critiques please - be honest

[hApPiNeSs]

some recent pictures of me and various horses. I seem to be stuck in a rut at the moment and am finding it really difficult to improve, so any comments about my general position would be greatly appreciated. Also, Im not getting the horses to work properly am I?

me and tinny





you all know who this is...





me and Boris





me and Archie - the spawn of satan







thanks

[Daffy Dilly]

I'm by no means a good rider, and I'll probably be corrected on this but here are my thoughts.

You look to be riding with your reins quite long in some of the pictures, particularly on the grey. You could perhaps do with sitting up taller ("rise up out of your hat") and setting your shoulders back, and maintain the bend at your elbow.

Sorry, I can't really be any more specific as I have the same problems!

[hApPiNeSs]

cheers

i swear my hands are cursed Am working on it - will definately try your advice

[herbyhorse]

I'll be nice...

Your leg postion is pretty good in some of the pictures.

I'd like to see you holding the reins with more intention; ie; imagine you have to cups of hot tea, in the picture's I see they are running down your horses neck, try picking them up.

also the angle of your elbow is often quite severe, try to remain soft in your upper body and allow the line from your reins through to your elbows to be continuous without broken angles.

You appear to be little behind the movement inthe trot and using the reins hold yourself up, perhaps try some work without reins and practice swinging your pelvis through rather than hauling yourself up from your feet and hands and actually carrying your weight on bent legs rather than craning through, imagine squatting over a toilet (yes i'm mad!).

I'm sorry i shoudln't have started ...

Good luck and keep smiling

HH

[hApPiNeSs]

I'll be nice...

oi! whats that meant to mean

joking - i know im bad

archie (piebald) is the only horse i dont get on with. He pulls and runs on a lot in trot which is why i get left a bit behind. he was also throwing in a good few bucks that day which is why i look so tense! not that im making excuses... i know i should be able to ride properly regardless

thanks for your input - it really helped me to see some other points i hadnt noticed before

[coblover26]

I'm not exactely a great rider either but like what Daffy Dilly said about your reins being long. I would say the same. Although i don't have my reins the correct length

There great pics though. I like the piebald one.

[herbyhorse]

You are not a bad rider... and you know how to ride.

It's very easy for us to get caught up in the moment and not see what we are doing wrong or need to improve, hence why it is really useful to have someone critique pictures or be on the ground in actual lessons. It's very difficult to critique a static shot becuase we don't know the whole picture.

Being nice has nothing to do with it, it's all about being honest with ourselves sadly.

Riding is meant to be fun, enjoy it and the fiddly bits will fall into place.

HH

[Jessey]

Here is my take on things, when you are thinking about you, your position is nice, your lower leg looks really good BUT when you are riding (the action shots) it looks like this slips a little, your legs creap forwards, your reins slip and you tense causing your hands to rise.
Were you after tips too? well here I go, don't worry too much (obviously still try to be aware of it) about your leg right now, you obviously know where it is meant to be it just while your concious mind is worrying about what the horse is doing your sub-concious is failing to take over , it will get the idea soon. Re you hands, try to imagine that your rein is connected to your elbow and ride from there (your lower arms and hands are just part of the rein) and if you feel your self tensing talk or sing out loud it will help you relax and try moving your shoulders in little circles every few minutes.
Your reins do get long you need to be more confident about taking hold, lightness doesn't all come from you, sometimes you have to guide the horse a bit, it may help you to get a feel by putting a small bag of sugar in a carrier bag and holding it (one handle in each hand) that should give you a feel for the type of weight you can take confidently, it may not be you at all, some RS horses are experts at evading hard work and dictating what they think they should be doing

J x

[hApPiNeSs]

thanks all of you

reins are my downfall im afraid. When i hold them 'properly' it feels to tight

need to retrain my brain i think

will try all your tips tomorrow, thanks

[AllEquestrian]

it all looks fine, if you were to compare it to a text book. but it doesnt look very relaxed or natural (esp. in the first two piccies)... so if i were you i'd forget about my position for a couple of rides and just have fun, you might find things slot into place when you relax

[cvb]

Originally Posted by hApPiNeSs

thanks all of you

reins are my downfall im afraid. When i hold them 'properly' it feels to tight

need to retrain my brain i think

will try all your tips tomorrow, thanks

Happiness - find a friend and get a spare pair of reins. Stand opposite each other, with knees slightly bent and arms in riding position, and each hold one end of a section of rein. Ok ? Now - take it in terms to...

- "tighten" the feel on the rein i.e. hold the rein tighter, and feel a "pull" in your arms. Bet you that the other person's naturally reaction is to match the pull !

- soften the arm but "own" it and keep the elbow by your side. Now "ask" the other person (without using anything other than the rein contact) to move slightly towards you. It can be a lean or a step - doesn't matter. This is a fun one to play with cos I'll bet that every time one of you "tells" rather than "asks", you'll set up a resistance in the other person ! You can also extend it by asking them to turn, etc etc

OK. Now back to the piccies. Look at the angles on the horse's poll, and the angle of their nose. There is nothing drastically wrong but the horse's noses are in front of the vertical. (And yes, a whole load of other things as well - but the nose one is real easy to see )

So the interesting thing to think about is this - what happens if you ask for more ? Are you asking for less cos they resist when you ask for more ? Can these horses actually offer more (are they soft enough, supple enough etc) ? You're not going to GET more unless you ask for it

What we all tend to do is find ourselves a nice neat comfort zone where everything is "ok" and we stick there. Because when we move out of it and ask more from ourselves and the horse, its harder to maintain that "ok" positio AND ask for softness, ask them for a particular speed, direction, etc..

