Hand Position question and more...

[kirrel]

I've just started riding again after a six month ish break, and a longer break from actual lessons - I'm now helping excercise some ponies for a very nice woman - she's also a qualified instructor and a very good one.

In some ways though she is teaching me slightly differantly from what I was taught previously (I think she is actually more likely to be right). Hand position being one of them, has any one got any good pics of a nice hand position to illustrate the correct way to double check it?! :)

Also, due to lack of instruction for a while now, I want to reaffirm some of the exact aids - firstly to ask for a good downwards transition - especially to halt? And to ask for a good contact, pony with nice head positon, going forward with impulsion etc, can anyone clarify the exact way to get this right.

thanks! :)

[Claire Louise]

I was always taught that in relation to your hands it was like holding a mug with a handle on each side. Your palms would face but would be seperated from each other by the mug, also not to far apart as mug would drop. If you grip too hard the mug will break if you don't grip hard enough the mug will slip from your hands. Now I realise that this is quite childish but it is what I was taught as a child and what i used to teach children that I taught years later.

As for position it can depend on the way the horse has been schooled. However to get nice halts sit deep into saddle close your fingers round reins but don't pull to a halt, Keep your legs on and horse should move forwards into halt, Not stop dead like he's hit a wall.

I wouldn't worry about the ponies head position at this time, It will come when you have more confidence again.

[Scootster]

A friend of mine was told to hold the reins as if she was holding two pints of beer....

[Scarlett 001]

Yes, I've been told the two cups of tea thing for holding reins. Guess the beverage being held does not matter too much though! It is the mug/cup/glass thing that is the issue! :D

Someone at my stables at the clinic was told she held the reins like knitting needles and when she rode it looked like she was knitting (and her hands were close in to her body)! I thought the analogy was kind of funny - and so did she!

[Claire Louise]

yeah I used to get told I looked like I was pushing a push chair, and as I was only 13 at the time i was far too young to have children so I had to hold my hands properly. I swear instructors say the weirdest things sometimes but then when I started teaching I used the same analogies because they'd obviously stuck in my head.

[taylor]

I've been tought a couple of times by holding a whip under my thumb to get them to be more even and also one instuctor put a whip to hold my arms back, around my back (if that makes sence) sort of holding the whip on my back with my elbows, then when she took the whips away it was less forced but felt totaly natural.