Your Riding Positions 3

Waikato Valuta

Waikato Valuta

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Aug 8, 2002
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Hi Just thought i would update this. I got some pics back.

I know my legs are to far forward but it's realy hard with that saddle. it's a realy old AP and it almost pushes your leg forward. and i was ridding a littl short, for jumpping.

I will try and get one or two in my better saddle. but these are all i have for now.

Thanks for you comments.

I have added a link to take up less space.
 

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Your flatwork position is very nice, however, when you're jumping, your lower leg is swinging right back, and instead of going forwards, your hands are coming back.

Try keeping your lower legs forward and still, and allowing your hands to move forwards up your horse's neck.
 
Thanks I havent done much jumpping and he realy jumps. I feel left behind and a bit unko when jumping him. But he is very patient with me, even though he is just learning himself.

with the amount of jerks he gets gogin over jumps i'm serprised he has never refused. But i have been realy concentrating and pushing my hands forward over the jump, and have stoped jerking him. But now he rushes after the jump a little and will go into canter if i jump out of trot.
 
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Don't be too fussed with having your heel/hips/shoulder/ear aligned - focus on hips/shoulder/ear and Knee/Ball of Foot. I never really understood why I was so unstable until I read about the importance of having your Knee right over the ball of your foot. And for jumping, you'll never be stable unless you have the knee & foot inline. I'll scan in the pages of the book I got it from and email it to you. It's all in "Complete Horse Riding Manual" by William Micklem.
 
ME!!!!

In your flatwork position your upper body needs to be further back so you can feel the horses movement more fluently instead of just beneath you.

Horse has a super jump buy you need to work on your lower leg, you should be squeezing your calfs against the horse or touching so you are feeling the horse.

The position in your flat work lower leg is perfect just need more balance on it with jumping!
 
In the second flatwork picture, I'd like to see your shoulders come back and your heels go down.

Our instructor always drilled into us - don't come out of the saddle - when we're jumping. Once she was watching Mark Todd on tv and she was yelling, "Sit in that bloody saddle!" By what I'm used to, you look like you're coming too far out of the saddle for how high a jump it is. In jumping, your weight is meant to be in your lower leg. You've kinda catapulted fowards.

I was doing this until a few days ago because I haven't jumped for ages and my brilliant instructor has moved on :( Isn't it funny how your riding gets rusty when there's no one to yell at you!

Really push him into the jump so he doesn't leap it. That will make your seat more secure. Look up, hands up, weight into lower leg and there you go. Also keep your shoulders back. That's one of my worst faults. Unless I have people yelling "Hands, look up and shoulders" my jumping goes out the window! I'm so bad at collapsing my shoulder :eek:

Hmm, I hope this helps

Grace :)
 
Isn't it funny how your riding gets rusty when there's no one to yell at you!
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So true. I have become awful since not getting lessons I always had my heel down and was in the correct alignment becuase i had someone telling me what to do. I have another pic of me in the saddle over a jump and it looks awful.


Our instructor always drilled into us - don't come out of the saddle - when we're jumping.
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You definatly have to rise out of the saddle going over the realy big jumps. even for just two point position. What does she mean by dont come out of the saddle?
 
Couple quick comments (Again, these are just what I see in the pics - it may or may not be the case for you in general):
Flatwork - your leg looks lovely (I'm jealous!) You seem nicely balanced. Your heel is sneaking up a bit. I would check your hands, you seem to have a bit of the "bear-hug" position with your elbows far from your side. George Morris talks a lot about this in his book.

Jumping - your boy looks lovely! Your leg is swinging too far back in the pics which is putting you off balance & you're pitching forward. My suggestion would be do a fair amount of cavletti work to really stabalize that lower leg. You really should be keeping your leg on him and working off that calf. If you're having trouble, I suggest going back to the 50s style seat with your calf against & toes rotated out about 45 degrees. It looks old fashioned but really works (I use this when I find my leg swinging back). I also would suggest that you work on keeping your hands pressed against the crest of his neck which will allow him to extend a bit over the fence. At a fence this height, you really don't need to be that far out of the saddle (perhaps that is what NZhorserider is talking about?). Just make sure you are centered over the saddle & giving him enough clearance to round his back

You look nice & comfortable on him though.
 