I get the impression you want to challenge yourself a bit more. As long as you are aware that it mught get worse initially, I think you'll do fine

When you are asking "more" - it is about the whole horse not just flexing at the poll and softening at the jaw. You'll find that the horse is probably not tracking up or working through their backs as much as they could - and so on and so forth. It'll be a circular progression i.e. you may ask for them to soften jaw, and because they are a bit strung out, they'll drop pace a bit. So you'll ask for a bit more impulsion. And then maybe they struggle to make a corner cos they are not bending properly, or inside hind is a bit stiff, so you work on that.... and then the next thing and so on.....

[hApPiNeSs]

just noticed how gormless I look in the first picture

apart from H, they are riding school neds which are just not used to being ridden and made to work 'properly.' But i really want to improve the way they go, same for Happy as well.

ive generally just been riding in my comfort zone for ages, as cvb pointed out, and just want to push myself a little more. I think serious rehabilitation of upper body is needed - oh, and the bottom half

never mind, practise makes perfect is the saying isnt it? Cant wait to try the rein thing. Dont have any horsy friends, so am just going to inflict this on a 'normal' friend, proving to them again I am well and truly deranged

cheers cvb - for answering my countless, often confusing and pointless, posts (once again)

[julesandjoy]

:-)

I cannot offer any 'put your arms here', 'post this way', or 'hold your reins just so' advice.

You just seem to look very tense and separate from the horse. If you were able to ride only one horse for an extended period of time (say a year or so) I believe you would cultivate a calmer, more relaxed seat and THEN you could learn to just ride the horse and THEN you could learn to ride any horse.

Focusing too much on where you anatomy is as opposed to simply being one w/the horse is, imo, a contrived way to learn.

You mentioned that one of the horses had been bucking????? A learner on a bucker????? Is that normal?

Just relax and have fun. Why ride if you're going to be so tense you don't enjoy it? Don't worry so much about position as just relaxing into the movement the horse offers... and keep loooonnnnggggg legs from the hip to the heel. Doesn't matter precisely where they are in relation to the girth so much as just remember to keep them long and relaxed. Same thing w/your hands. Relax from the shoulder and keep your hands in front of the saddle. I tell my kids, "No one ever stopped or turned a horse from under their chin!!!!" Long legs, long arms, and a soft, following seat.

How long have you been riding? sylvia

[cvb]

Sylvia

A learner on a bucker

I think you maybe have "learner" confused with "beginner" (which happiness is not ).

I'm still learning - thirty something years on but I sure aint a beginner ! possibly heading towards veteran stage, am cultivating that "know it all" expression

"Happy" is this person's main horse. The other horses are lesson horses. So there is one main relationship etc etc.

And heck, I can manage to get tense about things I enjoy ! Did a dressage test this weekend - enjoyed it - enjoyment didn't stop me getting tense tho

[julesandjoy]

:I think you maybe have "learner" confused with "beginner" (which happiness is not ).

I'm still learning - thirty something years on but I sure aint a beginner ! possibly heading towards veteran stage, am cultivating that "know it all" expression

"Happy" is this person's main horse. The other horses are lesson horses. So there is one main relationship etc etc.

And heck, I can manage to get tense about things I enjoy ! Did a dressage test this weekend - enjoyed it - enjoyment didn't stop me getting tense tho "




:-) I don't believe that there is very much reason to nit pick between 'learner' and 'beginner' when looking at the spirit of my post. If I'm up on a horse; be it advanced learner, beginner, or whatever; and I'm having to wonder when the thing will blow up next, there is a very small margin for relaxing into the 'learning' 'beginning' or 'whatever' moment.

Knowingly putting someone who needs to concentrate on position and riding on something that bucks is not, imo, good schooling.

And sure - nit picking again, no one is completely relaxed at all times even if one is enjoying what's happening, but Happiness did ask for critiques and that's what my take on those pics is - she is very UNrelaxed and the only time the smile seems genuine is when she's on the little red pony. sylvia

[herbyhorse]

Now stop it you two.



this is no place to squabble! surely?

[Dizzy]

Beginner/learner what does it matter? I get tense for the first 15 minutes of every lesson.

Happiness you need to shorten your riens and use a hundred times more leg. You want to encourage the horse to 'track up' that means give enough implusion with your legs and seat, so that back legs step under and cover the imprint that the front leg has just made.

In all of the piccies your riens are too long, and the horse's back legs are just following along behind. You need to ride so that your riens, legs and seat speak to the horse. At first keep it simple and work on halt and walk on into a contact.

You have a basically good lower position, but are a bit fixed and insecure with your arms and contact. Do you have an instructor? It's eyes on the ground help you need, your riding skills are basically good, you need someone who will insist you 'own' a contact and use your legs, so that the horse is travelling forward.

[julesandjoy]

"Now stop it you two.

this is no place to squabble! surely?"




Yes, Ma'am. sylvia

[herbyhorse]

[hApPiNeSs]

Yep, I have an instructor. OK, just to tell you my life history, I was scared witless by an accident on my old horse, sold her and couldnt get on one for over a year. The pony I learnt on again was Happy - and I trust her completely. Thats why my smile is actaully genuine - shes the only hoss I really enjoy riding.

Of course, I want to change that, which is why I take lessons. I get awfully tense, but it HAS improved - hell, I even managed to laugh when Boris started trottinh at 100mph around the school - with no stirrups! and i managed to sit it. Hey, get me.

I think the best thing is to just keep at it. I am terrifyed of Archie which is why I always ride him badly and cant concentrate.

have been riding for 5 years - but dont fell much out of the 'beginner' stage actually - I am in a group of people in my lesson who have only been riding 2 years