unbalanced in the saddle then you were.
But why does this work with the big horses? Because there is some horse there where your heel is. The icelandic is so small, that most people don't have any belly to press into with the heels and lower calf, without almost hooking their legs under the belly of the horse.
So, what is used on the iceys is the knee-lock. Something which I'm told is forbidden to do on big horses *smile*. But these are different horses.
Start by looking at your knees, cup them slightly "inwards", that is, so that the knee is pointing forward. It takes your heel a bit away from the horse, helps you have the knee as the lowest point of the leg, and gives you more contact surface between knee and saddle.
Then squeeze in with the knees.
Basically it's as simple as that.
The whole area, from one knee (and a few inches below the knee), through your tights, should squeeze in. Feel how you can suck yourself into the saddle?
Any time that you feel you're in a tricky situation, are loosing your balance, or might be loosing your balance, do this.
And if you grab a lock on the horse's mane (if you're loosing the balance), you feel how that helps too, use the kneelock and pull the lock, and you pull yourself into the saddle.
Sit up rather straight (if you lean forward you lift the butt from the saddle, and loose the contact area between the saddle and your butt and your tights, and loose the kneelock).
Exercise this. Do it at walk, when you're out on trails and have nothing else to do. Nobody notices, they can't see it ; )
You don't do this all the time, that would exhaust your muscles, you do it when you feel you need the extra suction. BUT it has to be instinctive, because if you have to think for a second before remembering what to do, you might already be out of the saddle. Therefore, you have to exercise this a lot, to make it instinctive and to build up the muscles (we don't use these muscles in day to day life). One day you realize you don't have to think about it anymore, you just do it. And then you can be stuck in the saddle without using the heels ; )
