In the video below, check out Team Prac member Margie Engle’s perfect hip angle and release during this jumper round at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, earlier this year.

Bigger jumps and higher rates of speed require you to close your hip angle more in order to stay with your horse’s motion. Watch as Margie sits down (but not back) several strides before the first vertical in this line and then remains in a light three-point until the thrust of her horse’s jumping effort pushes her into a two-point. When his motion catches up with her seat, she sits lightly again while making sure to stay over her horse’s center of balance to help him get his hind end back underneath him so he can canter away softly to the next vertical in the line.

“In the air over the vertical, I follow my horse’s mouth with my hands while focusing my eyes on the next fence,” Margie explained about her release in a previous article with us. “On landing, I close my leg and continue to use a soft, following hand to encourage him to keep cantering forward. I try to stay out of his way to allow him to focus on the jumps and not on what I’m doing. As a result, he sets himself up to produce a balanced, clean effort over the second vertical.”

Team Prac member and Olympic show jumper Margie Engle demonstrates an ideal hip angle and release during the Winter Equestrian Festival earlier this year.

You can see how Margie’s release and effectively closing her hip angle enables her horse to execute the fences with ease. Notice that:

• His rhythm and pace stay consistent, and he arrives at a comfortable takeoff spot and remains unchanged on the landing side of the fence as he smoothly regains his balance.
• Because he trusts Margie not to hinder his mouth in the air or on landing, he uses himself generously and completely, jumping high into the air, and stretches his neck roundly forward to create a nice contour from the tip of his nose back to his tail.
• He lands softly, not “in a heap,” which happens when you fall back against his mouth or he doesn’t know how to carry forward after the jump.

Your upper-body position for jumping is secured by the grip of your knees and calves and your weight in your ankles, and a closed hip angle will help you to stay with your horse’s motion during his bascule (his arc in the air).

Have a Training Question? Ask Team Prac!

Team Prac—our group of top trainers representing hunters, jumpers, eventing and dressage—is here to offer useful and impactful advice to help you improve in your particular discipline and develop a harmonious partnership with your horse. Whether you’re an advanced rider, new to equestrian sport or somewhere in between, we’re inviting you to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge Team Prac has to offer.

To submit your question, sign up for Practical Horseman+. (Learn more about all the benefits you’ll enjoy as a member of Practical Horseman+, our new, exclusive membership platform, here!) We’ll ask a little bit about you and your horse and what type of issue you’re seeking help with. From there, we’ll pass your question on to a Team Prac member who specializes in your discipline.

If your question is selected, it will be featured in a future Practical Horseman and/or Dressage Today digital article and on our social media channels to help you and other riders who might be struggling with a similar issue. We look forward to helping you and your horse on your personal journey together!

About Margie Engle

Team Prac member Margie Engle has been one of the winningest jumper riders in the U.S. for more than three decades. To date, Margie has won more than 250 grands prix classes, six World Cup qualifiers, more than 75 Nations Cups, a record 10 American Grand Prix Association Rider of the Year titles and was inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 2021. She competed in the 2000 Olympics, won team silver at the 1999 Pan American Games, team gold and individual bronze at the 2003 Pan American Games and team silver at the 2006 World Equestrian Games. Margie and her husband of 30 years, veterinarian Steve Engle, are based at Gladewinds Farm in Wellington, Florida.