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jumping picture-

You are jumping way ahead, which really makes it hard to have your leg under you the way it should be. if you took away the horse and just looked at your body you would see its kind of like you were standing up straight where as you should be squating. also it looks as maybe you are pinching with you knee a bit also causing your lower leg to swing back and your heel to come up. you also need to slid your hands up the neck and give more of a release, maybe you could put a braid in your horses mane so you know where you are reaching. You are also looking down, you need to be looking up and where you are going. A good way to fix that is my instructer used to yell DOUBLE CHINS. if you are looking down then you will have double chins (no matter how skinny you are so this works for everyone!) also try looking a head and saying outloud what you see, a tree or a fence. or if you can get someone to stand in front holding up fingures you can say how many they are holding up. you do have a nice straight back though and a beautiful horse! gymnastics can be a great exersize expecaily with jumping ahead, you said you were just starting but if you felt comfortable you could try jumping without stirrups and this will help with the jumping ahead.

I drew some arrow on your picture, just showing that your body needs to come back, your legs foward and your hands foward. i also put a dot on your knees as i think you may be pinching, and on your chin (double chins hehe!) reminding you to look up and ahead to the next jump.

your flat pictures look pretty good, the second picture your heel is drawn up a bit but really it looks good. i have to say again how beautiful the horse is!:D
 

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I've missed out on this one. LOL.
Well I agree with the others, heel down a bit, shoulders back a bit etc...

I also agree with the jumping. Someone mentioned you are going to far forward for the size jump. I agree. To be honest you don't need to move too much at all.
The impression I get from the picture is, with the postion you are in you are stopping your horse from jumping well because your weight is going down his shoulders, and so making him top heavy and stopping him from jumping smoothy over the jump. I also agree that your legs have come back too much.

Do you anticipate the jump? because that can cause you to lean forwards to soon before a jump, I used to do it!

Keep practising :p
 
Torny
Do you anticipate the jump?
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Do I what!!!

I am so nervous about getting in his way or pulling his mouth I tend to get over the jump ten strides before he reaches it.

I know i need to work on this and i have been practicing on my other horse with my eyes closed so I wait for him. He is a cronic refuser, or was but I still dont trust him so i find this very very hard.

Prince (the horse in the photos) has never refused once. I think i just carried my baggage from my last horse on to him.
 
Hi Waikuto

If your so nervous why not try to school him more. So that he responds to you well with flat work then you will know he will listen to you when you come to jump.
You will also have built up confidence :)

That way you won't have to worry about jabbing or pulling at his mouth because he will be listening to you, waiting for you to ask what to do when he lands.
 
Thanks i will try that with my other horse. I just got a lesson two days ago and things couldent be better. I tryed a few jumps today and he was forward and keen.

I have sold the horse in the photo's so I can't practise on him anymore. But I have the same problems on most horses. Except "Eric" ahhhh Eric the horse I always wanted but coulden't have, LOL).
 
You definatly have to rise out of the saddle going over the realy big jumps. even for just two point position. What does she mean by dont come out of the saddle?
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Really ?! Look at some of the top SJers and see how close to the saddle they are over the top of the jump ! Or the eventers. Of course if we're talking Puissance, then the movement is more extreme and bums may be out of saddles. But then we're talking REALLY big jumps and I don't think you're jumping that kind of height :eek:

When you go over the jump, your centre of gravity does need to move (a) to help the horse move up and forward and (b) so it stays over the horse's centre of gravity, which moves up and foward. But actually the movement is quite small and most of it can come from folding your upper body forward.

So what shes means by "don't come out of the saddle" is pretty much exactly that ! Most of us are not supple enough to fully fold and keep our bums in contact with the seat, but you should only need a very small hover, not a fully blown "stand up".

2 point position as I was taught it (bearing in mind there seem to be some differences across the oceans) is a small hover, not standing in your stirrups. If I was more out of the saddle, I would still need to be in balance with the horse and over the centre of gravity, so you would still see some alignment going on, even if it was tilted forward slightly to stay over the horse's centre of gravity in a flat out gallop.

edit: just went to have a quick look at that piccie again. Tho' its not scientific, I think if you make a guess where your centre of gravity is, you will see it is quite a way forward. Then think where the horse's centre of gravity is, and I think you will find your c.of.g is ahead of the horses c.of.g. If you closed the angle in your knees a bit more, I think it would bring your c.of.g back over the horses. Have a look and see if you agree or not.....
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Often if you think bum in the saddle you will close the gap enough.

The other way to think of it is that as you jump your lower leg should really not move and should be giving your position stability. If you try, you'll find its actually quite tough to keep your lower leg still AND stand up like that. The two are linked and you find you get a "virtuous circle" (opposite of a vicious circle :D ) where as your position improves and becomes more stable, you will feel less tense and more confident, and as you are more relaxed, your position will improve some more !
 
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I adgree that I am coming out of the saddle to much.

The thing I dident adgree with i sthat your bum should not leave the saddle. I also adgree that for my height of fence I dont need to come out nearly as far as I have and I am ahead of my horse.

but look at these photos.

I know they are jumpping heaps higher.
 

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