crossing hands over

[showjumperchick]

a while ago i posted in the training of the horse section because kyri was nodding her head on the right rein, and some one said "are your hands moving at all?" and i would have sworn that they werent, but i have noticed that iv got the nasty little habit of crossing my right hand over towards my left. not all the way over the wither, but they definately arent even all the time. any ideas on how to level them up? i can conciously alter them but after a few minutes, if i check again, its crept back over! and i think kyri has got a little dependant on my errant right hand, coz if i make a real effort to keep it in place she falls in slightly. this doesnt happen on the left rein, just the right. any tips??

[anuvb]

For your hands:

Start off with some exercise to loosen up your shoulders and arms, like swinging them. Usually moving hands comes as a result of tension.

Ride holding a crop as across both your hands as if you were carrying a tea tray and try and keep it level. It helps to indicate how level your hands are. Another one, is to ride with a crop in each hand held vertically in the air. If your hand moves you will see the vertical line of each crop change allowing you chance to change it back.

For the falling in:

Instead of moving the rein try vibrating slightly as if you are repeatedly squeezing water out of a sponge, so that kyri knows that even if the position of the contcat has changed that the contact is sitll there. It doesn't need to be much vibration, but it does need to give and take with her enough so that she can read the signals without getting anywhere near the point of sawing. Heather has quite a good description of this. You may also find that because you've shifted the position of your contact you need to make a minor adjustment in the length of your rein.

[showjumperchick]

i think i probably started doing this when kyri went through her"no i wont bend right, ill buck then fall in and tank off" phase.(now corrected!) because by crossing my hand over i could keep the bend without all the other stuff happening. and now its just a habit. the silly thing is that if i forcibly place my hand in the correct position, the falling in isnt that bad ie she keeps the bend and doesnt tank off, its just she might cut a corner a bit or make a 15m circle a 12m circle instead. and if i use my inside leg hard enough she stays out totally. so i think its my problem not hers, more of a physcological thing than anything else. however, i cant carry a crop on madam so apart from getting my sis to stand and yell"hand" at me, what can i do?????

[Tootsie4U]

Can I ask a very nieve question? Why is crossing your hand over the wither bad? I know its a no-no, but what negatives does it have on contact, riding, etc.?

[anuvb]

How good are you at visualisation? You can always visualise the tea tray. There will be times when your hands move back to their more comfortable bad habit position, but hopefully with practice this should get less and less. At least visualising th tea try give you somethign to concentrate your efforts on. Also if you manage to build up the cues from your inside leg, then hopefully you won't have to sub-conciously put your hand back into the wrong position to crrecot Kyri, as Kyri won't being falling in.

I think it's just practice.

[showjumperchick]

anuvb-practice makes perfect i guess!im going to try wearing a pair of my sisters sexy bright yellow gloves so its easier to see when that right hand is wandering!also, in my original"noddy head" post, thanks for popinting out that my martingale might be too short, i let it out a couple of holes and kyri was loads better. i thgink that as she's grown iv let out the breastplate part, but forgotten about the martingale but. silly me!

tootsie-i think, and i may be wrong, or only partially right, that its because A) it shows that the horse is not totally balanced and supple, and are still relying on the riders hands for balance. B)it can create a crooked neck, as the wither becomes a sort of pivot point, and this will possibly cause the quaters to fall out and/or disengage, which will lose impulsion and may make the horse disunited and C) the head may tilt as the horse tries to avoid the constant pressure.

[*Horse*]

Originally posted by showjumperchick
a while ago i posted in the training of the horse section because kyri was nodding her head on the right rein, and some one said "are your hands moving at all?" and i would have sworn that they werent, but i have noticed that iv got the nasty little habit of crossing my right hand over towards my left.

I do that too:( :o :)